Your air conditioner is close to the end of its service life. In fact, this may be its last season and you need to consider a replacement. The average central air conditioning system costs between $3,800 to $7,500, which is a serious investment. You may be thinking, can a heat pump replace your air conditioner?
Absolutely! Despite its name, a heat pump is designed to cool your home as well as warm it during the winter. It’s dual purpose. That means your heat pump can not only replace your air conditioner, but your furnace too. Plus, heat pumps require substantially less energy than your furnace or AC, effectively lowering your heating and cooling bills.
A HVAC 911 contractor can install a new heat pump in your home and help you save money.
How a heat pump works
Heat pumps work under the principle of heat transfer. In the summer, the heat pump removes warm air from the home and pumps it to the outside, like a traditional air conditioner but much more efficiently. In the winter, it pumps warm air in from the outside of the house. The outside air is pulled into the heat pump over outdoor coils that contain a liquid refrigerant that absorbs the heat and turns it into vapor that warms the home.
The cost savings of replacing your AC with a heat pump
When you ask a service tech from HVAC 911 to install a heat pump in your home, you are really killing two birds with one stone.
Consider the math: It costs between $4,000 to $12,000 to install a standard air-source heat pump, depending on the model, size of unit and whether or not you use a ductless system. As we mentioned, you can spend several thousand dollars on a new air conditioner. A gas furnace costs between $2,000 to $6,000 to install. The upfront costs of installing a heat pump are comparable to installing both a heat pump and a furnace.
The US Department of Energy estimates that a heat pump can lower a homeowner’s energy costs by hundreds of dollars a year. A Seattle home, for example, would save about $228 annually compared to conventional cooling and heating systems and reduce a home’s carbon footprint by 25 percent, according to a report by RMI.
If your house is all electric, switching your heating and cooling over to a heat pump can substantially cut your energy costs. That’s because the heat pump doesn’t use energy to heat or cool the home, but only to move the air around. Where a furnace or central air conditioning unit may cost $2.50 an hour to run, a heat pump can run for as little as $0.90 an hour, which is a substantial savings.
Hiring a contractor through HVAC 911 to install a heat pump can also substantially increase the value of your home. Houses with heat pumps improve in value by as much as $17,000 on average when they sell, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
How to use state incentives to make a heat pump more affordable
Unfortunately, Congress allowed federal tax credits for Residential Energy Efficiency to expire at the end of 2021. Unless further action is taken, you won’t be able to get any federal tax incentives to help save on a new heat pump.
But there are numerous state and local rebates available to help bring down the cost of a new heat pump. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE) provides detailed information on state incentives and policies for heat pumps and other renewable energy incentives. California, for instance, offers up to $4,800 in tax credits for an air source heat pump. Maine offers discounts up to $1,200. Massachusetts provides 0 percent financing, as well as other rebates.
Call a HVAC 911 service contractor to install a new heat pump and cut energy costs
If you are interested in installing a new heat pump and slashing your energy bill, call HVAC 911. We are a network of HVAC service contractors who can install a new heat pump that can save you hundreds of dollars in heating and cooling costs every year. The cost essentially pays for itself over the lifetime of a heat pump.
All our HVAC service contractors are specially trained, licensed and vetted. They are drug tested and have undergone a rigorous background check. Our HVAC techs are insured and bonded. Find a local HVAC 911 tech in your area today!
