Heat Pump Installation in Raleigh, NC
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 Wake County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Raleigh asks a heat pump to work most of the year
A heat pump here runs from October through April to keep the house warm, then switches over and runs May through September to keep it cool. That is 12 months a year with almost no rest. Winter nights average 32°F, mild enough that a heat pump does not have to fight hard, and summer afternoons average 88°F, so the same system carries the cooling load all summer too.
More than half of homes in the area heat with electricity, so the heat pump usually is the heating system, not a backup to something else. A new split-system heat pump installed today has to meet federal minimums of 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating.
- 7 months
- October through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 32°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
North Carolina requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The state board tests the contractor before issuing that license and keeps a record of who holds one, but the license covers the contractor, not each job. It tells you the person doing your installation was checked once, not that this particular installation gets checked on its own.
That check comes from the local building office instead. Installing a heat pump in most cities and counties needs a permit before the work starts and an inspection once it is done. That inspection is what looks at this job specifically, separate from whatever the contractor's license already covers.
Sources: North Carolina General Assembly · North Carolina State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- A heat pump does something a furnace can't. It cools your home in summer as well as heating it in winter, so you get one system instead of two. Raleigh winters average 32°F at night, well within the range a modern heat pump handles without trouble. Whether it's the right choice still depends on the house, so it's worth asking a contractor to look at yours directly.
- 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 runs in reverse in winter to pull heat from the outside air and move it inside. That's why a heat pump can replace both your furnace and your air conditioner, while an air conditioner only ever replaces the summer job.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes. A heat pump pulls heat from the outside air even when it's cold, because there's still heat in air well below freezing. Raleigh's winter nights average 32°F from December through February, and a heat pump is built to handle that. Federal minimums now require new split-system heat pumps to meet 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, so any unit installed today is rated for exactly this kind of winter.