Here’s the thing about Sacramento weather—and you know it if you’ve lived here for even just a year—it is extremely variable. Sure, we get cold in the winter and hot in the summer, but we also have unexpected heat waves and surprise cold snaps.
As such, we often find ourselves switching modes on our heat pumps. These systems are designed for such a task, and work best in climates like ours. In warmer weather, they remove heat from the home via a refrigerant process and expel the heat outdoors, where the process is revered in cooler weather.
But what happens when the heat pump won’t switch modes? Simply put, it indicates a problem with the reversing valve, which we’ll describe more below.
With the extreme variables we have in our weather throughout the year, it’s no secret that you’d like to do everything you can to lower your energy bills. The good news is, you don’t have to decrease your energy usage in order to do that. In fact, there are some simple steps you can take to boost HVAC efficiency, whether we’re talking about your heater or your air conditioner.