Your Heat Pump Cools Your Home Efficiently If It's Sized Correctly
by Greg Leisgang on July 29, 2013
Posted in: Heat Pumps
Having a heat pump installed in your West Chester area home is an efficient and economical way to provide both heating and cooling to your indoor environment. Through the use of a built-in reversing valve, heat pumps are unique in their ability to heat or cool an interior space, taking the place of a furnace during the winter season and an air conditioner during summer.
Correct sizing of your heat pump is an important determining factor in its efficiency and economy and, when done correctly according to calculations arrived at when completing a Manual J worksheet, will provide optimal performance for the precise heating and cooling loads present in your particular home.
If undersized, your heat pump will have to work too hard, running continually to keep your home at its desired temperature. If oversized, it will be more expensive to purchase and to operate. In addition, during cooling operations, it won't be as effective at removing humidity in the air because the cooling cycle will be too short.
Heat pumps work through the principle of heat transference, collecting heat from one area and moving it to another. During cold weather, heat is captured from the air outside your home and transferred to its interior. During hot weather, heat is captured from inside your home and removed to the outside.
This is possible through utilization of two sets of refrigerant-filled copper coils that absorb heat, which is readily done due to heat's natural tendency to seek temperature equalization through its attraction to a colder environment. Cooling your home is accomplished by the hot interior air being blown across the cold coils, where it's absorbed and then sent outside to be released to the atmosphere.
Heating is accomplished by a reversal of the cooling process. Heat is absorbed from the outside air and transferred indoors. A properly sized heat pump will provide comfortable, low-humidity, evenly distributed conditioned air to your living space year round.
Tri-County Heating & Cooling proudly serves West Chester and surrounding areas. Please contact us for expert advice or further information about heat pumps or any indoor air comfort/quality matters.
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