Air Conditioners & Heat Pumps by Treat’s Heating & Cooling
Heat Pumps actually operate as both heating and cooling systems. In the cooling mode, they take heat from the internal air of the home and pump it to the outdoors. To produce heat they collect it from air, water or the ground outside and move it inside.
Here’s a simple way to describe what these units do, they move heat from one place to another. Heat Pumps in cooling mode and air conditioners use Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating (SEER) which tells how efficiently they use electricity. The higher the rating, the less power they consume. Heat pumps must now have a SEER of at least 13. A higher SEER is desirable in a warm climate because of the need to more frequently provide cool air to the home.
Air Conditioners manufacture cool air by evaporating refrigerant. Basically there are coils both inside (for cold air) and outside (for warm air). The units contain a compressor to change refrigerant into hot high pressure gas that travels through the coils. As it does, it loses its heat and becomes liquid; the liquid in turn goes through a valve and evaporates into cold, low pressure gas. When it enters the coils, it absorbs the indoor heat and lowers the temperature.
Residential air conditioners also use the SEER as a measure of their efficiency. This measure shows the number of British Thermal Units (BTU) of cold air provided for each watt of electricity. When speaking about cooling units, 1 tom is equal to 12,000 BTU. To find the EER of an air conditioner, divide the BTU rating by the wattage.
If you are in the market for an air conditioner or heat pump, call Treat’s Heating & Cooling at 360.825.0800 for a free estimate.
The Bonney Lake, WA air conditioning experts at Treat’s Heating & Cooling offer high quality installation, repair, maintenance, and other heating and air conditioning services throughout Western Washington including Enumclaw, Buckley, Bonney Lake, Sumner, Puyallup, Tacoma, Auburn, Black Diamond, Covington, Maple Valley, Federal Way, Kent, & Seattle WA.