Heat Pump Installation in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Broward County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
In Fort Lauderdale, your heat pump cools all year long
Winters here stay mild. Nights average 58°F from December through February, so the heat side barely gets asked to work. The cooling side is a different story. It runs all twelve months, through summer afternoons that average 91°F.
A heat pump installed new has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating. In a place where cooling never lets up, that SEER2 number is the one that matters most to what you pay to run it.
- 58°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
Florida requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Construction Industry Licensing Board tests and records the contractor, not the job. So the license tells you the person or company doing the work has passed the state's exam and is on file with the state, but it does not mean the state signed off on your specific installation.
That oversight comes from the local building office. A heat pump installation in most cities and counties needs a permit before the work starts and an inspection once it is done, and that inspection is what checks the actual job in your home, separate from whatever the contractor's license already says about them.
Sources: Florida Legislature · Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- For Fort Lauderdale, yes, because a furnace is built for cold you don't get here. A heat pump moves heat instead of burning fuel to make it, and it cools your home in summer too, which a furnace can't do at all. Since winter nights here only average around 58°F, a heat pump has plenty of capacity to keep up without the demands a real northern winter would put on it.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only moves heat out of your home. A heat pump does that same job in summer, then reverses and moves heat into your home in winter. In a place like this where cooling runs most of the year and winter is mild, that reversing ability is what you're paying for, since the same unit handles both jobs instead of needing a separate heat source.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes, though its heating capacity drops as the outdoor temperature falls. That matters in places with hard freezes, but it's not a concern in Fort Lauderdale, where winter nights average around 58°F. A heat pump sized for this area will handle local winters without strain.