There are a variety of ways to treat the air in a home or business including the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system and the split AC system. However, these methods of treating air are not always the most efficient. Granted, newer models perform much better than their ancestors, but they still waste a certain amount of energy for the work they do. Luckily, there is an alternative known as the heat pump. Heat Pumps in Portland tend to be a bit misunderstood simply because the name seems to imply they only heat the building.
A heat pump works by accumulating heat in a refrigerant. This is much like the HVAC or split system except the heat pump only requires a small amount of refrigerant to do its job. Most of the heating and cooling efforts are done with a heat sink. That is, the collected heat either comes from the heat sink or is released through it. The most common heat sink in use today is the air, but options such as underground systems or the use of water are available as well.
Many Heat Pumps in Portland are the air-to-air style. This means they collect heat from the air in one space and release it to the air in another. This method of transfer allows the heat pump to cool a building and is similar to an AC except for using less energy in the process.
Heating is just as simple. The user will need to switch the system, so the flow of refrigerant is reversed. This allows the appliance to collect heat from the outdoors and bring it inside the building. This works because the heat pump compresses the refrigerant and forces a state change in the chemical. This lowers the temperature of the refrigerant so it can collect any heat around or in the heat sink.
Like the HVAC, a heat pump can use air ducts to distribute any treated air. This allows heating or cooling the whole space with minimal effort. Plus, using a heat pump should reduce energy consumption and lower those electric bills. This is an excellent justification for changing the current appliance because a new heat pump could easily pay for itself long before it is time to retire the device. To learn more about heat pumps or other heating and cooling systems contact the experts at.
