Heat Pumps
Heat pumps have been used in Canada and around the world for years. The simplest and most well known residential heat pumps would be refrigerators and air conditioners. A heat pump uses a small amount of energy to move heat from location to another. This is done by circulation of refrigerant through a cycle of evaporation and condensation using a compressor pump that moves the refrigerant between 2 exchanger coils. While refrigerators and air conditioners are examples of a heat pump that operates in cooling mode, a heat pump is fully reversible, meaning it can both cool and heat. This means, that a fully reversible heat pump can both heat and cool your home, providing a year round climate control system. There are two types of heat pumps for space heating and cooling; ground source heat pumps (geothermal), and the more common type, air-source.
The most common type of air-source heat pump is air-to-air heat pumps, which is what Nova Sun Power specializes in. An air-to-air heat pump extracts heat from the air and then transfers heat in or outside of the house depending on what the house calls for. In the summer, the heat would be transferred outside to allow for cooling in the home and in the winter the heat would be transferred inside the home to allow for heating. Some air-source heat pumps are supplementary heating devices that work with other heating sources, such as oil, gas, or electric furnaces. However, most larger air-source heat pumps do have their own source of supplemental heating through electric-resistance heaters, so essentially they can be used on their own if large enough.
Nova Sun Power offers a selection of mini-split heat pumps made by Fujitsu. Fujitsu manufactures the most energy efficient heat pump in the 9 and 12KBTU categories. Unlike large air-source heat pumps requiring ductwork through the house, the indoor unit of a mini-split heat pump can be suspended from a ceiling, mounted flush behind a drop ceiling, or hung on a wall . Also, since these heat pumps are ductless, they allows for louder components, such as compressors and motors to be installed outside. Larger mini -split heat pumps can have two or more indoor units for one outdoor unit allow better heat distribution.
If you have electric heat, oil, gas or even wood, a mini-split can save you money. Savings of over 50% on annual heating costs can be had after installing a heat pump. Typical cost of running a mini-split for a year is $400-$500 and that includes cooling in the summer!