Heat Pump Installation and Repair in Oakland County

Do heat pumps work in a Michigan winter?

Yes, with the right equipment. The old reputation was earned: a standard heat pump starts losing efficiency below about 35 degrees Fahrenheit and leans harder on backup heat as it gets colder. Cold-climate models are a different machine. To carry ENERGY STAR's cold-climate label, a heat pump has to keep at least 70 percent of its rated heating capacity at 5 degrees Fahrenheit and still deliver more heat than the electricity it draws.

That matters here. The average January low in Oakland County is in the upper teens, and heating equipment is sized for nights in the single digits. A cold-climate heat pump chosen and sized for those conditions can do most of the heating, with backup heat for the coldest nights. A standard model sized only for summer cooling cannot, and that mismatch is behind many of the stories about heat pumps that did not keep up.

What we will not tell you is that a heat pump will cut your heating bill. Most homes here heat with natural gas, and whether a heat pump costs less to run depends on your gas and electric rates, your house and the equipment.

Dual-fuel: a heat pump and a gas furnace together

If your home already has gas service and ductwork, a dual-fuel system, also called a hybrid, is often the sensible fit. The heat pump sits where the air conditioner would and handles cooling plus heating in mild and moderate cold. When the temperature outside drops past a set point, the controls hand the job to the gas furnace, so you are not relying on electric backup strips on the coldest nights.

The handover point is not a fixed number. It depends on the equipment and on what you pay for gas and electricity, and we set it with you. Dual-fuel makes the most sense when the furnace is due as well, so it pairs naturally with a new furnace installation. If you are only replacing a worn-out air conditioner, compare it against a straight AC installation first.

Which type of heat pump fits your house

A ducted heat pump typically moves more air than a furnace to deliver the same heat, so undersized or leaky ducts mean noise, weak airflow and rooms that lag. We check the ductwork before we recommend anything. For additions, bonus rooms and homes heated by a boiler, a ductless mini-split is often the cleaner answer.

There are three common setups, and the house usually chooses for you.

• Ducted heat pump with an air handler: takes the place of both furnace and air conditioner in an all-electric home, with electric strips as backup
• Dual-fuel: a heat pump outdoors and a gas furnace indoors, sharing the same ducts
• Ductless: wall or ceiling units fed by one outdoor unit, for homes with no ducts or rooms the ducts do not reach

Sizing, setup and thermostat settings

Sizing decides whether a heat pump performs in the cold. We size from a load calculation of your house, not from the old unit's label. In this climate the heating load is the larger one, and a unit big enough for January can be oversized for July. Variable-speed equipment eases that trade-off because it runs low and slow in summer and ramps up in winter.

Once it is in, run it differently from a furnace. Pick a temperature and leave it there. A deep overnight setback makes the system race to recover in the morning, and that is when costly backup heat switches on. Use a thermostat made for heat pumps; we can install the right thermostat with the system. Keep the outdoor unit clear of snow and leaves, and have it checked spring and fall as part of regular HVAC maintenance.