Don’t Forget About the Heat Pump: A Comprehensive Guide to Efficient Heating

Heat pumps are a great way to save money and reduce carbon emissions, replacing expensive fossil fuel furnaces or electric baseboard heaters. However, heat pumps work best when they are properly maintained and operated.

A heat pump system can provide both cooling and heating, but its efficiency increases when it is paired with smart thermostats and advanced filtration systems.

1. Keep Your Ductwork Clean

A heat pump uses air ducts to circulate heated or cooled air. Over time, dust, dander, pet hair, and other contaminants can build up inside your home’s ductwork. This makes it necessary to clean your ducts regularly.

Dirty ducts force your system to work harder, which means it expends more energy and works less efficiently. This can result in higher electricity bills and a lower comfort level.

It’s important to have well-insulated, tightly-sealed ductwork, regardless of what type of heating you use in your home. However, this is even more essential when using a heat pump. Heat pumps operate differently than furnaces, blowing a steady stream of cool air rather than blasting hot air for short bursts throughout the day. This gentle, consistent heating can help you save on utility costs while reducing your carbon footprint. In fact, heat pumps are so efficient that many states and local governments offer rebates and other incentives to encourage homeowners to make the switch to a greener energy source.

2. Don’t Forget About the Thermostat

A heat pump can save you a lot of money on heating oil if you set the thermostat properly. It’s important to remember that a temperature change of only a couple degrees can make your system work much harder.

It’s also essential to keep your thermostat away from drafts and sunlight for accurate readings. Then you can set it to the ideal temperature for your family’s schedule.

Heat pumps are able to extract heat energy from the air, water, or ground outside your home in the same way that they cool your home. This process is very efficient and requires a very small amount of energy to operate, saving you a great deal on heating bills.

Using a smart thermostat to learn your family’s habits and adjust automatically is one of the best ways to save energy with a heat pump. It will save you 5-15% on your heating costs and help you reduce your carbon footprint significantly.

3. Check Your Evaporator Coil

Keeping your evaporator coil clean is another important step to maximizing heat pump performance. It might not be the most visible component of your air conditioning system, but it’s a vital one.

Like the condenser coils outside, it’s made of aluminum or copper because they’re good conductors of heat. It has fins all around to help it disperse heat and keep it from overheating.

The evaporator coil is located in the air handler, which also houses the blower fan. If you’ve noticed odd noises or higher energy bills without a corresponding increase in cooling comfort, the evaporator coil may be the culprit. It may be clogged, have refrigerant leaks or be approaching the end of its lifespan. A professional inspection can determine if it’s time for replacement. In the meantime, a little maintenance can go a long way toward keeping your home comfortable. Do your part by minimizing changes to the temperature setting. Your heat pump is designed to maintain a steady temperature and will actually use more energy and operate less efficiently if you constantly turn it up and down.

4. Don’t Forget About the Compressor

If you live in a climate where heating makes up half of your home’s energy usage, switching to a heat pump is one of the best ways to significantly reduce your carbon footprint. Compared to gas furnaces and electric resistance heat strips, heat pumps can reduce your home’s annual energy consumption by 40 percent.

Heat pumps look very similar to central air conditioners: an outdoor unit with aluminum fins and coils to release or collect heat, and an indoor unit with a blower that circulates warm or cool air through ducts throughout your home. A basic heat pump will cycle on and off to adjust ambient temperature, but a variable-speed model is designed to run continuously and more efficiently.

If your heat pump compressor hasn’t been cleaned recently, willow and fireweed fluff, grass and flies, and other air-transported material can build up on the heat exchanging fins. This blocks air flow and decreases performance. This can make your heat pump less efficient, and it’s likely to get worse over time.