Heat Pump Installation in El Paso, TX
A new system here will heat from November through March and cool from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers El Paso County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
El Paso asks a heat pump to work most of the year
Your heat pump will run ten months out of the year here, heating from November through March and cooling from May through September. Winter nights average 32°F, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the heat load without much strain. Summer afternoons average 95°F, and that five month stretch is the harder job, with the compressor running long hours through the afternoon heat.
A new split-system heat pump has to meet federal minimums of 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating. Wind events have hit this area far more often than winter storms over the past ten years, 70 against 5 over the last decade. Most heat pumps come back on by themselves once the power is restored, so a short outage does not mean a call for service.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 32°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 95°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Texas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
TDLR tests and licenses the contractor, not the job, so the license on file covers the business doing your install, not this specific heat pump. The state keeps a record of who passed that test and holds that license over the contractor's work in general.
For the installation itself, the protection here is the local permit and inspection. Most cities and counties in Texas require a permit before a heat pump is replaced, and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what checks the actual connections in your home rather than the contractor's standing with the state.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- It depends on what you're trying to solve. A heat pump handles both heating and cooling from one system, where a furnace only heats and you still need a separate air conditioner for summer. Winter lows in El Paso average around 32°F, which is well within the range a heat pump handles without help. Most homes here run gas furnaces now, so switching means changing how the house is heated, not just swapping a part, and a contractor can tell you what that involves for your setup.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only cools. A heat pump cools the same way in summer, but it can also run in reverse to heat the house in winter, so it replaces both your AC and your furnace. Inside, the two work almost the same way when they're cooling, using a coil and refrigerant to move heat out of the house. The difference shows up in winter, when the heat pump switches direction and pulls heat from the outside air into the house instead.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes. A heat pump pulls heat from outside air even when it's cold, and El Paso's winter lows average around 32°F, which is mild enough that a heat pump keeps up on its own. It has to work harder as the temperature drops, since there's less heat in the air to pull from, but 32°F is nowhere near the point where that becomes a real problem.