If you’ve made the decision to install a new air-source heat pump in your Wichita Falls area home or to replace your current heat pump, you’ve made a good decision. An air-source heat pump, properly maintained, can provide three times more heat energy than the electrical energy that goes into operating the system, while providing cooling capabilities that match the efficiency of the best modern central A/Cs. However, you’ll still want to make sure your new heat pump is sized and installed correctly.
How Does a Heat Pump Work?
To understand why proper sizing and installation are so important, it’s important to understand how the heat pump actually works. An air-source heat pump, by far the most common variety, heats and cools your home by transferring heat energy back and forth, from inside to outside. For cooling, it removes heat energy from your home, and for heating, it brings inside latent heat from the outside air. The heat pump uses a special refrigerant with its unique heat-exchange properties to carry heat energy.
Sizing a Heat Pump
As with any central heating or cooling appliance, a heat pump will deliver the best performance and efficiency if it’s sized to match the size, layout and other characteristics of your Texas home. The problem with an undersized heat pump shouldn’t be news to anyone; it doesn’t have the capacity to heat and cool your home during extreme outside temperatures. Surprisingly, however, an oversized heat pump also isn’t something you want in your home. It will cycle too frequently, wasting energy, stressing parts with repeated on-off operation, distributing air unevenly and providing inferior humidity control and air filtration.
As with other HVAC systems, the cooling and heating capacity of a heat pump is measured by BTU per hour (British Thermal Units). For cooling, capacity is measured in “tons” (relating back to when huge blocks of ice were used to cool building interiors), with each ton comprising 12,000 BTU per hour. You’ll want to avoid an HVAC contractor who insists on calculating the size of your new heat pump based only on the square footage of your home or some other “rule of thumb” method.
A qualified contractor, when sizing a heat pump system, should use the industry-standard sizing protocol, Manual J of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America. This process takes into account a constellation of factors, in addition to your home’s size and layout, as well as your home’s airtightness and insulation, window size and type, outside landscaping and more. These calculations will determine your home’s cooling load, a necessary step in sizing the heat pump.
The sizing process will also likely result in recommendations for improving your home’s energy efficiency, which when completed, may lower the home’s cooling load and allow you to purchase a smaller new heat pump.
Installing the Heat Pump
The performance and efficiency you eventually get from your new heat pump will also be affected by its installation. This is why it’s so important not to automatically choose the lowest bid for the work. What you save in the upfront costs you’ll regret later when you’re paying higher energy bills and dealing with maintenance and repair issues. If installation is handled correctly by a professional, certified HVAC contractor with experience with heat pumps, you’ll be more likely to get optimum performance from your new heat pump system.
If ductwork needs to be installed or redesigned before your new heat pump installation, it should be located, if at all possible, within your home’s conditioned spaces. Locating ducts in unheated or non-air-conditioned areas can lead to substantial energy waste. If you must locate the ducts in these areas, make sure they’re fully insulated.
Ask your installer why he’s locating the heat pump’s outside unit in a certain area. Usually, the outside unit should be installed on the north side of your home or a spot that receives plenty of shade during the day. The spot shouldn’t have any obstructions in the immediate area, since airflow is essential to proper air-source heat pump operation.
With regard to supply and return registers, if possible, make sure the heat pump installer includes return registers in each room to properly balance airflow between the supply and return sides of the air distribution system.
Contact Us
Please contact us at James Lane Air Conditioning & Plumbing Co. for more information on new heat pump installation and sizing. We’ve been providing exceptional HVAC and plumbing services in Wichita Falls and the surrounding area since 1957.
