The winter months can really drive up your heating bills, especially when the heating system you use isn’t the most efficient option. Using a heat pump or furnace by itself is a common choice, but the single heating system doesn’t offer maximum efficiency throughout the entire season. Dual fuel heating system installation offers the comfort and energy efficiency of both heating system types, perfect for the varying temperatures of the Georgia winter.
What Is a Dual Fuel Heating System?
If your home uses a heat pump, furnace, boiler, or even electric baseboards for heating, this is a single fuel system as it only uses one type of energy to operate – electricity, natural gas, or even heating oil or propane. A dual fuel heating system, as the name suggests, uses two different types of fuel for heating and thus has two different types of heating equipment to get the job done.
Also sometimes called a hybrid system, dual fuel systems use an electric heat pump as well as a natural gas furnace in most cases. Depending on your preferences and the specific needs of your home, other configurations of a dual fuel heating system could include an electric heat pump with a gas boiler, or an electric heat pump with an oil furnace or an oil boiler.
The Advantages of a Dual Fuel Heating System
What’s so special about a dual fuel heating system is the energy efficiency and utility savings it can offer. With two different heating system options to choose from, the option that offers the best energy efficiency can be used per the current outdoor conditions.
- Heat pumps perform optimally when temperatures are above 40 degrees or so, and their efficiency declines once temperatures drop near, at, or below freezing. Even though it may seem chilly outside at temperatures in the 40s, there’s still plenty of heat energy to be extracted and used to heat the air inside your home. Heat pumps heat air by extracting heat from the air outside then transferring it and releasing this energy into the air circulating in your home.
- During periods where temperatures are around or below freezing, the dual fuel heating system can shut down the heat pump and switch over to the natural gas furnace to heat the home with greater warmth and energy efficiency.
- Once temperatures warm back up into the optimal zone for heat pump heating, the furnace will shut down and the dual fuel system switches back over to heat pump use, since transferring heat energy to warm the home is more efficient than burning fuel to create heat at these temperatures.
What About Cooling?
If you purchase and install a dual fuel heating system with a heat pump and natural gas furnace, not only does your home have access to efficient heating – you’ll gain efficient cooling in the summer, too! The electric heat pump of your dual fuel heating system can operate as the cooling system during the warmer months to keep your home comfortable, as this versatile HVAC system type functions as both a heating unit and a cooling unit.
For cooling, the dual fuel heat pump operates in reverse of its heating process. Warm air from the home blows over the indoor evaporator coils where heat energy is absorbed by refrigerant coursing through the coils. The refrigerant flows outdoors to the heat pump unit where heat energy is released by the condenser coil, dispersing it into the atmosphere.
Take Advantage of Dual Fuel Heating in Your Home Today
With a dual fuel heating system, your Georgia home can have energy-efficient heat no matter what outdoor temperatures and conditions winter brings. Call Estes Services today and request an estimate for dual fuel heating system installation in your Atlanta area home.
