ENERGY TIP OF THE MONTH:

Heat pumps provide economical heating and cooling
Suppose that on the coldest days, you could find warm air hiding outdoors and use it to heat your home? That’s exactly what heat pumps do. And during warm weather, they work like an air conditioner, removing the heat from the interior of your home and releasing it outdoors.

That’s why a heat pump can probably meet most of your heating and cooling needs.

In warm weather, electric air-to-air heat pumps pipe a liquid called refrigerant through coils inside your home, where it absorbs heat from the air and vaporizes. The refrigerant flows into an outdoor coil, cools and becomes a liquid again. This cool liquid flows back into the house where a fan blows across it, forcing cool air through the home’s ductwork.

The process reverses in winter, with the vaporized refrigerant bringing heat energy from the outside air, where the fan blows across it, spreading heat throughout the house.

Because heat pumps move heat, rather than generate it, they can deliver more than three times as much heat as they consume in energy, making them one of most efficient ways to heat and cool the typical home.

Geothermal heat pumps use a similar process except that instead of working with outdoor air, they convey heat to and from underground pipes, up to six times as much heat as they consume.

Is this the right choice for you? I will be happy to sit down with you to discuss your home’s needs and help determine if a heat pump is right for you. Just give me a call at 260-625-3700, ext 436. That’s just one more way we provide advice when you want it and help when you need it.

For more energy savings ideas contact Doug Ferrell, your energy advisor at Northeastern REMC.