Heat Pump Maintenance Service in Orlando, FL
If you have recently bought a heat pump, or if you are thinking of buying one, you may have wondered how much trouble it will be to maintain. Heat pumps are better for your wallet and the earth than a traditional HVAC system. However, you should know that a heat pump will need both home and professional maintenance. The frequency with which you perform maintenance on your heat pump will depend upon the type of pump you choose.
What is a heat pump?
A heat pump is a type of heating and cooling system that is installed outside a home. It cools your home like an air conditioner but can provide heat without a furnace.
Neither heat pumps nor traditional HVAC systems create heat; rather they redistribute it. When they are used as heaters, heat is taken from the ground or air and circulated between a coil inside a home and an outdoor compressor. This is done with the use of refrigerant. The system acts in reverse when you are cooling your home. Hot air is removed from the inside of a home and released outside.
How They Work
Heat will always travel to areas that are cooler and have less pressure. Heat pumps force heat into colder areas which causes a natural transference.
When a heat pump is cooling properly, refrigerant pumps through the indoor coil, which works as an evaporator. Indoor air blows across the coils. The refrigerant absorbs heat from the air, and cool air is created. This air blows through the home’s air ducts. It is very important that the indoor coil is clean, or it may freeze over, which can cause the heat pump to stop working.
The refrigerant is turned into a gas that is compressed and pressurized. The gas heats up, and the pressurized refrigerant travels to the outdoor coil.
An outdoor fan unit pushes outside air over the coils, which act as condenser coils. Heat is moved from the refrigerant and released into the air.
The refrigerant condenses into a warm liquid that travels back through the system and moves indoors. At this point, an expansion valve lowers the pressure of the refrigerant, which returns to a liquid form. The process then begins again.
A heat pump works by reversing this process. If you want your heat pump to heat your home, it must contain a reversing valve. If this valve becomes loose, it may not reverse the process, and cold air might be blown into your home on a hot day.
What are the types of heat pumps?
There are several types of heat pumps. They include air–to–air, water sources, and geothermal. They draw heat from outside the home, concentrate it, and use it indoors.
An air source heat pump transfers heat between the home and the air outside. Most people use this type of heat pump, and it runs on 50% of the electricity of a traditional air conditioner. They can even work as de–humidifiers.
A mini split system is used for homes that do not have ducts. Mini splits are economical and great for small apartments or offices.
Geothermal heat pumps transfer heat between your house and the ground or from a water source. They are expensive and difficult to install. However, they cost less to operate than other types of cooling systems. The reason is that groundwater temperatures are fairly consistent. Geothermal heat pumps may lessen your energy use by as much as 60%
Home Maintenance and Professional Maintenance
Any home heating and cooling system will need a certain amount of maintenance and a heat pump is no exception. The good news is that a heat pump requires less maintenance than a traditional HVAC system. A traditional HVAC system will need professional maintenance at least once a year. When you have a heat pump, you may not need it quite as often. There are a few things you will want to do regularly to make sure your system performs at maximum efficacy.
You should change your filters as often as the manufacturer of your heat pump recommends. The filters’ quality is determined by a rating system called MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value).
Using a high–quality filter is a great way to maintain the performance of your system. The higher the MERV rating, the higher the quality of the filter. The smaller the particles a filter can capture, the higher the MERV rating will be. MERV ratings go from one to 20.
You may think that the best thing to do is just get a filter with a rating of 20. However, filters with very high ratings are designed to work with professional systems in places such as hospitals, laboratories, and operating rooms. A home system would never be able to handle a filter with a MERV rating of 20. Generally, you should not go above a filter with a MERV rating of 16.
People in cold climates have to worry about ice building up around an outdoor system in the winter, but if you live in Orlando, you will not need to worry about that. You should remove any plants that are around the heat pump, and they should be at least a foot and a half away from the pump.
Your thermostat should always be set between 65 and 70 degrees. If you set it higher or lower, it may increase your energy bill.
What Our Inspectors Will Do
As long as you change your filters regularly, you will only need professional maintenance around once a year. Downtown Air’s trained professional technicians will do a thorough examination of your system to make sure that everything is running perfectly. We will let you know if you need repairs and make professional recommendations for upgrades and maintenance.
We take several steps when we come out to your house. We will begin the maintenance inspection by checking ducts and blowers for obstructions and dirt, which can limit the functionality of your system. It can cause obstructions and leaking, which can shut down your system.
We will check for any leakage in the ducts. If we find any, we will fix them for no extra charge. If there is a major structural problem that will take a long time to fix, we give you an estimate of the price of fixing it and the amount of time it will take.
Checking for Issues with Poor Airflow and Freezing
We will confirm that there is proper airflow in your system. If the filters are clean and the pipes are free of obstructions, poor airflow may be caused by frozen coils. We will make sure that there is no ice on the coils because frozen coils can be a sign of major problems.
We will also check to make sure that you have the proper amount of refrigerant in your system. Refrigerant transfers from place to place and is reused. Your system should not be low on refrigerant, but if it is, we will check for leaks, patch them, and add more refrigerant.
Electrical terminals may become worn out over time, and may not hold wires and pipes properly. We will make sure that your terminals are in good shape, and tighten them and clean them if necessary.
A heat pump needs to work like a well–oiled machine. We always lubricate motors and make sure that the belts in the system are well–tightened and not worn down, and we will tighten any loose connections. We will inspect the electric control and ensure you get hot or cold air when you need it.
The condensing unit’s drip pan is an extremely important part of your HVAC system. If it gets too full, it can cause leaks that will slow your system down or shut it off. Checking the drip pan for leaks and holes is critical to a good maintenance inspection.
We will inspect your thermostat and ensure the sensors are working properly. If your thermostat doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how good the condition of your heat pump is.
Why You Should Hire Us
Our family–owned business is committed to the comfort and good health of people in the Orlando, Florida area. We are staffed with a team of HVAC specialists who know every kind of system completely. We look forward to servicing your home; give us a call today.
