Heat Pump Installation in Seneca, SC
A new system here will heat from October through April and cool from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Oconee County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Your heat pump works nearly every month of the year here
In Seneca it runs from October through April to keep the house warm, then May through September to keep it cool. That is 12 months of work with barely a break between seasons. Winter nights average 33°F, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the load without much strain. Summer afternoons average 87°F, and it has to answer that heat for five straight months.
Any split-system heat pump installed new has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, the federal minimum as of 2023. With almost seven in ten homes here heating with electricity, and storms in this area bringing 92 damaging wind events over the past ten years, a unit that starts reliably and holds up through the season matters.
- 7 months
- October through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 33°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 87°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- It depends on what you're weighing. A heat pump does both heating and cooling, so it replaces a furnace and an air conditioner with one system. Here in Seneca, winter lows average 33°F, which is well within the range a heat pump handles without help. A furnace only heats, so if your air conditioner is also due for replacement, a heat pump covers both jobs.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only cools your home. A heat pump does the same cooling in summer, but it can also run in reverse to heat your home in winter. Both use a compressor and refrigerant to move heat, the difference is that a heat pump's cycle can flip direction and an air conditioner's can't.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes. A heat pump pulls heat from the outside air even when that air is cold, and it keeps working well below freezing. Winter nights in Seneca average 33°F from December through February, which is mild enough that a properly sized heat pump can carry the heating load on its own. Every heat pump sold new today also has to meet a federal minimum of 7.5 HSPF2 for heating efficiency, so it's built to perform through the season, not just on warm days.