How A Dual-Fuel System Maximizes Comfort And Efficiency As Temperatures Rise And Fall

If you’re in the market for a new heating and air conditioning system in northwest Arkansas, consider a dual-fuel system. These heating and cooling systems use the heat in the air as the primary fuel until temperatures outdoors drop to the 30s, when they switch to a fuel source.

These systems offer greater heating efficiency throughout the cool months in this area by only using gas or oil when temperatures are low. When the temperatures are above freezing, the heat pump extracts outdoor heat as its only fuel, which saves you money. Heat pumps can offer 300 percent heating efficiency, compared to the highest efficiency rating of 97 percent for a traditional furnace.

Dual-fuel systems use gas or oil, and can even work with boilers when extra heat is needed. The system components sense when the heat outdoors is inadequate and switch to the alternative fuel source. Instead of using fuel throughout the heating season, you only it for colder winter weather.

Heat pumps work by moving heat from one place to another. During the summer, the pumps take the heat out of the house and in the winter, they use the energy in heat to warm the refrigerant, where it’s pumped inside to your blower to warm the air. A standard heat pump has a heating element inside it that kicks on when temperatures outdoors fall to freezing, which raises the cost of heating. In its normal heating operation, a pump creates three times more heat for each watt of electricity it uses, compared to the heat strips that use one watt of power for one watt of heat.

Some dual-fuel systems come with even more energy-saving features that trim your energy bills like:

• Variable-speed blower motors that use less electricity than a standard motor.
• Scroll compressors that heat air 10 to 15 degrees warmer than a standard heat pump.
• Desuperheaters that heat your water in the summer.

If you’d like to learn more about the dual-fuel systems, contact Paschal Heat, Air, & Geothermal. We’ve been serving northwest Arkansas for more than 40 years.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about dual-fuel systems and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Paschal Heating, Air & Geothermal services Northwest Arkansas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

Energy Efficiency image via Shutterstock