What is the best heat pump you can buy? Looking for a new or replacement heating and cooling unit? Then finding the best heat pump might be of interest to you.

What Makes a Good Heat Pump?

The best heat pumps are very similar to regular heat pumps in a lot of ways, at least on the surface. First all heat pumps work using the basic physic principle of heat transference – the ability to absorb heat in one location and effectively transfer or transport it to another location.

With a standard heat pump this means that in winter time, warmth from the outside air is drawn into the pump and than moved and released into the inside air, warming the house. In summer time, the opposite happens – the heat in the inside air is absorbed and then transported and released into out of doors, leaving the interior cooler.

Now the best heat pumps are able to accomplish these two functions of heating and cooling using the less amount of energy thereby saving you and your family a bunch of money in the long run with lower utility bills.

Also the best heat pumps come in a variety of different categories: from the industry standard air source mentioned above to geothermic units like water-source and the newer ground or “earth” energy systems. These “green” heat pumps work in a similar fashion as the old air-source by collecting heat from either ground water or the earth itself and then transferring it to an air handler that distributes inside a building.

No matter what their heat source, all the best heat pumps have the five major components:

A standard heat pump consists of two separate machines that form a single recirculation system: an outside unit and an inside unit. This system allows the heat pump to transfer heat in two directions: from outside to in (for heating) and from inside to out (for cooling). A heat pump system is comprised of 5 major parts:

The Compressor – this device compacts and pumps refrigerant (Freon or ammonia and water) into a high pressure gas so it can absorb heat from the surrounding environment (air, water or ground).

The Condenser is a system of coils or pipelines that transports the high pressure refrigerant and evaporates it from a gas back into a liquid.

An Expansion or Reversing Value – reverses the whole process of the unit from heating to air conditioning and vice versa. The expansion value allows heat to move from the outside unit to inside the house or from inside the house to the outside unit.

The Evaporator is another system of coiled pipes or tubing that that transports the low pressure refrigerant and converts it from a liquid into a gas.

The Air Handler is the last in the part in the system and is basically a blower fan that moves heated or cooled air from the system into the air flow ducts of the house.

Now that you know more about how heat pumps work, you can easily start your research into looking for the best heat pump that your budget can afford and that will keep your family in comfortable surroundings.

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