Why a hybrid system saves energy

Who should own a hybrid system?

What is a hybrid heat pump system?

We have been serving Woodbury, Cottage Grove, Maplewood, Oakdale and the surrounding area for 22 years.  Click on the picture of the furnace to see our low prices.  Lifetime warranty on the heat exchanger and 10 years on all of the other parts!

The indoor quality air thermostat control automatically switches between the heat pump and the furnace depending on the outside weather.

To obtain the lowest possible operating costs a combination 95% high efficiency furnace and a heat pump can be used together.  This combination "hybrid" system automatically switches to operate either the furnace or the heat pump depending on the weather conditions.

By combining the 95% high efficiency furnace with a heat pump you reduce your energy bills which helps pay for the higher up front cost of a hybrid system.  The heat pump looks just like an air conditioner and also cools your home in the summer.

Smart homeowners research their large purchases to determine what benefits they will gain before they buy.  A heat pump and 95% high efficiency furnace working together gives you the advantage of lower operating costs and peace of mind knowing that you are participating in good ecological stewardship.

A heat pump is really just an air conditioner that has a reversing valve that lets it switch between heating and cooling. For cooling your home the valve allows the refrigerant to take heat from inside your home and move it outside.  To heat your home the valve reverses and the heat pump then moves heat into your home at up to three times more efficiently than electric resistance heat.

An outside temperature sensor keeps track of the weather and sends that information to the controller for the hybrid system.  The controller automatically switches to the most efficient source of heat.

An electric heat pump working together with a 95% high efficiency furnace is one of the most comfortable and efficient ways to heat and cool your home. In warm weather it keeps you pleasantly cool and in cold weather it circulates warm air evenly throughout every room.

Utility rebates are available in Woodbury MN and surrounding suburbs.

Initial costs versus operating costs

The biggest expense over the life of a heating and cooling system is not the cost of buying and installing it. It's the accumulated monthly cost of running it year after year. As the efficiency rating of a unit goes up, so does the initial cost. However, as the efficiency rating goes up, the monthly cost to operate the unit goes down.   It makes good sense to think of your energy bills for the long term and not just the initial cost of purchasing the equipment.

What is the energy efficiency rating of a heat pump?

A heat pump's energy efficiency is rated by how many British thermal units (BTUs) of heat it moves from outside your home to the inside in the winter, or from the inside to the outside in the summer, for each watt-hour of electrical energy it consumes. Every heat pump has an EnergyGuide label, which features the heat pump's heating and cooling efficiency performance rating, comparing it to other available makes and models. The Heating Seasonal Performance Factor (HSPF)  gives the number of BTUs gained per watt-hour used. The most efficient heat pumps have an HSPF of between 8 and 10.  The Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating shows heat pump cooling efficiency.  The higher the SEER, the less that the heat pump costs to cool your home.The most efficient heat pumps have SEERs of between 14 and 18.

A furnace is rated by giving it an AFUE number.  The easiest way to understand this is to think in terms of how much money that gets wasted out the flu vent on the furnace.  For example an 80% efficiency furnace uses 80 cents out of every dollars worth of gas to heat the house and 20 cents gets wasted out the vent pipe.  Where a 95% efficiency furnace saves 95 cents out of every dollars worth of gas to heat your home and only 5 cents gets wasted out the vent.

Many older furnaces are only 70% efficient so switching to a 95% efficiency furnace saves huge amounts of gas that would have been wasted.  Couple this with a high efficiency heat pump and you can see how efficient and environmentally friendly you can become.