While traditional furnaces are still the most popular choice for homeowners across America, many people are turning to heat pumps as an alternative source of heating their homes. The advantages are numerous: lower energy costs, the ability to heat and cool your home, as well as a lower environmental footprint.
Still, every heating system can have issues, and heat pumps are no exception. If if you experience any of the below problems with your heat pump, contact an HVAC company to schedule a furnace repair service, especially if you're moving into the winter months.
Frozen Condenser Coils
Just like with an air conditioning system, heat pumps rely on condenser coils to transfer the cold air outside into hot air inside. If there is grime and dirt built up on the coils, that process stops completely. While you can clean the condenser coils yourself, you might also need to schedule a heat pump repair to get the unit operational again.
Low Refrigerant
It seems like an oxymoron to talk about "refrigerant" inside of a furnace system, but refrigerant is vital to ensuring that your heating system works. Refrigerant runs inside the condenser coils, and if it's low, your unit won't have the power it needs to convert the cold air to hot. This is not something you should refill yourself, since intentionally releasing refrigerant into the atmosphere is actually illegal. It can also damage the environment, so refilling refrigerant should always be done by professionals.
Unit Won't Turn On
If your heat pump simply won't turn on at all, the most likely culprit is a loss of a connection to the power source. If your system is electrical, check the breaker box and see if this switch has been flipped. If so, simply flip the switch back and the unit should function again, although you should be careful not to keep flipping the switch if it keeps tripping. This could be a sign of a larger electrical issue that needs to be handled by a professional HVAC contractor.
Broken Reverse Valve
Since a heat pump can both heat and cool your home, it needs a switch to tell the system which is which. The reverse valve accomplishes this purpose, so if your heat pump is not heating your home, you should have a technician out to inspect the reverse valve. This is a pretty simple furnace repair job, but it's also hard to know what you're looking at, so it's not something you should try as a homeowner.
Share4 November 2020
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