Alliance Comfort Services

Heat pump installation in Raleigh, NC

A heat pump has to cool a Triangle August and heat a Triangle January with the same machine, and those two jobs do not ask for the same size. Heat pump installation in Raleigh, NC is mostly the business of resolving that honestly. A licensed North Carolina contractor answers this number.

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The two sizes, and why they disagree

Sizing a heat pump means calculating two loads. How much cooling the house needs on the worst afternoon in August, and how much heating it needs on the coldest morning in January. In this climate those two numbers are rarely the same, and the equipment can only be one size.

Size it to the heating load and you get a machine that is too big for the cooling season, which cools the house fast, never runs long enough to pull the humidity out, and leaves it cold and clammy at once. Size it to the cooling load, which is usually the right answer here, and there are a handful of hours each winter where it needs help.

That help is what the backup heat is for, and it is the second half of this decision rather than an afterthought.

A load calculation takes a visit and it is the part of this job worth being fussy about. That visit is the call.

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Backup heat, and why less of it is usually right

Electric strip heat is a set of resistance elements in the air handler. It is inexpensive to fit, it works at any outdoor temperature, and it is the most expensive way to heat a house that exists in ordinary equipment. Every hour it runs instead of the compressor is an hour you pay several times over.

Because it costs little to install, the easy thing is to fit plenty of it and let the thermostat decide. That decision then repeats itself every winter for fifteen years on somebody else's power bill.

Sizing it to what the house genuinely needs on its coldest mornings, and setting the changeover point so the compressor keeps working while it usefully can, is unglamorous and it is where the running cost of a heat pump is actually decided.

If you already have a heat pump and your January bill is startling while the house feels fine, that is often strip heat carrying a load the compressor should be carrying. That is a fault rather than a sizing question, and it is covered on heat pump repair in Raleigh.

What the ratings tell you, and what they do not

SEER2 is the cooling efficiency rating and HSPF2 is the heating one, both measured under a standard test. A higher number means more output for the same electricity, and comparing two units on them is legitimate.

What they cannot tell you is what your house will do. A high-rated system that is a size too big, charged by feel rather than by measurement, and asked to breathe through undersized ductwork will underperform a modest one installed properly. The rating describes the equipment on a test stand. The installation decides what you get.

If the ductwork is part of the problem, that is worked through on AC installation and replacement, which owns the duct and electrical side of a changeout. For a room the ducts never reached at all, a ductless mini-split is a heat pump too, just a smaller one.

Who sizes it and who installs it

Alliance Comfort Services LLC is licensed in North Carolina, number L.34059, through the NC State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler Contractors. The licensed contractor who runs the load calculation is the one who installs the equipment and sets the charge, so the reasoning behind the size does not get lost between the quote and the van.

Still deciding between a heat pump and a furnace? That comparison is on heating installation in Raleigh. Financing is available and we go through it on the call.

How the job goes

  1. The house gets measured, not the old unit

    Square footage, insulation, glass area and orientation, and how tight the envelope is. Copying the size off the rating plate of the outgoing system repeats whatever mistake was made last time.

  2. Both loads get calculated, and the gap gets discussed

    The cooling load and the heating load come out different. Which one the equipment is sized to, and what covers the difference, is a decision you should be part of rather than one made for you.

  3. A written scope, with the reasoning

    The equipment named, the backup heat specified, the electrical work spelled out, and why the size is what it is. That last part is what you can hold up next to anyone else quoting the job.

  4. Installation, then the charge is set by measurement

    The line set is evacuated properly and the refrigerant charge is weighed and verified rather than guessed at, because a heat pump running on the wrong charge underperforms in exactly the weather you bought it for.

Common questions

Will a heat pump keep up in January here?
In most Raleigh houses, yes. This is a transition climate rather than a cold one, and roughly four in ten homes in North Carolina are already heated this way. What decides it for your house is the load calculation, not a rule of thumb.
How much backup heat do I actually need?
Less than is often installed. Electric strip heat is cheap to fit and expensive to run, so the temptation is to put in plenty and let the thermostat sort it out. Sizing it to what the house genuinely needs on the coldest nights, and setting the changeover correctly, is the part that shows up on the bill every winter.
Is a bigger unit better?
No, and this is the most common expensive mistake. An oversized system satisfies the thermostat quickly, never runs long enough to pull humidity out of the air, and cycles itself toward an early compressor failure. In a Triangle summer, oversized feels cold and clammy at the same time.
What do SEER2 and HSPF2 actually mean?
They are efficiency ratings, cooling and heating respectively, measured under a standard test. A higher number means the equipment does more with the same electricity. What they cannot tell you is what your house will do, because that depends on the size being right and the installation being right, which is where most of the real difference lives.

What customers say

5.0 out of 5, from 25 reviews on Google

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Putting in a heat pump in Raleigh?

Heat pumps from Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Amana and the rest of the list are installed and serviced. Everything we cover in Raleigh is on one page.

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