Heat Pumps vs Gas Heat
Gas furnaces actually create heat, right there in your home. By contrast, heat pumps gather up, combine and transfer (pump) heat taken from the outside air, into the home. Heat pumps produce more heat than they consume in power, since they don’t actually need to create the heat.
The heat pump method of heating the home is exactly the opposite of how the home is cooled during the summer. A heat pump is fundamentally an air-conditioner that has the ability to reverse the flow of refrigerant because of one key component . . . a reversing valve.
Because a conventional heat pump must transfer the heat from the outside air, at some temperature the point is reached where there is insufficient heat in the air to satisfactorily heat a home. This point is typically reached around 25 to 30 degrees. When this point is reached, the heat output needs to be supplemented with resistance heat. So, heat pumps have what we call “heat strips” in the blower fan unit. These heat strips make up the difference when needed. In some climates, the heat strips are called upon so much that the efficiencies of a heat pump may be significantly lost. That isn’t the case in southern Indiana, however, because our winters are relatively mild. Heat pumps are suited very well for heating homes in our area, and they will save the homeowner money when compared with gas heat.
A Geothermal heat pump uses the same heat transfer, but with one significant difference: the heat exchange outside the home is to and from the relatively constant-temperature ground, rather than the air. A fluid that is much like the liquid coolant in a car is pumped through tubes in the ground, and this transfer is more efficient than transfer to the air. This added efficiency is gained for two reasons. First, the ground is naturally close to the temperature we desire to have in our home in all seasons, unlike the air a conventional heat pump, or air-conditioner, uses for heat transfer. Second, physical transfer of heat by means of transfer to a solid substance like soil is much faster than transfer of the same amount of heat to or from the air. So, a geothermal heat pump saves money in both summer and winter due to these greater heat transfer efficiencies.
Jack Frost has been a leader in conventional, hybrid (heat pump / gas) and geothermal heat pump installations. We encourage you to consider meeting your heating and cooling needs with a heat pump. The energy savings are very real, and for reasons described more fully elsewhere on the Jack Frost website, we believe that your savings when compared to other fuel alternatives will be even more substantial in the years to come. Also, the reduction in the cost of electricity, as billed to you by Vectren, continues all year long. Savings are therefore realized in all seasons.
