Can a Home Heated With a Heat Pump Be Changed to Gas?

Can a Home Heated With a Heat Pump Be Changed to Gas?

Heating pumps have a tendency to work well in mild climates, but throughout the coldest times, they might not be able to keep up with the heating needs of the house without an auxiliary heating source such as electric resistance coils. Natural gas heating systems are not as expensive to use in colder areas compared to heat pumps and there are several options to choose from when converting to natural gas.

Installing a Gas Furnace

Eliminating the heating pump completely and installing a forced-air furnace is an alternative, even though it is expensive and will require a lot of work. To begin with, a certified contractor removes the heat pump’s compressor, the exterior coil, the interior coil along with the refrigerant lines. Then he installs the furnace at a spare utility room, basement or other appropriate space. The contractor runs gas lines, electric lines and the ventilation system for the furnace into the furnace’s place, perhaps necessitating some renovations to your house in the procedure. It is possible to reuse the air ducts from the heat pump to the system, depending on their condition, their place and if they are the correct size to the new furnace, according to the load calculations done by the contractor. For the summer, you would need to put in another ac system if you want heating.

Installing a Gas Boiler

Like the furnace, then this requires removal of the heat pump system and a suitable place for your boiler. Along with installing gas, combustion vent and electric lines, a builder would install hot water or steam springs and lines or a radiant flooring system. You’d remove or shut off the air ducts unless you are adding an ac system for cooling during the summer. With the extra expenses of installing the radiators or glowing flooring, the total will probably be greater than a forced-air installation.

Developing a Hybrid System

Most of the time, a dual-fuel or hybrid heat pump system would be your ideal choice to convert a house to gasoline if the heat pump remains in good shape. The builder installs a forced-air furnace because the auxiliary heating source for your system. Throughout mild winter weather, the heat pump provides all of the heatingsystem, which can be more efficient than the gas furnace in these cases. The furnace takes over just when the temperature drops below about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, where heat pumps become not as effective for heating. The setup costs for the hybrids are somewhat less than the combination of a forced-air furnace and an air conditioner because you use the heat pump for heating during the summer, if it reversible.

Installing an Absorption Heat Pump

Absorption heat pumps are comparatively new to the residential HVAC market, however they’ve been used in commercial and industrial buildings for quite a long time. Instead of using regular refrigerant, the absorption heat pump employs a mixture of ammonia and water, which can be heated with natural gas to provide heating during winter. Throughout the summertime, you can undo the system to provide cooling. While these systems are effective, they demand a total replacement of your present heat pump, they are more expensive than other alternatives and, now they are only viable in homes of 4,000 square feet or larger.

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