We live in a part of the country with long, hot summers and very short winters. Household comfort is a vital part of life here, especially as winter turns to spring and the temperatures begin rising again. Most homes in the area rely on traditional heating and air conditioning systems: usually centralized systems that heat or cool the air in a single location, then blow it through the home with a series of ducts.
The system worse quite well, but it’s not the only kind of HVAC system out there. Depending upon the needs of your home, another one might be able to do the job much more effectively. Now is an excellent time to consider replacing an old HVAC system, when the weather is mild and you can go without it in the time it takes to install one. You may want to consider an alternative model like the ones detailed below.
Ductless Systems
Centralized HVAC systems depend on ducts to carry the air through the home. But not every home can support such a system of ducts, particularly older homes built before the advent of air conditioning. Furthermore, centralized HVAC systems deliver the same temperature throughout the entire home, which can present problems if different family members want different temperatures.
Ductless mini split systems solve the problem neatly. They entail multiple smaller units placed into your home at different points. Each unit is designed to heat or cool a specific section of the house. Each unit can be adjusted independently of the rest of the home as well. That lets you set different temperatures in different rooms to suit individual tastes. More importantly, it lets you turn the unit off in parts of the home you aren’t using (such as bedrooms during the day) while still running it in parts of the home you are. That can save you a great deal of money on heating and cooling bills, as well as eliminating the need for ducts to keep your home comfortable.
Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are an especially good way to save money during the winter in parts of the country like ours where the weather is very mild. It operates according to the same principles as air conditioning and serves as an effective air conditioner during the summer. Refrigerant circulates through a series of valves and coils: first bleeding heat outside the home and then cooling the air inside the unit itself to be blown through the home.
Heat pumps simply offer an option that allows you to reverse that process: cooling the air outside and releasing heated air inside. That means it can serve as both a heater and an air conditioner, and because the heat is generated by refrigerant (which isn’t consumed as fuel the way oil or gas is) it can cut down on the costs of keeping your home comfortable in the winter.
If you could use a new HVAC system in your Covington, LA home, call the friendly technicians at Professional Heating & Air to set up an appointment and discuss your options!