Gowland's Heating & A/C Blog: Archive for the ‘Heat Pumps’ Category

Can a Heat Pump Handle Our Summers and Winters?

Monday, February 14th, 2022
heat-pump

Heat pumps offer several major benefits as home comfort systems, but the biggest one is that heat pumps operate as both air conditioners and heaters. They aren’t two systems packaged into one: they use the same set of components to deliver heating or cooling to a house. 

The easiest way to think of how a heat pump works is to visualize a standard central air conditioner. An AC circulates refrigerant between two sets of coils, indoors and outdoors. The indoor coil removes heat from the air, cooling it, and then the outdoor coil releases the heat. A heat pump works the same way—it’s a refrigerant-based system and from the outside looks identical to a central AC—except it can reverse the flow of refrigerant, and this causes the two coils to swap roles. Now the exterior coil absorbs heat and the indoor coil releases it. Presto! An AC becomes a heater.

But here’s the big question: is this system enough to handle our weather? Is a heat pump installation in Kenner, LA a viable choice for you?

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Why Your Heat Pump Won’t Change to Heating Mode

Monday, November 8th, 2021
air-conditioner-units-near-grass

When the weather cools down, homeowners will turn off their air conditioning systems and begin to fire up their heaters. But you’re in a different situation: you have a heat pump for your house, which means you’ll continue to use it through the coming season, but you’ll switch it over to heating mode. This causes the heat pump to “run backwards,” so that instead of removing heat from the house and exhausting it outside, it will remove heat from outside and send it into the house. 

Well, this is how it’s supposed to go. You may run into a problem during the first day of cold weather when you try to change the heat pump into heating mode. If you’re only getting room temperature air from the vents, or you’re getting cold air, you may need to call us for heat pump repair in Gretna, LA.

We’ll dive into this problem below and see what might have happened to your heat pump.

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The Heat Pump Difference: Is It the Right AC Alternative for You?

Monday, August 3rd, 2020
sun-and-snowflake-badge

Let’s talk about the heat pump. If you aren’t familiar with the heat pump as an HVAC option, here’s the lowdown:

A heat pump is similar to an air conditioner. It uses electricity to power a compressor that places refrigerant under pressure. The refrigerant circulates between two sets of coils, indoors and outdoors. Hot refrigerant moving from the compressor first releases heat by condensing in one set of coils, then the cold refrigerant absorbs heat by evaporating in the other set of coils. What’s different with a heat pump is that it can reverse the way it circulates refrigerant. An AC can only move refrigerant so it absorbs heat from the indoor coils and releases heat through the outdoor coils. A heat pump can switch this process, bringing heat from the outside indoors. This means it’s a heating and cooling system in one.

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