If your home seldom goes below freezing, a heat pump is your new best friend
Heat pumps pump outside air into your home to heat it.
They work best in above-freezing temperatures.
Heat pumps are designed to run continuously.
A good starting temperature to set is 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
With an air-source heat pump system, you’re on your way to a more energy-efficient way of heating your home that will be kind to your wallet to boot. But heat pumps work a little bit differently than traditional thermostats.
Follow these useful tips to find a heat pump temperature setting that’s right for your family and ensure your system is working as well as it can.
Before you skip right to settings, it’s important to understand what makes your new heat pump system so different from other methods of warming the house you may have used in the past.
Traditional furnaces powered by gas work by generating heat which is pushed into your home through ducts courtesy of the furnace’s blower. Your heat pump has ducts, too, but it doesn’t periodically blast air through the ducts. Instead, the pump is constantly moving air.
Heat pumps take heat from outside and direct it into the home. The catch? They can only do this when the outdoor temperature is above freezing. Heat pumps go for their backup element, which uses a lot of electricity when the temperature goes below freezing.
According to the Department of Energy, you should try to keep your system at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, but the best temperature setting for you is only something you can gauge. The temperature you choose should keep you comfortable and allow your system to run efficiently when the home is occupied and family members are awake. Use the Department of Energy’s suggestion as a starting point, and you can adjust from there using the tips below.
Gas furnaces intermittently blast air through ductwork to warm homes. But, because they aren’t constantly running hot air into your home, the hot air they release is usually warmer than the air generated by a heat pump.
Furnaces traditionally blast air at 120 degrees, while a heat pump will emit air between 90 and 100 degrees. Keep in mind that when you’re setting temps with a heat pump, a little goes a long way because the air is constantly being directed into the home. You should aim for the heat pump temperature setting that indicates how you actually want to feel.
Another way that heat pumps differ from gas-powered furnaces is that heat pumps are more efficient when they are running all the time. By that token, no matter what setting you put your heat pump on, you can expect it to run significantly longer than a furnace’s cycle setting would.
Like selecting your new perfect temperature, you’ll have to go through some trial and error to find which setting works best for you and your home.
Homeowners with blast-air furnaces may spend a lot of time finding ways to save money with their systems. This process often means keeping thermostats off when sleeping and as low as possible throughout the day. However, this method isn’t effective with heat pump systems.
It takes these systems longer to heat the home than a gas furnace-powered system would, which means they naturally need to be on longer. Additionally, setting the temperature too low could mean kicking your heat pump’s backup element into gear, which will wind up using more power, not less. Again, aim for the temperature you actually want the home to feel like and then adjust from there.
Becca Stokes contributed to this article.
I had Ace Fireplace Services install custom chimney caps for my home, and the results are stunning. They fit like a glove and have added a touch of sophistication to my chimney. I can't recommend their services enough.
Ace Fireplace ServicesI play a yearly service fee to get my heat and AC checked out, twice a year. It's awesome. The techs are always great.
CJS Heating and Air ColumbusI paid $158 for my furnace and then they also come back and do my air conditioner in the summer. I thought the price was reasonable, I thought it was good. It was my hold up. From the time I called them, they were there in a couple of days. Workers were good. Area left clean.
Buckeye Heating & CoolingVery professional. Explained what they were doing and what we need to do to keep system running well. Will use them again for plumbing and HVAC services
they sent a Heating Tech, Donnie to check out our furnace. He was courteous and very knowledgeable and very skilled in his trade. He thoroughly checked every aspect of my heating system and gave me suggestions to keep things working properly. He told me that the filters were still good and...
Best Service Heating & CoolingWe originally just had a problem with the a/c, but the owner came out and said with all the rebates we could get a really good package plan for both the heating and cooling units. It came in and the job was completed way before the promised time.
Classic AirThey were pretty easy to set up. They were flexible with scope and gave me a lot of good advice on my HVAC systems. The ducts hasn't been cleaned since I bought the house and I kept being told these were the dirtiest they had ever seen. They did a great job getting the ducts mucked out and...
Everything was great. They installed a new motor on a Wednesday and it heated ok for a day, which they did not charge me for. They came back out on Saturday and said that it was admitting Co2. They had to shut it down for safety. They made an appointment to come out Sunday. They made an...
From average costs to expert advice, get all the answers you need to get your job done.
What you’ll pay in Columbus, OH, for furnace repairs depends on many factors. Here’s a breakdown of what can go wrong and the cost to fix those issues.
A mini-split allows for zoned cooling, helpful for cooling spaces like garages. Learn the cost to install a mini-split unit in a garage with this guide.
Getting AC and furnace replacement done at the same time can lead to huge benefits for your wallet and your home. Here’s everything you need to know.
Forced-air systems provide a reliable source of warmth for your home, but what is forced-air heating, exactly? Let’s break it down.
If you’re having trouble with your furnace firing up or your house just won’t get warm, use this simple DIY guide to check if your furnace ignitor is bad.
Who installs whole-house humidifiers? Learn more about hiring a licensed HVAC technician to install a whole-house humidifier.
