Heat pump heating: advantages and disadvantages

Energy-saving alternatives for home heating are now within reach. But if you’re considering such a thing, you’ve no doubt come across a heat pump. This is an increasingly popular solution in homes in terms of water heating, space heating and in some cases cooling. But what are its biggest benefits and why opt for it?

Heat pump heating is an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional heating devices such as boilers, electric floor furnaces or furnaces. They can provide heating and cooling two to four times more efficiently. Over time, heat pump heating can save on utility bills while improving the comfort and value of your home or other property. Before investing in a heat pump, it’s a good idea to understand its advantages and disadvantages. When we find out the disadvantages of heat pump heating, it is often just some misconceptions about the technology.

Advantages of heat pump heating

Heat pumps offer homeowners many benefits. The fact is that today they are a sign of high standards and so you can expect year-round comfort, lower running costs or better humidity and air temperature control.

One of the first benefits of heat pump heating is year-round comfort. The dual operating capability of a heat pump is often the main reason many people consider upgrading. In one fell swoop, heating and cooling needs are simplified. A heat pump can easily keep a home comfortable throughout all four seasons.

With other, more traditional forms of heating, such as a gas boiler, there is a risk of natural gas leaks. With no open flames or fumes, these risks do not exist with an electric heat pump. This makes it one of the safest types of heating equipment. In addition, the minimum emissions from fossil fuels make heat pumps more environmentally friendly.

As already mentioned, the undisputed advantages of a heat pump clearly include lower operating costs. While even the most advanced furnace cannot achieve more than 100 percent efficiency, heat pumps typically achieve efficiencies of around 300 percent. This is because heat pumps move heat rather than producing it from a fuel source. This allows them to pump three or four units of heat into your home for every one unit of electricity they consume.

Among other things, they are easy to combine with other technologies such as solar panels. Powering an efficient heating system with free renewable solar energy reduces utility bills that much more.

Heat pumps do not produce as intense hot air as furnaces, resulting in longer operating cycles. This reduces uncomfortable temperature fluctuations that are common with single-speed furnaces. It also gives conditioned air more time to circulate efficiently, so you avoid hot and cold spots. Temperatures are thus much more constant with a heat pump than with other forms of heating.

Long heat pump cycles can also add some humidity to the space. With a heat pump, you can also have some degree of better control over the air quality in your home.

Disadvantages of heat pump heating

Before buying a heat pump, it is a good idea to think about all aspects. There is no doubt that this technology has many advantages, but are there also disadvantages?

If you decide to get a heat pump, you should definitely count on higher initial costs. Consider also the fact that a heat pump is a single device that can cover several functions at the same time. However, if you were to buy an air conditioner separately, a boiler for heating could end up costing you more than the heat pump itself.

The lower the temperature, the more difficult it is to extract heat energy efficiently from the outside air. To avoid this, heat pumps contain a much less efficient back-up electric heater. This ensures that the home stays at a comfortable temperature no matter how cold it gets outside, but it will also increase utility bills. Fortunately, heat pumps for cold climates are constantly improving, making them more and more efficient in freezing areas.

In addition, freezing temperatures can cause ice to form on the outdoor unit of the heat pump. This will force the system to go into defrost mode, melting the ice to allow the system to continue operating. The defrost mode will stop the flow of heat into the home and this can also increase operating costs.

While longer heat pump cycles are beneficial in some ways, they also have their drawbacks. For example, the lower temperature air flowing from the supply registers can create drafts, making it uncomfortable to sit too close to the air vent.

Longer duty cycles also mean that the fan and compressor are switched on more often in cold weather, which creates operational noise. Choosing a low-noise heat pump eliminates disturbing sound, as does installing the outdoor unit away from windows and doors.

While heat pumps and air conditioners have a similar full operating life of around 10 to 15 years, gas boilers can last much longer. Therefore, consider this aspect when comparing payback costs.

Conclusion

Heat pumps have many advantages and disadvantages. If you place a premium on the environment, efficiency and safety when choosing a heating system, heat pumps are a great choice. But if you’re expecting a lot of music for not a lot of money, you should probably look around for another solution.

Current forecasts are that the price of electricity could start to fall in the next two years, in which case a heat pump would be even more profitable for many Slovak households. In combination with solar panels, the heat pump will almost pay for itself. Heating with a heat pump is certainly not a step too far, so talk to the experts at Slovklima about the options available today.