Heat Pump Installation in Palm Bay, FL
A new system here will heat from January through January and cool from March through December every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Brevard County will get in touch.
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In Palm Bay, a heat pump works almost year round
Cooling season here runs March through December, ten months of the year, with summer afternoons averaging 90°F. Winter is short, just January, and nights average 54°F, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the house without much strain. Most of the year, the system is doing something.
Most homes here already heat with electricity, so a heat pump is doing a job the house is already built around, and doing it more efficiently. Any split system installed new has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, the federal minimum as of 2023. With 99 damaging wind events recorded in the area over the last ten years, it is worth asking your contractor how the outdoor unit is secured and protected.
- 1 months
- January through January, your system heats
- 10 months
- March through December, it cools
- 54°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Florida requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Construction Industry Licensing Board tests contractors before they can hold this license, and the license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. A heat pump installed in Brevard County and one installed anywhere else in the state answer to the same license.
For this job, that license is what you're relying on to know the person doing the work has been tested and is on record with the state. In most cities and counties, installing a heat pump also needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is separate from the license. It checks the installation itself, not who did it.
Sources: Florida Legislature · Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- For a place like Palm Bay, yes, because a heat pump handles both sides of the job. It heats through January and cools the other months, so you get one system instead of two. A furnace only burns gas or uses resistance heat, it can't cool your home during the ten months a year homes here need that far more. The one thing worth asking a contractor about is backup heat for the rare cold snap, but day to day here a heat pump is doing a job a furnace can't.
- 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 too, but it can also run in reverse and move heat into your home, which is what heats the house in winter. Both use a compressor, a coil outside, and a coil inside, the difference is the reversing valve that lets a heat pump switch direction. That's why a heat pump can replace both your furnace and your air conditioner, while an air conditioner alone can't heat anything.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes, and in Palm Bay it barely gets tested. Winter nights here average 54°F, well within the range a heat pump handles on its own. Heat pumps do lose efficiency as the outdoor air gets colder, that's a real limit of the equipment, but with lows like this a contractor can size the system for your house without much worry about the cold end of its range.