While a heat pump offers energy efficient heating throughout the winter in the Panhandle, occasionally you may need backup heating for those infrequent and short-lived cold snaps. A heat pump extracts the heat from the outdoor air to warm your home, and when temperatures fall into the low 30s, it may not be able to deliver as much heat.
Many heat pumps come with an auxiliary heating element that uses electricity to make up for the lack of ambient heat in the outdoor air. However, the electricity this element uses far exceeds the amount a heat pump consumes to produce the same amount of heat. The heat pump knows automatically when to switch to the heating element when it reaches its balance point.
The balance point is the temperature at which the pump is no longer capable of producing adequate heat. That temperature depends on the heating efficiency of the appliance and where the HVAC contractor sets the balance point at the thermostat.
One of the best ways to take advantage of a heat pump in our region is with a backup gas furnace. These dual-fuel systems automatically switch to gas forced-air heating when the temperature falls below the heat pump’s balance point.
The pros at Amarillo Air Conditioning can help you discover the best backup heating system for your home and situation. We’ve provided top-notch HVAC services for Amarillo area homeowners for more than 50 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Amarillo, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about backup heating and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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