How heat pumps help to dehumidify your home

Heat pumps are a climate control technology that is growing in popularity. Using compressed refrigerant that can reverse flow, heat pumps work for both heating and cooling. Since they are 100% electric and do not burn fossil fuel like a furnace or boiler, they are much more efficient and affordable to operate.

Clearly heat pumps have a lot of benefits, but there is one that often gets overlooked:

Heat pumps are great for dehumidifying indoor air!

How does a heat pump work?

If you’re not familiar with how heat pumps work, here’s a crash course:
Heat pumps work by using a refrigerant to absorb heat from an ambient environment.

In the winter, when the heat pump is in heating cycle, a heat pump is capable of absorbing heat from outdoor air using a condenser coil filled with refrigerant, compressing the refrigerant to elevate its temperature, and pumping the refrigerant into the home where an air handler uses
another coli, an evaporator coil, to warm the air and circulate it throughout the home.

In the summer, when the heat pump is in cooling cycle, a heat pump pulls air from inside the home and passes it over the evaporator coil, which absorbs the heat, cooling the air, and then recirculates it through the home.

How does the heat pump dehumidify?

During periods of high humidity, the weather outside can make the indoor environment very humid as well. As the heat pump passes the humid indoor air over the evaporator coil, moisture will condense on the coil and collect in a drip pan and be pumped outside. Think of the water that accumulates on a cold glass of water in the summer. The same thing happens on an
evaporator coil when it comes in contact with warm, humid air.

Dry Mode

Many ductless heat pumps, which is a heat pump that uses wall mounted air handlers instead of the central duct system, have a dry mode. This puts the air handler into a very low fan speed so it does not circulate a large amount of air, but can still collect a large amount of moisture on the evaporator coil. Removing moisture from the air will help the air feel cooler for occupants even if the temperature of the air isn’t dropping. The one caveat of dry mode is that, since ductless air handlers are meant to only treat a small zone of a structure, they cannot dehumidify the entire home.

Should you install a heat pump?

If you’re wondering if a heat pump is right for your home or cabin, the experts at Aquarius Home Services can help you with all your questions. Schedule a free in-home evaluation with an indoor air expert and see what kind of performance you could unlock by making the switch to this exciting technology!