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3 Common Heat Pump Installation Mistakes

3 Common Heat Pump Installation Mistakes

A heat pump is one of the most energy efficient water heating systems for your home, lowering your water heating costs by up to 70%. This pump absorbs heat from the environment and uses minimal electricity to cycle refrigerant through the system to heat the water. As such, this improves the efficiency and lowers water heating costs. 

In order to maintain such efficiency, heat pumps require proper installation, providing excellent heating without carbon emissions and high bills. Improper installation may cause issues that can compromise the comfort and energy efficiency of your home.

It is important to hire qualified heat pump specialists to handle such installations to avoid future performance issues and repair costs. To learn more about how to avoid the common heat pump installation mistakes, read on.

1) Faulty Connections

One of the most common mistakes that heat pump installers make is incorrectly connecting the heat pump to the power supply and thermostat. If left untreated, this can trip circuit breakers and result in uneven temperatures or prevent the heat pump from working properly.

2) Oversized Heat Pumps

Issues prior installation, such as selecting the wrong size for your heat pump, can cause major issues down the track. It is important to install a heat pump according to your hot water requirements. If your system is oversized, it will consume more power than necessary, leading to higher electricity costs. In comparison, a smaller heat pump system may not meet your hot water needs, meaning hot water runs out during showers or other household washing chores.

3) Low Refrigerant

A common but serious error with heat pumps is not adding enough refrigerant. Refrigerant is a chemical compound that is used to transition matter between the states of liquid, solid, and gas. This process is known as heat exchange, enabling a heat pump to warm your home by moving heat from one set of coils in the heat pump to another. Insufficient amounts of refrigerant can impact the performance of your heat pump, as an optimal amount allows the pump to work normally. 

If you notice a decrease in your system’s heating performance, seek professional heat pump services right away.

Contact our experts at Ipswich Hot Water to ensure that your heat pump hot water system installation is completed correctly. You can rely on our team for efficient heat pump services for your property in Brisbane and surrounding areas.

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The Pros and Cons of Installing and Using Heat Pump Services

heat-pump

Whether you need heat pump installation, heat pump replacement, heat pump repair or heat pump maintenance services, it is very important that you understand the pros and cons of your decision.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Investing in Heat Pump Services

Heat pumps offer an energy-efficient alternative to traditional furnaces and air conditioners for all climate types. Heat pumps use electricity to transfer heat from a cool space to a warm space, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. These heat pump solutions can be a beneficial choice for your home in many ways.

Advantages of Heat Pumps

1. Lower Running Costs

Heat pump solutions do not run on combustion and are therefore much cheaper and more energy efficient. This efficiency creates greater long-term savings on energy as well as other associated costs.

2. Less Maintenance Needs

Unlike the heavy maintenance needs of combustion heating systems, heat pump solutions do not require a high level of check and balance. Only a few factors need a checkup once a year, and that’s it. These yearly checkups are so basic that they could easily be done by you. Some more intrusive check ups need to be done by a heat pump specialist, but only once every three to five years.

3. Provision of Better Safety

Combustion-based heating system installations are less safe than their heat pump counterparts. This safety is primarily in terms of operational safety as the heat pump systems do not burn fuel to generate heat, but rather use electricity.

4. Reduction of Carbon Emissions

Excessive carbon emissions are problematic. In fact, efforts should be made to decrease all forms of undesirable carbon emissions to preserve the environment. Heat pump systems significantly reduce these emissions and have an efficient conversion rate of energy to heat, which makes their usage all the more desirable and beneficial.

5. Easy Conversion to Cooling Systems

Although you could get deceived by the name of a heat pump system as something that only relates to heating, during warmer weather, this same heat pump system can reverse its processes and act like an AC unit. Heat pumps can be easily switched to cooling mode during the summer.

6. Long Lifespan

If you choose to invest in a heat pump, rest assured that it is not something that will need frequent replacements. A heat pump replacement need should only be required after 50 years of performance. On average, the lifespan of a heat pump system is at least somewhere between 14 to 15 years. These numbers show that heat pump system installations are exceptionally reliable and durable in nature.

Disadvantages of Heat Pumps

1. Heavy Upfront Cost

The tradeoff between the savings that can be obtained over a longer period as opposed to the heavy initial cost can be a tricky situation to deal with. The large upfront one-time cost involved with a heat pump installation results in many people not being able to opt for this otherwise beneficial solution.

2. Difficult to Install

Hot water heat pumps are not easy to install and require heat pump specialists to analyse the movement of heat, the local geology (specifically for ground source heat pumps) and the heating and cooling requirements of your household.

3. Questionable Sustainability

Not all heat pumps use biodegradable fluids for heat transfer. Instead, they often used fluids with questionable sustainability that raise environmental concerns.

4. Issues in Cold Weather

Heat pump systems can face issues in terms of heat pump maintenance in areas with colder weather. This may lead to a need for heat pump repair and even heat pump replacement services. Cold weather can damage the system and prevent it from reaching its full potential.

5. Not Entirely Carbon Neutral

Although we would like our heat pumps to be entirely fuel efficient, this is often an impossible expectation. As they rely on electricity to operate, heat pumps are not completely carbon neutral. However, heat pump systems are more efficient and use less electricity as the outside air gets cooler.

Looking for heat pump installation services near you?

At Ipswitch Hot Water we provide heat pump repair, heat pump installation and heat pump maintenance services for you.