Is it Time to Replace Your Older Heat Pump?

How to Know When to Upgrade Your Heat Pump Unit

Heat pumps provide the best in heating and cooling solutions in one low-maintenance unit. They’re convenient, easy on electricity and do an excellent job of keeping your home’s air the right temperature for the season, as well as clean and filtered. But, like any key home appliance, they don’t have an unlimited lifespan. 

Maybe you purchased a home or commercial space with a heat pump already installed, or maybe you’ve been in the space for quite a few years and you’re wondering if your heat pump is reaching the end of its lifespan. Maybe you’re feeling like your existing heat pump isn’t as energy efficient as it could be. 

Is it time to replace your older heat pump? Chances are, something has gotten you reading this blog today.

How Long Do Heat Pumps Last?

The life of a heat pump is determined by the climate and how it is used. 

On Vancouver Island, our heat pumps are working harder than in past decades. This is partly due to hotter summers and colder, wetter winters. It’s also due to larger sized homes and more surface area to heat. 

With regular maintenance by a professional, a good quality heat pump will last an average of 15-18 years before needing to be replaced. If your home is being heated and cooled by a late 90’s model, your HVAC system has been working all day, every day for 30 years – well past any heat pump’s life expectancy.

People can’t understand why a heat pump needs replacing before the house needs replacing—here’s an enlightening and informative example why they need changing.  By the time your family car reaches 7 years old, it will have approximately 160,000 km on it but if you calculate a Heat Pumps ‘mileage’ by taking the hours it runs and assess this at only 60 km/h, in that same 7 years you will have 4,480,000 km on it !!!!!  Remember it’s an electronic powered, electronically controlled and mechanically enabled complex piece of equipment that can wipe out 70-80% of your heating and accounts for 70% of the cost of owning your home.  It is not an inanimate object doing nothing.

Does My Heat Pump Need to be Replaced?

If you’ve got an Energy Star rated suite of appliances and haven’t made any major changes to your home (i.e., adding a suite) and your energy bill skyrockets, the heating and cooling system might be to blame. Also, if your heat pump isn’t efficiently circulating and filtering the air throughout your home, it’s only doing a third of its job.

Three Key Reasons It Might Be Time to Replace Your Older Heat Pump

1. Capacity to heat and cool the home: If your heat pump is not able to meet your heating and cooling needs, then it may need replacement. It could be that you’ve built an addition or grown your family. In any case, your heat pump already works 24/7 and it will have to work even harder to keep your home or building cool in the summer and warm in the winter if it’s not properly sized for the space.
2. Efficiency ratings: If the heat pump’s efficiency is below 80% or if its SEER rating has dropped below 11, consider a heat pump replacement. A heat pump uses a compressor, just like your refrigerator, to move heat from one place to another. The higher the SEER number, the more quickly it can do that without running up your electric bill.

The SEER rating – The SEER rating is a measure of the energy efficiency of an air conditioner. It is calculated at the time of manufacture and may change over time due to maintenance or other causes. The higher the SEER rating, the more efficiently it operates. The SEER rating measures how much electricity is needed to produce one unit of heat in an hour when operating at design conditions. 

1. Age: Older units might also need replacement if they are more than 15 years old and no longer meeting codes for efficiency and safety. The key word here is safety. Like anything else in and around your home, safety is going to be your top priority. 

A malfunctioning heat pump can trip breakers and even leak carbon monoxide. In general, heat pumps are completely safe, but it never hurts to be aware of its condition, long before it’s in need of maintenance or stops working. After all, no one wants to be caught in the dead of winter or on the hottest day of the year with no alternative source for heating and cooling. 

Are Newer Heat Pumps Better?

New models of heat pumps are more energy-efficient, quieter and even more affordable than older models, thanks to heat pump rebates from Better Homes BC. They offer rebates for the heat pump purchase and the installation costs to help offset the cost of investing in your home’s increased energy efficiency. You save on your energy bills, have a cozier home year-round and get money back from your purchase of a qualifying brand. It’s win-win-win. 

Newer heat pumps can be installed and configured in a variety of ways as well, whether you prefer ducted or ductless splits. Your new heat pump can be remotely controlled, with a programmable thermostat or a smart thermostat created with specific zoning so you can turn the heat or AC off or on in the zones or rooms of your choice to resolve the problem of cold and hot spots in certain areas in the house.

At Lockhart Industries, the heat pumps we install are available in a wide variety of models and styles for installation indoors or out. A heat pump can keep a room up to 3000 square feet cool or warm, with a 10-room setup. You can also adjust the system to stay comfortable depending on your preference.

Is your basement always cold even with an existing heat pump? We can create a solution to bring that area to the same comfort level as the rest of the home. Do you want to keep the baby’s room warmer without having to increase the temperature to the rest of the house? We can do that for you too. 

Heat pumps are also excellent for filtering and circulating air throughout the whole home for cleaner air quality while maintaining an ideal ambient air temperature.

Let us know what your personal heating and cooling pet peeves are and we can work out a solution to leave the whole family happy and comfortable. Of course, we will also service your new heat pump to help lower your operating costs.

If your heat pump unit is making loud noises, needs frequent repairs or is just plain working inefficiently, it’s always best to call in the professionals for an inspection. At Lockhart Industries, we are experts in heating and cooling technology and we’ll be able to tell you whether your heat pump just needs some TLC, or if it’s destined to be scrap metal. Already thinking about a brand-new heat pump to keep you warm and toasty all winter? Contact us today for a free estimate.