How To Add Years To The Life Of Your Heat Pump
Neglectful owners can give perfectly good heat pumps a bad name. It has been calculated that an incredible 90% of all heat pump failures come down to insufficient cleaning and maintenance, and a total lack of heat pump servicing. A heat pump that has been designed and manufactured to work for many years often falls well short of that mark simply through this lack of attention. That’s a massive waste of a brilliant piece of technology, not to mention precious money.
To be fair though, heat pump maintenance and servicing can be easy to overlook when the appliance is doing its job and keeping people warm in winter (and cool in summer). There are few telltale signs that the unit is not performing at its peak; there might be a strange sound here and there, but many people put this down to normal operating noises. However, the performance of the heat pump is gradually diminishing until it stops working altogether – and that usually happens before it should. Heat pumps are built to last and it’s the human factor that lets them down,
Heat pump suppliers and installers generally agree that a heat pump should operate at peak efficiency for up to 15 years. That’s a long time. Given the incredible energy efficiency of devices – around 500% in the premium range of models – this is potentially a massive return on investment for a decade and a half. By 500% efficiency we mean the heat pump produces 5 kilowatts of heat for every one kilowatt of power it consumes – that sort of efficiency just goes to show why a heat pump is worth treating with tender loving care.
Even the very best heat pump models can’t perform at optimum levels if they’re not serviced as the manufacturer intends. The ball is in your court in terms of how long your heat pump lasts. Operating your heat pump by following manufacturers instructions, and booking professional inspections and regular servicing will keep it working for as long as it was designed to. This will include tasks like keeping the coils clean, cleaning the fins in the condenser unit, and cleaning or replacing air filters regularly according to manufacturer recommendations. Some of the minor cleaning jobs can be done yourself, like washing the filters. Everything else should be left to the experts – but please make sure you are in touch with them on a regular basis! The more they service your heat pump, the longer it will last.
