Do I Have a Heat Pump?

Say you move into a new home and you have a heating system, but don’t know the system or appliance you have. Is it a gas or oil furnace? Is it an electric heat pump? If you don’t know much about the big, metal boxes you’re looking at, there are easy ways to tell them apart. 

Heat pumps give you heating and cooling in one year-around, energy-efficient system, plus you’ll be likely to save money and have a cleaner, greener home. Here’s more on the differences between heat pumps and furnaces. 

What Does a Heat Pump Look Like?

A home air-source heat pump has an outdoor unit and an indoor unit. The exterior part of a heat pump system is the large metal box with a large metal fan inside it. It’s typically on a concrete pad or other cleared space near the house. 

In brief, the outdoor unit's job is to transfer heat between the inside and outside. It is the condenser in the cooling season and the evaporator in the heating season. The exterior unit has a compressor, condenser/evaporator coils, a fan, and a reversing valve.

With a central, ducted heat pump system, the indoor unit is the air handler, a large metal box typically in an attic, basement, or large closet. The air handler contains a blower motor, a filter, a coil, refrigerant, and may have a supplemental heating system.

If you have a ductless, mini-split heat pump system, smaller indoor units, usually multiple units in a home, are smaller devices mounted on a wall with each unit covering a zone or room.

A geothermal heat pump’s interior components look the same as an air-source heat pump’s. The outdoor system is made of pipes underground or underwater. If it’s an in-ground system, the pipes are buried vertically or horizontally and entirely buried and hidden. 

Do I Have a Heat Pump or a Furnace?

There are a few ways you can tell if your home has a heat pump or a furnace. 

Starting outside, if you’re getting heat in your home and you have a large metal box and it’s running, it’s a heat pump. If you’re getting heat inside, but you don’t have an exterior unit or you have one and it’s not running, you have a furnace giving you heat. 

Indoors, with an electric heat pump, there is no gas line or venting needed with the air handler. If you have no gas or oil bill at all, you know you don’t have a gas or oil furnace. If you have a furnace, it will have a gas or oil line, and a vent pipe for exhaust.

One more way of checking is the settings on your thermostat. If you have an “emergency heat” or “auxiliary heat” setting, you have a heat pump.

Heat Pump Benefits

A heat pump is the most energy-efficient solution for heating and cooling for most homes. When that’s the case, you could save money and use less energy for years to come. Specifically with heating, a heat pump has a coefficient of performance (COP) of about 3.0-4.0 or higher, meaning it can provide three or four times more heating output than the electricity it consumes. A furnace’s efficiency, measured as its annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) percentage is often 80-98% and can’t possibly surpass 100%.

The two-in-one heating and cooling functionality of a heat pump is another way to save on utility bills, maintenance, and service in the long run. 

A heat pump burns no fossil fuel to create heat. This makes it cleaner and healthier for your indoor air quality as well as being environmentally friendly overall by decreasing your carbon footprint.

If you are considering going to a heat pump, or in need of a new higher-efficiency heat pump, you can find out more and see estimates for your property with our Savings Maximizer tool today. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What do heat pumps look like?

Ducted air-source heat pumps have two main units: outdoor and indoor. The outdoor unit looks like a large metal box with a fan inside, and the indoor unit, the air handler, is typically installed in an attic, basement, closet, or mechanical room. 

How do heat pumps compare to furnaces?

A furnace provides heat. A heat pump provides heating and cooling. A heat pump is often three to four times more energy efficient than a furnace.