I don’t think most of us quite realize just what an amazing appliance that we all have right under out noses at home.
I’m talking about residential HVAC.
And when you live in the south, of course I’m talking about the heat pump. This is really the king of all heating and cooling equipment when it comes to this region. But we all almost totally take it for granted. That changed for me when I spent an hour with the HVAC technician during an air conditioning tune up one spring. The HVAC professional was kind enough to let me tag along in order to get a better understanding of residential HVAC. Just the way the heat pump combines genius engineering with a practical application of physics is incredible. The heat pump is aptly named as it does just that. This HVAC equipment starts either the cooling or the heating process the same way. The heat pump starts off by moving or pumping heat energy from one place to another. The refrigerant in the heat pump is able to extract heat energy from the house and exhaust it outside when air conditioning is needed. When it’s time for heating the house, the heat pump simply reverses the process. Now, the heat pump is extracting heat energy from the ambient air outside the house and bringing it inside. What’s amazing is that essentially, residential HVAC hasn’t changed in the more than 70 years since it was introduced. Just spending that hour with the HVAC technician provided me with such a great perspective when it came to HVAC. And I sure won’t be taking the heat pump for granted any longer.