Addressing the environment and one’s impact is no longer a fringe movement and many customers are doing it now, or will be in the very near future.
Provided by Auer Steel and Heating Supply Co.
Sustainability has reached a tipping point
As consumers increasingly embrace social causes, they seek products and brands that align with their values. Nearly six out of 10 consumers surveyed are willing to change their shopping habits to reduce environmental impact. Nearly eight in 10 respondents indicate sustainability is important for them. And for those who say it is very/extremely important, over 70 percent would pay a premium of 35 percent, on average, for brands that are sustainable and environmentally responsible.
Beneficial Electrification is a term for replacing direct fossil fuel use (e.g., propane, heating oil, gasoline) with electricity in a way that reduces overall emissions and energy costs. As our country works towards beneficial electrification, air source heat pumps will play a key role in meeting environmental objectives as well as the desires of consumers.
Safer, cleaner, better comfort
There is more to a comfortable home than just heating and cooling. Poor indoor air quality is a serious problem facing many homeowners today, according to the American Lung Association®. A Hybrid system can offer you the flexibility to improve your home’s indoor air.
A heat pump is a clean, flameless heating system which reduces infiltration of outside air required to support combustion in many fossil fuel systems.
Indoor air quality components rely on your system’s blower running to circulate air throughout your home. Having a 2-stage heating system will offer better indoor air quality through longer system run cycles. These longer run times maximize the benefits of humidifiers, air cleaners, UV lights, HRVs, ERVs and more.
Extended equipment
You don’t need to change out your furnace to experience the benefits of a Hybrid system. A heat pump can be added to virtually any fossil fuel furnace, allowing you to create a 2-stage heating system in your home.
A Hybrid system is automatic; the system will determine what is the best heat source for your home based on the outdoor temperature ensuring that you always have comfortable and consistent heat.
A heat pump will match your home’s load in mild weather conditions. Furnaces are often oversized for mild weather conditions resulting in over- heating and uncomfortable temperatures.
A furnace is designed to match your home’s load in cold weather conditions, offering you more steady and efficient heat during cold weather.
Healthier indoor air
A Hybrid Heat system can help to extend the life of your heating and cooling equipment by optimizing the temperature at which the equipmentoperates. Why?
A heat pump operates most efficiently and electively during mild weather conditions. As the weather cools additional “stress” can be put on the heat pump. That’s when the Hybrid Heat system signals the fossil fuel furnace to take over.
A furnace running in mild weather conditions is THE most “stressful” time for a fossil fuel furnace to operate. A Hybrid Heat system will drastically reduce this time. The most efficient time for a furnace to operate is during cold weather conditions. These conditions allow the furnace longer run times equaling less strain on the unit and higher equipment efficiency.
Money, savings & flexibility
Your Hybrid Heat system will not only keep you cool and comfortable in the summer but will also provide your home with efficient clean heat. In theheating mode, a Hybrid Heat system uses smart technology and will switch between electricity and gas to heat your home.
Heat pumps and air conditioners are essentially the same when operating in cooling mode, with no significant difference in operation, efficiency, or energy costs. However, the heating mode is a completely different story. Air conditioners do not provide heating, but heat pumps do. Thanks to a reversing valve in the outdoor unit, a heat pump can absorb heat energy from outside air, even in extremely cold temperatures, and transfer the heat inside the home, where it releases the heat into the air. A heat pump can heat and cool, but an air conditioner cannot.
A Hybrid Heat system offers you the opportunity to diversify your fuel sources allowing you long term solution to fluctuating fuel costs.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the performance of today’s air source heat pumps is one-and-a-half to two times greater than those available 30 years ago. The heat pumps of today in a Hybrid Heat system operate at a level of 300+% efficiency!
Cold Climate Air Source Heat Pumps are the latest generation and utilize variable capacity technology, with temperature control by inverter compressors, greatly expanding cold climate performance (down to -20F). Rebate specifications are often used to specify cold climate products.
Ductless heat pumps, or commonly referred to as ‘Mini-Splits’ are another flexible example of providing positive impact inside and outside a home.
If you want a higher efficiency model, be sure to select one that has been ENERGY STAR® certified.
Minimize your carbon footprint
When properly and professionally installed, a Hybrid system is environmentally responsible and can have positive effects on your home's, your community's, and the planet's environment.
A heat pump is a clean, flameless heating system and can provide up to 60% of a home’s annual heating load. This means that approximately 60% of the time your system is not putting fossil fuel emissions into the environment.
When not using natural gas, the heat pump uses electricity from an increasingly clean electric grid. Coal generation is increasingly being phased out of our electricity grid in favor of cheaper, cleaner alternatives such as wind and solar.
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