Comparing Home Furnaces and Heat Pumps
A new heating system is a major investment for your household, and it’s important to seek out the investment that’s going to provide the best value in the long run. If you treat it well, your new furnace or heat pump will last you up to 15 years, so it would be wise to take your time and make an informed decision. Heat pumps and furnaces both have the primary goal of keeping you warm, but other than that they are quite different.
Energy Cost
Gas-powered furnaces burn fuel, such as propane or natural gas, to create the heat that they circulate through your household. Electric furnaces, on the other hand, blow air over a hot element and then distribute that heated air to the different parts of your home.
Both types of furnaces generate heat, but heat pumps operate on a different principle. Instead of generating heat, heat pumps pull heat from the outside of your home using pressurized refrigerant coils. They don’t create warmth; they simply move warmth from one place to another. Because moving heat uses up less energy than generating it, heat pumps usually cost far less money to operate than furnaces do.
Factoring the Climate
If you live somewhere that sees frequent temperatures below freezing, it will make owning a heat pump far more expensive. Although these pumps are still able to transfer heat from outside when the temperature drops, doing so is much harder on their systems. Not only does this difficulty affect your bills, but it damages the health of your heat pump as well. For this reason, many homeowners in cold climates prefer to go with furnaces.
Heat Pump Diversity
One more advantage of heat pumps is the fact that they can also cool you down. By reversing the flow of refrigerant through their coils, heat pumps can reverse the process they use to provide heat and use it to provide cool air instead. This saves you the money and space of buying a separate air conditioner.
At Beck Cohen, we have offered trustworthy heating, cooling, plumbing, and indoor air quality services to the Charlottesville, VA area since 1955. We take pride in providing quality customer service, superior products, and craftsmanship you can depend on.
To learn more about our services, contact us at Beck Cohen today.