Learn How to Understand Heat Pump Ratings

If you’re considering a heat pump, it’s important to know and understand heat pump ratings systems. Heat pumps work by moving heat instead of creating it. In the cooling mode, they extract heat from the indoor air. In the winter, they reverses the operation and harvest heat from the outdoor air.

The seasonal energy efficiency (SEER) rating indicates how well the heat pump cools. The current minimum SEER stands at 14 for all heat pumps. Each increase in the SEER rating indicates that the heat pump uses 10 percent less energy to cool a home.

The EER (energy efficiency ratio) is similar to the SEER, but engineers measure its energy consumption for a shorter period at 95 degrees instead of 82 degrees over the course of a cooling season to test its efficiency.

In this climate, the heat pump ratings for heating are especially critical, since a heat pump’s ability to warm your home depends on its overall efficiency.

Look for the heating season performance factor (HSPF). The minimum standard stands at 8.2. Another rating, called the coefficient of performance (COP), is often the easier way to understand how efficient a model is.

The COP shows how much heat an appliance produces using one watt of electricity. An electric heater, for example, has a COP of 1, while a heat pump’s COP is usually 3.5 or higher. A COP of 1 means that the device creates one watt of heat for each watt of electricity it uses. A COP of 3.5 means that the appliance creates 3.5 times the heat for each watt it uses, making it an efficient heating method.

Heat pumps are unique HVAC appliances and heat pump ratings are the key to their efficiency.

At Sobieski Services, Inc., our goal is to help our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey learn more about energy and home comfort issues — especially HVAC and plumbing issues — so that they can save money and live in healthier, more comfortable homes.

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