While most heat pump systems cost only about 5% above the base cost of central air conditioning, you will pay slightly more for heat pump installation. Since heat pumps handle both cooling and heating, they run year round—which shortens their lifespan significantly when compared with a conventional air conditioning which often can also lead to raised prices for service contracts through your HVAC contractor and affect the warranty as a result of wear and tear on the system.
While essentially identical in cooling mode, heating mode is really a totally different story. Air conditioning usually do not provide heating, but heat pumps do. On account of a reversing valve while in the outdoor unit, a heat pump can absorb heat energy external air, even during extremely cold temperatures, and transfer the warmth inside the home, where it releases the warmth into the air. A heat pump can heat and cool, but an air conditioning cannot, which is the primary distinction between the 2 HVAC systems. An air conditioning is usually paired with a furnace to produce heat over the cold months. Together, an air conditioning and furnace are a total heating and cooling system.
Both a central AC unit as well as heat pump systems are considered a form of central air HVAC system since they transfer (or pump) heat from inside the dwelling to the outside to cool down the inside temperatures. The main difference between an AC unit plus a heat pump is always that heat pumps can reverse their air flow direction and transfer heat from the outside to get indoor temperatures by means of a reversing valve included in the compressor. A regular ac system in contrast must trust in electric resistant heat strips within the air handler or utilize a gas furnace unit to produce/distribute warm air.
Although a heat pump can heat a property, when outside temperatures drop below freezing, the efficiency of your heat pump is affected as the unit requires more energy to take care of warm temperatures from the home. Typical heat pump systems offer an auxiliary electric heater put into the indoor unit to incorporate supplemental heat when outdoor temperatures drop. However because electric auxiliary heating Seriously isn't very efficient, adding a furnace can be a fix for your problem, creating a process that banks on the warmth pump as the primary heat source but automatically switches towards furnace when appropriate.