What is the difference between a heat pump and a furnace and air conditner?
Question:
Answers:
In hardware terms, the difference is primarily that there is no burner or heat exchanger in a heat pump system. A heat pump has an outside and inside unit just like an AC but there is also, usually, an electrial heating element to augment the pump during very cold weather. Heat pumps can be very efficient if purchased that way except when using auxiliary heat, then they are inefficient.
Air conditioning systems with furnace and condensing unit use gas to heat and electricity through the condensing unit to cool.
Heat pumps always use the condensing unit to both heat and cool. Heat pumps have what is called a reversing valve to give heat in the winter and cool in the summer.
A heat pump works just like an air conditioner in the summer. In the winter the heat pump works in reverse and provides heat to the house. On very cold days, the efficiency of the heat pump decreases and backup heat is usually needed. The combination of heat pump and backup unit will still be more efficient than a standard furnace alone.
If you would like to read more about heat pumps, a good place to start is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/heat_pump...
In simple terms. A heat pump is used to keep a constant steady temperature. Thats why if you told your hand over a vent with the heat on its only "luke warm" air. If there are extremes in temps, then a heat pump will run for hours.
A furnace can handle the big temperature differences easier and you get that nice toasty warm feeling on those cold wintery days. You dont get that with a heat pump.
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