If you’re looking to invest in an energy-efficient and effective home comfort solution, you should consider making a heat pump your next purchase. Understanding how heat pumps cool and dehumidify the surrounding air is crucial to creating a home environment that’s comfortable and enjoyable for residents and guests.
The following information shows how heat pumps cool and dehumidify your Easton area home with impressive efficiency and unparalleled effectiveness.
How Humidity Affects Your Home
Relative humidity, or the amount of moisture that’s currently present in the air, plays a critical role in determining home comfort. The ideal relative humidity for an ordinary indoor space should be around 30 to 40 percent. Too much humidity leaves a home feeling stuffy and overly hot, while too little humidity causes damage to most wood structures as well as dry skin and other forms of discomfort.
High relative humidity also makes it very difficult to properly cool a home. Water vapor does an excellent job of retaining heat, which makes it harder to keep high-humidity areas cool. It also makes it harder for cooling systems to operate efficiently, as more energy is devoted to keeping humid areas cool.
With less humidity in the air, you’ll feel a few degrees cooler. You’ll also see your energy costs decline over time, as it takes less energy to cool down a home than before.
Effective and Efficient Cooling
The average heat pump relies on the principles of refrigeration to provide both heating and cooling. When the heat pump is in its cooling mode, the compressor pushes refrigerant through the evaporator coil located indoors. As air blows across the coil, the refrigerant within absorbs latent heat in the air and then makes its way through the condenser coil located outdoors. A fan within the outdoor unit helps release the heat and cools the refrigerant before it makes another trip indoors.
This process is exactly the same used by ordinary air conditioners to provide exceptional cooling comfort, but with the added bonus of providing warmth during the colder months.
Dehumidification Made Easier
Keeping your home’s temperatures at manageable levels isn’t the only thing a heat pump is capable of. As with an air conditioning system, a heat pump also offers the ability to remove excess moisture and reduce indoor humidity levels. With the help of your new heat pump system, you can expect greater savings as well as drastically improved comfort.
Those learning how heat pumps cool and dehumidify will be surprised to find out that a heat pump has two modes for reducing relative humidity levels:
- Cooling mode – As the heat pump operates in cooling mode, it also removes moisture via condensation. This helps improve the unit’s overall efficiency while improving home comfort.
- Dry mode – This mode causes the heat pump to alternate between heating and cooling modes, allowing the heat pump to maintain a room’s current temperature while at the same time removing excess moisture from the area.
As the heat pump draws moisture out of the air, those within the home will see an immediate drop in perceived temperatures. Thanks to lower humidity levels, occupants won’t have to set the thermostat to increasingly low levels just to maintain the same level of home comfort. Last but not least, homeowners also will see significant energy savings through the use of dehumidification with a heat pump to maintain overall home comfort.
Expect to Save With a Heat Pump
As the summer heats up, heat pumps provide tremendous savings as well as excellent home comfort. Those who install a heat pump in their home can expect to save anywhere from 10 to 30 percent on energy costs. Energy Star-approved heat pumps also provide greater savings without sacrificing anything in the way of home comfort.
Learn more about how heat pumps cool and dehumidify your home by contacting Griffith Energy Services, Inc., proudly serving Easton, Md., and the Mid-Altantic Region for over 100 years.
Written by Kevin Spain
