Archive for the ‘Energy efficiency’ Category

Heat Pump Pros and Cons – Should You Make the Switch?

Thursday, October 19th, 2023

It’s been all over the news lately, both in Washington and even at the national level. Heat pumps have become a central part of the discussion about climate change and energy use. But what are the pros and cons of heat pumps, and will it be an improvement over your current HVAC setup?

The bigger question is, especially for us in the northwest – do you have air conditioning right now? Because if you don’t have it, and if you want it, pay close attention. Heat pumps may be just what you’re looking for.

What Is a Heat Pump?

Heat pumps operate differently from air conditioners and furnaces. They work by moving heat from one place to another, rather than always heating or always cooling your home. In the summer, they move heat from inside your house to the outside. In the winter, they move heat from outside to the inside. Along the way, compressors work to warm or cool the air, depending on how you have it set.

heat pumps move heat from inside or outside the home

The science is a bit complicated, but here’s what you need to know:

With a heat pump, you don’t need separate units for your AC and your heat. The heat pump handles both roles, and is able to heat your home in winter, and cool it in summer.

If you want to know the science, here’s a video explaining how heat pumps work.

Heat Pump Pros and Cons

So, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of heat pumps so you can make an informed decision about if switching to a heat pump is something you should strongly consider.

5 Advantages of Heat Pumps

The main advantages of a heat pump are:

1. Dual Purpose – Heat and Cool Your Home

As already mentioned, heat pumps will heat your home in winter, and also cool it in the summer. That means you can achieve with one system what you needed both a furnace and an air conditioner to do before. A heat pump system includes an indoor and an outdoor unit to facilitate the movement of air as well as for backup heat.

The simplicity of this approach is obvious. Rather than require two separate systems to operate, you have just one. You still need an air handler to help circulate the air in your home, but you’ll need that regardless. With a heat pump, you no longer need a separate AC unit.

2. Heat Pumps Are More Energy Efficient

Heat pumps use less energy than HVAC systems that generate their own heat – and that includes natural gas. To heat your home, the heat pump takes the heat from the air outside and moves it inside. To cool in the summer, it does the opposite – remove heat from the home and send it outside.

heat pumps are more energy efficient than traditional heating like this radiator
An old-school radiator is much less energy efficient than a heat pump.

This method is far more efficient and better for the environment. Other systems have to actually heat up the air and blow it into your house. But the heat pump is just taking heat already present outside, and moving it into your home.

3. Heat Pumps Save Money Over Time

Because heat pumps use less energy to operate, your energy bills will be substantially lower in winter once you switch to a heat pump. The longer it operates, the more money you’ll save.

Just remember to keep changing out your air filters and perform regular maintenance, just like you need to with a furnace or an air conditioner. Clogged air filters make the system work harder, use more energy, and drive up your costs needlessly. This is true for any HVAC system. If you don’t change your air filters consistently – at least once per year – even the most energy efficient HVAC system loses its lofty environmental benefits.

4. Heat Pumps Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Regardless of where you stand on the politics of it, the facts are pretty straightforward. Using a heat pump doesn’t just improve your energy efficiency. It also reduces your carbon footprint. This is especially true if you have gas heat, because burning gas produces carbon dioxide emissions, though the refrigerant used as part of the heat pump system also affects the environment.

heat pumps lower your carbon footprint

The heat pump requires electricity to operate, so however you are getting your electricity determines the degree of your emissions. But because they are more energy efficient, a heat pump produces less pollution than other forms of heating and cooling your home.

5. Heat Pumps May Reduce Humidity in Your Home

Because heat pumps move air, they can help moderate the humidity in your home. In the summer, they remove humidity by transferring air to the outside. In the winter, they can help avoid drying out the air the way traditional furnaces can, because they bring in air from the outside.

You may still need humidification in either scenario though. It depends on the specifics of your home.

3 Heat Pump Disadvantages

There are a few disadvantages of heat pumps as well. Here are the main ones.

1. More Costly Installation

On the front end, you will pay a bit more for a heat pump. Over time, you save money, but at first, it’s a higher cost.

Depending on the specifics of your home, you may be able to save money using a mini-split, which requires no duct work. For older homes where installing ducts would be very expensive, you can save money using a mini-split. Mini-splits use refrigerant lines instead of ducts, and still allow you to heat and cool individual rooms. In some homes, the costs of both these options will be similar.

2. Less Effective in Extreme Cold

This is the primary disadvantage of heat pumps.

When there’s hardly any heat outside, the heat pump has to work very hard to heat your home. In these conditions, your efficiency declines and your costs increase.

heat pumps take more time to warm up a very cold home

If you have natural gas right now, one way around this is to keep your natural gas as a backup system to use when temperatures drop into the mid-30s. The newer heat pump systems will detect the outdoor temperature, and automatically switch to the backup heating system.

The other key is to not wait until your home is super cold before turning on the heat pump. It’s much more difficult for heat pumps to heat up freezing homes than to maintain warmed ones.

But, all that said, heat pumps are not great options in locations that have long and very cold winters. Here in the Pacific Northwest, heat pumps are a good option because we don’t have very many freezing days. And if you use the backup approach, heat pumps can work just about anywhere.

3. Heat Pumps Have Longer Runtime

As you might have inferred from the previous item, heat pumps tend to heat up the home slower than traditional furnaces, and it takes them longer to cool it in the summer. For this reason, they are on for longer. If the sound of the heat pump running bothers you, this might be a drawback. And while mini-splits can in some cases be quieter, this isn’t always the case.

The key to remember is, as mentioned earlier, the system works much harder if you wait to turn it on. This is true in the summer too. If you wait until your home is 85 degrees before turning on the system, the heat pump will have to work much harder to cool the home, compared to if you had turned it on when you hit 75 degrees.

But either way, the system will be on for longer. The runtime is a pretty minor disadvantage, but if noise bothers you, it’s something to be aware of.

Want to Find Out More?

Every home situation is different. If you want to discuss the pros and cons of heat pumps for your specific home, have us come out and do an assessment.

And if you already have a heat pump but haven’t had it serviced in (gulp) years, get on our schedule and we’ll come out and perform some much-needed maintenance.

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Why Is It Important to Change Air Filters on Air Conditioners and Furnaces?

Friday, January 14th, 2022

Clogged air filters are probably the leading cause of breakdown for air conditioners and HVAC systems. That’s the main reason why changing air filters is so important.

Air conditioners and heaters depend on airflow. With impeded airflow, the system doesn’t work as well, and problems arise. Here are four reasons why it’s so important to change your air filter, and what could happen if you don’t.

4 Reasons to Change the Air Filter on Your AC / Furnace

1. Changing the Air Filter Saves You Money

Yes, you have to pay for the air filter. But the more clogged your air filter gets, the harder your system has to work. That means it is using more energy to produce and push the same amount of cool or warm air. Using more energy means you pay more for the same benefit. That’s a bad deal.

And in case you’re wondering, the air filter does get used in both summer and winter because the same fan moves the air either way. The mechanism for producing the warm or cool air may be different, but the fan that moves it and the filter the air passes through is the same.

Changing the air filter also saves money because it extends the healthy life of your HVAC system. And as you can imagine, air conditioning and heating repairs cost a lot more than buying an air filter every few months.

2. Changing the Air Filter Improves Performance

As time goes by, air filters will get clogged by various types of debris. This makes it harder to produce the same amount of warm or cool air.

This means, especially in the extreme hot and cold months, a fresh air filter will help your home warm up and cool down faster than it otherwise would. If it seems like it’s taking longer to warm up or cool down your house lately, there’s a good chance your air filter is the main culprit.

And by the way, if you want us to come out and do a maintenance check, we can also show you where your air filter is and how to change it. Sometimes, it is a little tricky. Here’s a quick guide on how to change your air filter yourself.

3. Changing the Air Filter Improves Indoor Air Quality

There are all kinds of pollutants and particulates floating around inside and outside. A good air filter will capture many of these and thus improve your air quality. Especially if you have kids, elderly residents, or people with medical conditions such as asthma or allergies, pristine air quality is a must.

Consistent replacement of your air filter is a low cost way to make a big difference in your air quality.

A saturated air filter will struggle to corral things like dust, spores, pollen, pet dander, hair, and microorganisms. Plus, all that gunk can collect moisture and lead to mold growth. If the mold gets in your ducts and the inner workings of your HVAC system, now you’ve got a serious and much more costly problem, for your health and your pocketbook.

4. Changing the Air Filter Reduces Your Environmental Footprint

Because a clean air filter allows your air conditioner and furnace to work more efficiently at heating up and cooling down the house, you will use less energy and thus reduce the cost your HVAC system is putting on the environment – especially if you’re relying on gas or electric power.

What Happens If You Don’t Change Your Air Filter?

If you neglect to change your air filter frequently enough, a number of problems will begin to mount over time.

First, because your air conditioner and heater will have to work harder, this extra strain will increase the wear and tear on the system and can cause it to overheat and break down. Again, in our experience, clogged air filters are the number one cause of costly and expensive repairs for HVAC systems. Extending the useful life of your system saves thousands of dollars.

Also, very old air filters can start to break down themselves, and this may release fibers into the air handling system. These fibers can interfere with the functionality of the HVAC system and require expensive repair and maintenance.

And, as already mentioned, not changing your air filter will make your home take longer to heat up or cool down, increasing your costs for no extra benefit.

The health problems that can be caused by the buildup of mold are well-known, and if mold is infesting your HVAC system, then your family is breathing unhealthy air. You can prevent most or all of this simply by regularly changing your air filter.

One way to tell if it’s well past time to change your filter is if there’s a buildup of dust near your vents, including on furniture near the vents. If you see this, then your air filter is probably well past due for replacement.

How Often Should You Change Your Air Filter?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this. Energy Star recommends a minimum of changing your air filter every three months. Some experts recommend every month.

But really this depends on several factors, such as the type of air filter you use, and how often you use your air conditioner and heater.

In the mild climate of the Pacific Northwest and Snohomish and North King County, we have pretty temperate springs and falls, and many people don’t use their systems at all during those months. There would obviously be no reason to change the filter if it isn’t being used.

But in summer and winter, it probably gets pretty heavy use. So keep an eye on it, and don’t let it sit there unchanged for too long.

As for the type of air filter, lower quality fiberglass air filters need to be replaced more frequently than higher quality ones.

If you want a professional HVAC repair and maintenance technician to come take a look at your system or show you how to change your air filter, feel free to schedule an appointment, and Bob will come out to take a look.

We are often booked several months out, so if you suspect problems with your HVAC system, don’t wait too long to call us!

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Posted in AC service, Energy efficiency | 2 Comments »

Why Get a Heat Pump in the Pacific Northwest?

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

5 Reasons to Consider Switching to a Heat Pump or Mini-Split

Heating and cooling your home in the Pacific Northwest can be achieved through several different methods.

more efficient energy is one reason why to get a heat pump in the puget sound
Image by Iván Tamás from Pixabay

There are other more specialized options, but your three main choices for heat are natural gas, electric heat, or a heat pump. Each has their various pros and cons, which we may explore in a different article later.

For today, let’s explore the points in favor of a heat pump. First – what is a heat pump?

What Is a Heat Pump and How Does It Work?

A heat pump works much like a refrigerator, using refrigerant to remove heat from one area and move it to another. One of its two main defining characteristics is that it doesn’t generate heat through a heating coil or the burning of some type of fuel. Rather, it compresses and moves warm air absorbed by the refrigerant from the cooler place and transfers that heat to the warmer place.

Your refrigerator works in much the same way. It continually removes the heat from the items you put in your fridge (the cooler place) and transfers it through the refrigerant into the room. That’s why you can feel warm air coming out the bottom of your fridge.

Likewise, a heat pump takes warmth from the air from outside your home in the winter and moves it into your house with the help of an air handler.

A heat pump’s other defining characteristic is that it can go both ways. Unlike a furnace or an air conditioner which can only heat or cool your house, a heat pump can do both.

In the summer, it takes the warmer air from inside your home, and blows it outside, thus cooling the interior. In the fridge comparison, with a heat pump in the summer your house is the refrigerator. In the winter, the rest of the world is the refrigerator.

See an animated presentation of how a heat pump works

The primary reason most people give for not choosing a heat pump is that they don’t work as well in extreme temperatures. Especially in very cold (sub-freezing) temperatures, the heat pump struggles to get enough warm air from the outside to pump into your home.

But here in the Puget Sound area, we don’t generally have temperatures that low, so this is rarely an issue.

5 Reasons to Choose a Heat Pump

1. Uses Less Energy – Saves You $$$

saving on heating costs is one reason why to get a heat pump
Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

As you may have already inferred, because the heat pump does not have to generate its own heat, it uses far less energy than a gas or electric furnace. All the heat pump has to do is power the compressor, the fans, and other components to facilitate the transfer of the warm air.

This makes a heat pump much more energy efficient than your other options.

Measurements and studies vary, but your heat pump will probably save you between a third and a half of your home heating energy costs. Other factors can affect this, such as how well insulated and sealed your house is, the size of the house, your preferred temperatures in summer and winter, and other variables.

If you watch our heat pump animation and click on “How efficient is a heat pump?” on the left side, you can see data comparing heat pumps to natural gas, propane, oil, and electric heat. To produce 1 million BTUs, according our data, heat pumps cost far less than the other options.

2. Helps the Environment in Two Ways

First, because you’re not burning fuel to produce energy, a heat pump produces far fewer emissions than something like a gas or oil furnace.

If you’re looking for a way to play your part in curbing climate change by minimizing your carbon footprint, switching from a fossil fuel burning furnace to a heat pump is one of the most high-impact decisions you can make.

According to one source, a heat pump can offset energy produced by burning up to 300 gallons of oil.

Second, because heat pumps use less energy, you will also be drawing less power from your utility to operate the appliance. It runs less often than a furnace, and requires less energy to do so.

So with a heat pump, you are tapping the grid less often, reducing your overall energy usage. The Energy Department estimates that a heat pump can reduce your electricity use by about 50%.

3. Mini Split Style Heat Pumps Do Not Require a Duct System

If your home doesn’t have ducts, that’s not a problem. Heat pumps can adapt to this using a ‘mini-split’ approach. This essentially means the outdoor condenser unit can be hooked up to wall units all around your home.

However, traditional heat pumps require ducting because this is how the air handler moves the heat throughout the home.

4. Heats Your Home Faster

Because the ductless heat pump is just blowing warm air into one room rather than the entire house, individual controls for each room helps keep the comfort level more consistent. With a furnace, the warmest air is the air closest to where it was produced. As it gets farther from the unit, it cools more. So the furnace has to work harder to heat the rooms farthest from it.

The exception to this is if you are demanding large temperature swings from your system. Heat pumps are designed to keep consistent temperatures, not to go back and forth between 55 and 70 every day. If you try to do that, a traditional heat pump will switch to the furnace to heat the house. On the other hand, a mini split or ductless system allows you to heat or cool specific rooms.

5. Technology Continues to Advance

Today’s heat pumps work substantially better than ones produced 30 – 40 years ago.

Now, furnaces and air handlers use variable speed or dual speed motors. This keeps air moving at a consistent speed, which minimizes cool drafts, increases your savings, and make less noise.

Heat pump compressors have also seen vast improvement in their technology. Originally, units only had piston compressors. Then came scroll technology. Now, they are inverter driven, which varies the capacity of the unit and makes it much more efficient and quiet.

Trane and American Standard have worked with Seattle code compliance officials to achieve sound levels once thought impossible. We have units that will keep the decibel levels at 52 or less at full capacity and then lower that to under 40 after 10pm. Seattle and Kirkland have the most strict noise ordinances in the area, which is a huge problem with buildings now being built so close to each other.

Why Choose a Heat Pump?

To be clear – B&C Comfort does not endorse any one heating or cooling solution. All solutions have their pros and cons. What we care about most is that you are happy and comfortable in your home, no matter the season.

If you’re drawn to the idea of a heat pump but are concerned about getting a return on your investment, the question we usually ask is, how long do you plan to live in your home? It generally takes about five years to pay yourself back for switching to a heat pump as opposed to adding a separate air conditioner, assuming you already have a furnace.

More and more people are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprints and be more energy efficient. Heat pumps in the Puget Sound region are one very impactful way to achieve that.

If you’d like to explore switching from your current heating source to a heat pump, reach out to us and we can schedule a home visit to look at your system.

Schedule an In-Home Consultation

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How to Save on Your Heating Bill

Friday, June 29th, 2018

How to Save on Your Heating Bill without Having to Crawl Around Under Your House

10 Simple Energy Efficiency Tips That Pay for Themselves in Weeks (7 Are Totally Free)

fireplace and HVAC energy efficiency saves money and helps environment

There’s big money to be saved on your heating bill this winter just by improving your energy efficiency. The problem is, you probably don’t have time or interest in unrolling messy insulation or crawling around under your house or in your attic.

The good news is, there are a ton of super-easy steps you can take to keep more heat in your home, and produce heat more efficiently.

Each of the energy efficiency tips you’re about to see are either free, or will pay for themselves this winter, not five years from now.

10 Energy Efficient Ways to Save on Your Heating Bill This Winter

1. “Do You Feel a Draft?” Check Your Windows

You can feel it, but you can’t find it. That slight cold breeze that’s biting into your winter comfort, as well as your heating bill.

It’s most likely coming from your windows or doors. According to Popular Mechanics, 7-12% of heat loss happens through your doors and windows.

A couple simple steps you can take to prevent heat loss through your windows:

• Keep them closed and locked in the winter. Just by locking them, you close the gap that air can seep through.

Cost: Free

• Put fresh caulking around them to renew the seals.

Cost: Under $10

2. Do You See the Light? That’s a Bad Sign

air escaping under your door hurts energy efficiency no matter how good your heater is

If there’s sunlight visible under or around your doors, that’s a ‘green light’ for hot air to gleefully escape your home and drive up your heating bill.

Two ways to slash your heat loss through your doors:

• Put weatherstripping around the door. This makes a huge difference, and also keeps bugs out.

Cost: Varies depending on type – from $20 to $100 per door

• Increase the height of your door’s threshold.

Cost: Free, or under $25 if replacing it

If there’s light under or around your door, these two changes will reduce the strain on your heating system, because all that warm air it’s working hard to produce will now be staying in the house.

3. Check Your Attic Access Door

Ever go up in your attic during a cold month, and wonder why it’s nice and toasty up there where no one is? This is a sign that your attic door isn’t sealing well and is allowing heat to escape, just like your other doors.

But unlike your other doors, heat rises, so the attic door’s cost on your heating bill can be even greater. Keep the door firmly closed and sealed, and if necessary, consider adding some insulation (just a small amount – it’s only a door!) or other barriers above the door to keep the heat in.

Cost: Free to Very Cheap

4. It’s ‘Curtains’ for Your Heating Bill

open curtains in day in winter and close at night to save on heating bill

Again – windows are a major source of heat loss. Even with good seals, heat still escapes through them. But in the day, sunlight can come through windows and warm up your house, even in the winter.

So, open your curtains!

In the day, keep them open and let the sun warm up your interiors. At night, close them so you trap a little more heat in the house.

Cost: Free

5. Keep Your Vents Clear

If you have forced-air heating especially, don’t make your furnace or heat pump work harder than it needs to. That’s wasted efficiency.

Keep couches, chairs, low tables, and desks away from your vents so warm air can flow freely and more quickly heat up the home.

Also, putting certain kinds of materials too close to heating vents (and especially floorboard heaters) is a fire hazard. So you shouldn’t have anything too close to your vents anyway.

Cost: Free

6. Don’t Heat an Empty House

If no one’s there, why heat the home? Coming home to a cold house is a small price to pay for a huge savings in your heating bill.

Cost: Free

7. Use Programmable Thermostats

Programmable thermostats make the empty house problem easy to solve without sacrificing comfort, because you can schedule them to come on 15 minutes before you get home or wake up.

And today, there are ‘smart’ thermostats that learn your rhythms and manage your temperatures without you having to do anything. These do cost more though, so the savings take longer to recover, and some systems are not compatible with smart thermostats.

Cost: Under $40 (around $350 – $450 for ‘smart’ thermostats)

8. Dress Warmer

dressing warmer reduces need to heat house and saves money on heating bill

If you don’t want to wear four layers of clothing, big blankets can be very comfortable throughout the day. And more blankets on your bed can accomplish the same thing at night. But just dressing warmer allows you to lower the temperature in your home and still be comfortable.

You will save about 3% on your heating bill for every degree you can lower the temperature on your thermostat. That adds up fast. The difference between a 72 degree home and a 65 degree home will save you a lot of money.

Cozy is the new cheap.

Cost: Free

9. Change Your Air Filter

Some people pat themselves on the back for installing furnaces (or ACs) with high energy efficiency ratings. And you should be pleased – that’s a great decision to make.

But, if you don’t clean or change out your air filter regularly, you’re literally blowing away all the benefits of your higher efficiency unit. A dirty filter makes the furnace or heat pump have to work a lot harder to produce the same amount of warm air required to heat your home.

So, change out your air filter, or clean it if it’s not too bad, and your heater will operate at the level of energy efficiency you expect it to. B&C changes out air filters as part of our regular furnace maintenance service.

Cost of new filter: Varies by size and type – $20 – $80

10. Do a Maintenance Update

Whether it’s your gas fireplace or your furnace, regular maintenance improves your energy efficiency and saves you money.

For fireplaces, when soot and other buildup starts clogging gas flow and reducing the efficiency of the burner, it takes longer to heat up the room because the fireplace has to work harder and the flame is weaker. That means more cost to you – if your goal is to heat your home with your fireplace. If your gas fireplace is built mainly for decoration, then the efficiency question doesn’t really apply to you here.

Learn more about gas fireplace maintenance

For furnaces, faulty components, rusty startup controls, dirty air filters, and parts that have lost lubrication make the unit work harder to produce the same amount of warm air. Lack of maintenance also just reduces the operational life of the unit, so this makes sense from an energy efficiency standpoint as well as a practical one.

Learn more about HVAC maintenance

B&C Comfort is one of the only fireplace repair and maintenance providers in the South Snohomish County and East King County areas.

We’re usually booked out several months, so if you want to tune up your fireplace or your furnace before winter, SUMMER is the time to get on our schedule.

Schedule a fireplace or maintenance appointment today

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