Defrosting your Air-to-Air heat pump
During the summer, heat pumps operates in reverse, becoming air conditioners by removing heat and humidity from inside the home and rejecting it outside. This is one of the things that made even the older less efficient heat pumps attractive. For a modest premium above an air conditioner, a heat pump can provide cooling and also substantially reduce the heating bill by providing enough heat to keep the home comfortable during the fall, early winter and late winter into spring.
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Defrosting the System
Like your refrigerator, an air-to-air heat pump must have a defrost cycle. When the outdoor temperature falls to near or below freezing, moisture in the air can freeze on the coil inside the outdoor unit. This reduces the ability of the unit to extract heat from the surrounding air and must be removed. There are two methods commonly used to shift the heat pump into defrost mode: “demand frost” and “time-temperature defrost.”
Demand frost is generally the most efficient because it defrosts the heat pump only when required, whereas time temperature defrost initiates the defrost mode at regular timed intervals regardless of whether the heat pump is frosted up.
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