No biggie, just curious to know for future inspections…
I inspected a 1990 build, 2 story 3400 sq ft home yesterday. The exterior hvac unit stated “Unitary Small HP” on the data plate. When I look up the model specs, it states that this unit is an “air conditioner”. The breaker was labeled “AC” and the only heating provided was from the two furnaces for each level so this unit was only being used as an AC unit.
Was this mislabeled or is it common for an air conditioning unit to be labeled as a heat pump? I’m accustomed to seeing this labeled as “Unitary Small AC” when it is in fact an AC unit only.
I only see a furnace once or twice a month, but I have personally never seen a heat pump with a furnace.
They are usually paired with a heat strip, (at least in my area)
Dual-fuel is pretty big here in Iowa. I run the heat pump down to 20 deg outdoor temperature and it automatically changes over to gas heat when the temperature drops below that.
It has been a few years since I have checked the economic set point to see if I need to adjust settings to compensate for the difference in pricing for gas vs electricity.
It’s somewhat common to say listed as a Heat Pump at the bottom of the label. But I’ve learned that does not mean that it is a heat pump, and I always go by the model number.
Great info from the others but wanted to touch on this - NEVER trust the electrician to know or care what the equipment is. They use the two terms interchangeably.
Where do you see heat pump or heating BTU/hr on the model identification label? That is a AHRI-certified system. Sorry for the edit.
As far as I can tell, this particular unit was labeled as a split condenser air conditioner. Lennox Elite · Model code: XC20-048. High SEER numbers.
What I have seen is AC clearly labeled older mini split evaporator cabinets on walls that are heat pumps by the labeling on the air cooled condenser cabinet.
No it’s not common. I’ve seen just one unit on a new construction townhouse that had the AHRI label for AC, but it turned out to be a heat pump. I was taking a picture of the name plate for the report and I saw AC, which confused me for a bit because I didn’t remember seeing a vent coming out of the roof for a gas furnace when I inspected the roof. Then I went to the attic and double checked and there an air handler for the heat pump. It’s a typo imo
Not sure if your edit meant you answered your question. The AHRI label denoting a HP is shown in my image with the orange arrow. You’ll need to blow up the pic.
Like I said, no biggie.
