When you’re in the middle of a too-cold Minnesota winter, there’s usually just one thing on your mind: getting warm. But how you decide to heat your home during those freezing months can make a major difference in how efficient your heating system is, how much it’ll cost to keep your home at a comfortable temperature, and what’ll happen once the snow finally melts and the sweltering heat of summer arrives.
Enter: the heat pump. More specifically, the air-source heat pump, or ASHP — a highly efficient, low maintenance home heating (and cooling!) solution.
How Does a Heat Pump Work?
So what is a heat pump? And how does it work? Well, those answers often lie in the name itself.
Heat pumps are categorized and named based on the source of their energy. So as the name suggests, an air-source heat pump — the most common type — absorbs heat from the air around it. In winter, that means it extracts heat from the outside air (even in freezing temperatures) and transfers it into the home. In summer, it does the opposite, extracting heat from inside the home and moving it outside.
Other less common types of heat pumps include water-source heat pumps and ground-source heat pumps, which extract heat from bodies of water and the earth, respectively.
3 Benefits of Heat Pump
Heat pumps offer many benefits. But for homeowners in Minnesota, three advantages often top the list:
Lower Operating Costs
Heat pumps work more efficiently than traditional HVAC systems, delivering “up to two to four times more heat energy to a home than the electrical energy it consumes,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Plus, some electricity providers offer an off-peak rate, which can lower the cost of heating even further. If you’re currently using other fuels besides natural gas to heat your home, such as propane, air-source heat pumps become even more cost-effective.
In addition to heat pump efficiency cost savings, some utility companies offer a Dual-Fuel program, resulting in reduced electricity costs for heat pump units. Heat pumps may also qualify for certain rebates and tax credits. However, it’s important to note that rebates, operating costs, and overall savings will vary based on your gas and electricity provider(s).
Flexibility
While air conditioners can only cool your home and furnaces can only provide heat, heat pumps are much more flexible, making them ideal for the varying climate here in Minnesota. In fact, they can be programmed to automatically toggle between electric heat, gas heat, and cooling, depending on the temperature outside.
Sustainability
Unlike traditional heating systems, such as furnaces, heat pumps don’t use any fossil fuels to heat or cool your home. Instead, air-source heat pumps keep your home comfortable using renewable energy: the air around it.
Heat Pump vs Air Conditioner
In many cases, a heat pump can replace your air conditioner. They both use refrigerant to move heat from inside your home to the outside world, cooling your home quickly and effectively. However, as mentioned above, heat pumps come with the added benefit of being able to heat your home as well, making it a versatile year-round HVAC solution.
Heat Pump vs Furnace
Typically, furnaces use fossil fuels to generate heat inside your home. As we mentioned earlier, heat pump efficiency, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness make it an appealing alternative. And thanks to recent technological advancements, heat pumps today can perform very well in Minnesota’s colder months. That said, some homes may still benefit from installing both a heat pump and a furnace, known as a dual-fuel heating system.
For homeowners seeking rebates or tax credits, it’s important to note that many utility companies require a matching furnace or air handler to be installed at the same time as the heat pump in order to qualify. They’ll consider the energy usage of the furnace/air handler in the overall efficiency ratings that allow the heat pump to reach qualifying rebate levels.
Is a Heat Pump Right for My Home?
With all the varying heat pumps, furnaces, and air conditioners out there, choosing the right HVAC equipment can be a complicated and nuanced process.
Here at Joel Smith Heating and Air Conditioning, we use our 30+ years of experience to build the right solution for your home, giving you the most efficient, effective, and comfortable at-home experience year-round. If we determine that a heat pump is right for you, we’ll get to work installing one of our top-of-the-line offerings — Ruud, Bosch, or Samsung, depending on your needs.
Ready to enjoy a toasty-warm, worry-free winter? Get in touch with our team to book a consultation by calling 763‑792‑1066 or send us a message.