My Heat Pump Sounds
Funny When It Is Heating
Is Your Home’s New Heat Pump
Making Noise While Heating?
The heat pump is not a new invention, in fact it has been around for quite a while. The heat pump air conditioning and heating system runs just like a normal air conditioning system. It makes the indoor air conditioning coil cold and the outside unit is where the heat that is generated gets dispersed. In the winter time the heat pump switches the flow of Freon to make the indoor coil disperse the heat while the cold air goes to the outside unit.
This function can save you tons of money on your homes heating bills in the winter time. Some houses are not set up with natural gas from the city and are on electric heaters. The heat pump will use approximately 3 times less electricity to heat your home. When your installing a new air conditioning system and you do not have gas utilities, always remember that a heat pump air conditioning and heating system could save you tons of money in the winter. Make sure your air conditioning and heating installation contractor knows the difference and can tell you what will save your home utilities the most in the long term.
Why Does My New Heat Pump Make Funny Noises
To answer the question of the heat pump with funny noises, we first must know what the heat pump does when it is running. The normal operation of the heat pump air conditioning system will run heat inside until the outside unit freezes into about 2/3 covered in ice. At that point the heat pump has a defrost control board that will turn off the heat inside and switch it to heat the outside unit. At the same time it will turn off the outside fan, in order to generate heat to melt the ice. While the outside unit is getting hot the indoor coil is getting cold. This is the time when your indoor unit is also running the electric heater to make sure not to blow cold air inside the home while trying to heat. When the outside unit has defrosted it will then begin the heating of the indoor coil and the electric heat will turn off. When the heat pump is switching from air conditioning mode to heat pump mode it makes a very loud swishing noise. It will also make this noise while switching from heat pump mode to air conditioning mode. On top of that it may make a funny noise when covered in ice running the defrost mode.
This is usually the funny noise that your heat pump unit is making. That is why you do not notice the heat inside not working, because this is normal operation. The other noises that can potentially come from a heat pump unit can be scary sounding. When your reversing valve gets stuck in the wrong position it can make a horrible noise. On top of that the heat pump system can put a strain on your compressor and if something is not working properly it can send the compressor into an internal bypass. This is when the Freon is not being pumped through the compressor but it is still running. This is to prevent damage to the compressor when the pressure is to great for safe operation. These are just a few noises that may come from your heat pump system.
