Heat pumps, set up for Pennsylvania winters

Do they work here? Yes — with conditions

The heat pumps people complain about are usually 15-year-old single-stage units that lose most of their capacity by 25 degrees and hand the job to electric resistance strips. Modern inverter-driven cold-climate units hold rated capacity down near 5 degrees and keep producing heat below zero. Our design winter temperature in the Lehigh Valley is about 11 degrees. That is well within range for the equipment we install.

Dual fuel, if you already have gas

If your house has a gas furnace and needs AC anyway, the smartest system we install is a heat pump paired with that furnace. The heat pump runs the shoulder seasons — October, November, March, April — when it's three to four times more efficient than combustion. When it gets genuinely cold, the furnace takes over. You get a lower yearly bill and a guaranteed warm house on the worst night of the year.

What it costs and what it saves

• Straight heat pump replacement (3 ton, cold-climate): typically $9,500 – $14,000
• Dual-fuel heat pump plus 96% furnace: typically $13,000 – $17,500
• Converting from oil or electric baseboard: the biggest savings we see, often $700 – $1,400 a year

Federal 25C tax credits and PPL rebates frequently apply. We give you the paperwork and the model's AHRI certificate; we don't quote a number that only works if a rebate comes through.

Defrost is normal

A few times a day in cold, damp weather your heat pump will steam, run the outdoor fan off, and sound different for 5 to 10 minutes. That's a defrost cycle melting frost off the coil. It's supposed to do that. What isn't normal: solid ice packing the bottom of the unit, constant defrosts, or lukewarm air for hours. Call us for those.

Service and repair

We repair heat pumps of any brand — reversing valves, defrost boards, sensors, inverter boards, and refrigerant leaks. Heat pumps run year round, so they earn twice the wear of an AC. We recommend two maintenance visits a year on them, which is exactly what our maintenance plan covers.