Residential
So, What's a Heat Pump
A heat pump is an energy-efficient cooling and heating system that is installed outside of your home and connected to an indoor mini-split unit. These HVAC systems cycle hot and cold air where you want it depending on the season and provide personalized comfort throughout your home year-round.
Gaining early popularity in the 1970s, previous generations of these systems were mainly considered for milder climates. Modern heat pumps, especially variable speed mini-split heat pumps, are reliable and sustainable, providing high-performance heating and air conditioning to homes anywhere, even extremely cold climates. The system consists of an indoor air handler, which can be ducted or ductless, and an outdoor condenser unit.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HVAC system design is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. “Refrigeration” is sometimes added to the field’s abbreviation as HVAC&R or HVACR, or “ventilation” is dropped, as in HACR (as in the designation of HACR-rated circuit breakers).
HVAC is an important part of residential structures such as single family homes, apartment buildings, hotels, and senior living facilities; medium to large industrial and office buildings such as skyscrapers and hospitals; vehicles such as cars, trains, airplanes, ships and submarines; and in marine environments, where safe and healthy building conditions are regulated with respect to temperature and humidity, using fresh air from outdoors.
Ventilating or ventilation (the “V” in HVAC) is the process of exchanging or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality which involves temperature control, oxygen replenishment, and removal of moisture, odors, smoke, heat, dust, airborne bacteria, carbon dioxide, and other gases. Ventilation removes unpleasant smells and excessive moisture, introduces outside air, keeps interior building air circulating, and prevents stagnation of the interior air. Methods for ventilating a building are divided into mechanical/forced and natural types.
How Does a Heat Pump Work
To provide heat, the outdoor heat pump absorbs heat energy from the outside air and transfers it to the inside unit via the refrigerant. The refrigerant is compressed, increasing its temperature significantly when it reaches the indoor coil. A fan blows air over the heated coil to deliver warm air to the room. This heating process is much cleaner and better for the planet than burning fossil fuels, providing zero emissions.
With air conditioning, the process is reversed; the indoor evaporator unit absorbs and sends the room’s heat energy to the outdoor unit compressor. The vapor is condensed back into a cold liquid that cools and returns to the indoor unit coil. The fan blows across the cold coil to provide cool air.
Air-Source Heat Pumps
Air-source heat pumps work by extracting heat from the air outside and transferring it indoors during the winter months to heat a home or building and reverses the process during the summer months to cool a home or building.
Air-source heat pumps can be ducted or ductless. Ductless systems transfer heat via a refrigerant line, while ducted systems use a home’s existing ductwork to move heat throughout the space.
Mitsubishi Electric Trane heat pumps can be single-zone or multi-zone. Single-zone systems are designed to control the temperature of a single area or room. On the other hand, multi-zone systems are designed to control the temperature of multiple areas or rooms. This allows for different temperatures to be set in each zone, based on the specific needs of each area. Each zone has its own thermostat, which allows for independent temperature control and greater flexibility in managing comfort levels throughout the home or building.
Heat Pumps vs Conventional Furnaces or AC Units
Heat pumps and conventional furnaces or air conditioning units are both used for heating and cooling homes and buildings, but they have some key differences. Heat pumps use electricity, while furnaces and AC units are powered by the burning of fossil fuels, which contribute to toxic fumes in the space. Conventional systems are centralized, and only have a single point of filtration for the entire home. Heat pumps offer continuous air circulation and advanced filtration, and can be placed in multiple rooms in a home.
Water Source Heat Pumps
Water source heat pumps use a nearby body of water to heat in when heating mode and as a heat sink when in cooling mode.
They can extract heat from water even if the water temperature is lower than the desired temperature in the home. The two primary types of water source heat pumps are closed loop and open loop systems. Closed loop systems are used with lakes and large ponds by submerging sealed pipes with anti-freeze into the water, and those pipes then circulate the heat it gathers back to the heat pump. Rather than using sealed pipes and anti-freeze, open loop systems take water from the source, extract heat energy, and then return the cooled water back to the source.
Geothermal (Ground Source) Heat Pumps
Geothermal heat pumps (also known as ground source heat pumps) use the ground as the source of heat in heating mode and as a heat sink in the cooling mode.
Closed loop systems circulate anti-freeze or refrigerant through pipes or tubing that is buried in the ground. A heat exchanger transfers heat between refrigerant in the heat pump and the antifreeze. Open loop systems use water from a well or surface body of water and a heat exchanger to extract heat from the water before returning it to the source.