How to Choose Between a Furnace and a Heat Pump
When it comes time to contemplate a new heating system for your home, you have a couple of different options to choose from. The most popular are a traditional furnace and a heat pump. Our technicians at Revival Heating & Cooling want you to be better informed about these options before you make an investment. Below, we’ll discuss some of the relevant details so you can make a sound a decision on which one would be best for your home.
How Does a Furnace Work?
When looking at furnaces, there are two different types that you can buy. The first is the electric furnace, which relies solely on electricity to produce heat for your home. It does this through an internal heating element. As air from your home passes over the heating element, it will naturally absorb the heat and then be delivered to the various rooms of your house.
The second type of heating device is given the broad name of a fuel-burning furnace. This type of system can rely on natural gas, propane, or heating oil. All fuel-burning furnaces have an internal burner that will burn whatever type of fuel is supplied to it to create heat. This burning process is known as combustion, and it does produce toxic fumes that need to be vented via a chimney to the outdoors.
How Does a Heat Pump Work?
It’s easiest to think of a heat pump as a heat transfer system. During the wintertime, a heat pump’s outdoor condenser unit will pull in air from the outdoors. This air will pass over a condenser coil that’s filled with low-pressure liquid refrigerant. Because heat naturally wants to move to low-pressure substances, heat from the air that travels over the coil gets absorbed into the refrigerant.
This increases the pressure of the refrigerant and turns it into a gas. The compressor for your heat pump will move the gaseous refrigerant to your indoor air handler unit. Inside this unit, there’s another coil known as the evaporator coil, and the refrigerant flows through it. As cold low-pressure air passes over the evaporator coil, heat from the refrigerant will naturally transfer into the air.
The hot air is forced back into your home to heat it up. Refrigerant from the evaporator coil continues to flow back toward the outdoor condenser unit where it goes through an expansion valve. This expansion valve alters the pressure of the refrigerant and turns it back into a liquid state. This way, the refrigerant is ready to re-enter and absorb heat.
Energy Efficiency
One of the most important comparisons you’re going to make between these two types of heating systems is their overall operating efficiency. Furnaces can have an operating efficiency ranging from 80% all the way up to 100%. Mid-efficiency fuel-burning furnaces will have an efficiency of around 80% to 85%. High-efficiency fuel-burning furnaces will have an efficiency of around 90% to 95%. Electric furnaces have an efficiency of 100%.
Heat pumps, on the other hand, have been shown to have an efficiency of between 300% and 400%. However, they can only operate efficiently when temperatures are above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. When temperatures drop below freezing, a heat pump is unable to operate as effectively. In fact, it will switch over to its auxiliary heating mode. When in this mode, a heat pump will use an internal heating element to produce heat, much like an electric furnace.
Operating Costs
While energy efficiency is extremely important, so is the cost of the input the system uses to create heat. It’s vital to start out by saying that input costs are going to vary widely depending on where you live in the country. However, most areas follow a general trend when it comes to comparing different input costs to one another.
In most all cases, electricity is going to cost more to purchase than any other type of fuel. Natural gas is usually going to be the cheapest fuel to purchase. Next, comes propane and then heating oil. Putting this into perspective, it’s imperative to point out that while an electric furnace has a higher operating efficiency than a natural gas one, the natural gas furnace is going to be cheaper to run.
Life Span
Fuel-burning furnaces are going to have a life span of around 15 to 20 years, presuming they receive proper upkeep and maintenance. Electric furnaces have a life span of 20 to 30 years. Heat pumps have a typical life span of around 15 years.
A Note on Cooling
It’s imperative to understand that a heat pump operates as an all-year-round temperature control system. It will not only heat your home in the wintertime, but it will also cool it in the summertime. When you purchase a heat pump, you don’t have to worry about purchasing a central air conditioning system as you would if you went with a furnace.
Maintenance Requirements
No matter what type of heating system you purchase for your home, it’s going to require regular maintenance. All furnaces should be serviced in the fall by a licensed HVAC technician. This not only ensures they stay in good operating condition but also keeps the warranty coverage on your system active.
Heat pumps are going to require service twice a year. They need to be serviced in the fall to prep them for heating and serviced in the spring to prep them for cooling. Both heat pumps and furnaces have air filters that will need to undergo regular replacement for the systems to operate efficiently.
Ducted vs. Ductless
All furnaces are going to rely on ductwork to deliver hot air to the various rooms throughout your home. On the other hand, heat pumps are very versatile in the fact that they can work with ductwork or with a ductless mini-split setup. This is good news for homeowners who don’t have existing ductwork in their homes. Instead of having to invest a lot of money in the invasive process of installing ductwork after your home is constructed, you can simply opt to go with a ductless mini-split heat pump system.
Up-Front Cost
One factor that we simply can’t overlook when it comes to comparing a furnace to a heat pump is their up-front purchase price. In general, a heat pump is typically going to cost twice as much as purchasing a furnace. However, there are many different factors that go into consideration when it comes to the price of a furnace. Both propane and heating oil require you to have a storage tank for the fuel, which can also add to the price.
Typically, electric furnaces are going to be the cheapest to install as they only require some wiring to operate. When it comes to a natural gas furnace, it’s going to be more labor-intensive to install as piping will need to be run from the furnace to the natural gas supply hookup for your home.
Reliable Heating Installation Service
Revival Heating & Cooling offers reliable heating installation service to homeowners throughout the entire Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR communities. Our technicians will be glad to assist you with all your heating, cooling, ductless heat pump or mini-split, gas-to-oil conversion, air quality improvement, and efficiency upgrade needs. Simply call our office today to book your next HVAC service call.