Is a Ductless Heat Pump Right for My Home?
Depending on your home, ductless heat pumps could be a great addition. Ductless heat pumps (also known as ductless mini-split systems) have become the new efficient way to heat a home, especially for homeowners with all-electric homes that rely on baseboards for home heating. The reports of efficiency and quiet operation have generated so much interest with homeowners and businesses, we’re often approached by folks who wouldn’t necessarily need a ductless heat pump system.
We get many questions from customers trying to determine if this type of system would be a good solution for their home so first lets cover the basics.
The basics: What is a heat pump?
A heat pump works just like an air conditioner. In cooling mode (yes, they provide cooling, too), a heat pump moves heat from inside your home to the outside. Unlike an air conditioning unit, a heat pump can be used to heat your home, and do it efficiently. A ductless heat pump does this by reversing the process it uses to provide air conditioning to your home. It collects heat that exists naturally in the ambient air outside and delivers it into the home. The heat that is being “pumped” out for cooling, or in for heating the home, travels through pipes containing refrigerant.
Types of heat pumps.
There are several different types of heat pumps but lets talk about ductless air to air heat pumps. In other words, heat pumps that move heat from one air source to another air source to heat or cool a home without the use of any ducting.
A ductless heat pump provides heat or air conditioning simply by delivering it to cassettes or wall units that are mounted within the home. These wall units use a blower to blow air across the refrigerant coil concealed within the cassette, and then directly into the living space.
What heat pump is right for my home?
When ducting doesn’t exist, ductless mini split systems, or ductless heat pumps, are a very efficient way to heat your home. The beauty of these systems is, just like the name implies, no ducts are needed. And since they run completely on electricity, no other fuel source is needed, either.
These two features have allowed homeowners stuck with expensive electric baseboards as the main source of heat, a way to cut energy costs and live more comfortably, with affordable heat in the winter and cooling for the hot summer days.
As mentioned, in a ductless system, the unit that sits outside the home can provide heat or cooling to multiple indoor units called “cassettes.” Each cassette is controlled by its own thermostat, usually a remote control with a wall mount. The advantage of each indoor unit having its own remote is the ability to provide true “zoning,” so you are able to heat one room without heating the whole house. The coils that distribute heat or cooling within the living space are commonly a rectangular cassette that mounts on a wall towards the ceiling.
The outside unit is connected to the indoor unit(s) through pipes that transport the refrigeration. This is called a line set. How well the unit works will often amount to the quality of the installation, proper placement, sizing of the unit, and quality of the product.
The best way to determine if a ductless heat pump is the right solution for your home is to get a couple of free estimates from reputable HVAC companies in your area such as Halifax Heat Pumps.
This is what you should expect from a good professional consultant. They will address how many cassettes are needed to deliver heat throughout a space or multiple spaces. They will do a heat loss and heat gain analysis and provide data that will help compare energy usage with the energy source you are currently using.
Bottom line
If you have an all-electric house and you heat with baseboards, you could substantially cut your heating costs!
Give Halifax Heat Pumps a call today to arrange a free in home consultation.
