Heat pump installation and repair in Austin, TX.

A heat pump is the same refrigeration circuit as an air conditioner with a valve that lets it run in reverse: in summer it moves heat out of the house, in winter it moves heat into it. Because it moves heat instead of creating it, it delivers substantially more heating output than the electricity it consumes — which is why it makes so much sense in a climate where the heating season is short and rarely severe. Central Texas spends most of its winter in the range where a heat pump is at its most efficient.

The trade-off is the shape of the heat. A gas furnace produces air in the 120–140 degree range; a heat pump produces air closer to body temperature. The house gets to setpoint perfectly well, but the air out of the register feels cool on your hand, and people who have moved from gas heat sometimes assume it is broken when it is working exactly as designed. What should be uncommon is the auxiliary electric heat running for long stretches — that is the expensive backup, and if it is on all winter something is either misconfigured or failing.

Heat pump work has parts an air conditioner does not: a reversing valve, a defrost board and sensor, and a staging strategy that decides when auxiliary heat is allowed to come on. Most of the heat pumps we find running badly are not broken — they are set up wrong. Balance points left at the factory default, thermostats wired so that a two-degree setback triggers strip heat every morning, defrost cycles running far more often than conditions call for. Getting those right is often the difference between a reasonable January bill and a shocking one.