What's Your Heat Pump's Balance Point?
Adjusting your thermostat and weatherizing your home are critical to maximize your heat pump's efficiency. A heat pump's balance point is the lowest limit at which the equipment can provide heating comfortably. Precisely determining your heat pump's point can be somewhat of a challenge. With the abundance of technical jargon and the scientific principles that are a part of determining the heat pump's balance point, this can seem like an elusive concept.The two major factors that play roles in determining the balance point are heating load and heating capacity. Heating load defines the difference between what your home's current temperature is and the temperature at which you desire to heat or cool it to. In other words, this term illustrates how much cooling or heating your home requires. In contrast, heating capacity is a metric that defines how much cooling or heating your heat pump can provide.Your heat pump system uses outdoor air as the thermal energy source to cool or heat your home. This means that a heat pump's heating capacity is dependent on outside temperatures. The scientific principles behind this are complex, but what you as a homeowner need to remember is that a heat pump's capacity increases as its heating load decreases and its capacity decreases as its heating load increases. The heat pump's balancing point is the point at which these two are equal, generally this is around 35 degrees Fahrenheit.This is important because if the outside temperature drops below your heat pump's balance point, your home will need a supplemental heating source to ensure that your heating load demands are met. Usually, this is by more expensive electric heat strips or a gas or propane furnace. Backup heat is often controlled by a two stage thermostat that switches on when the heat pump has ceased to be effective at heating your home. You can better improve your heat pump's effectiveness and lower its balancing point by properly weatherizing your home.To learn more about heat pump's an balancing points, contact your Oklahoma HVAC experts at Air Assurance Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing today.Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONE/* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
Image courtesy of Shutterstock