Five Questions to Ask Before You Buy a Heat Pump

Heat pumps are one of the most effective ways to shrink your home’s carbon footprint and your utility bills at a time of rising electricity and natural gas costs. The technology can heat and cool homes, and supply hot water.

A high-efficiency electric heat pump that replaces a fossil fuel furnace or boiler resembles an air conditioner unit and is installed outside the house. To heat the home, a liquid refrigerant in a copper coil extracts heat from the atmosphere as warm air naturally moves toward the cold. The heat transforms the refrigerant into a cold gas; a compressor then pressurizes the gas, raising its temperature and heating the air inside the house. In the summer, the appliance cools a home by absorbing heat from inside and transferring it outside. Heat pumps are up to four times as efficient as natural gas furnaces since they merely move heat from one place to another rather than burn fuel.