{"id":1087,"date":"2025-02-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2025-02-08T12:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T18:10:17","slug":"heat-pump-magic-the-reversing-valve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/heat-pump-service\/heat-pump-magic-the-reversing-valve\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Pump Magic: The Reversing Valve"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"thermostat-set-at-66\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

What a glorious system a heat pump<\/a> is. It cools your home like an air conditioner. It provides heating, and it does so incredibly efficiently. In a warm climate, it might even provide all the heat you need at an impressively low cost. And it can automatically and effortlessly switch between heating and cooling modes.\u00a0How does one system manage all this? Your heat pump has a specialized component called the reversing valve. Here\u2019s what you should know about how it works and what to do if it isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

AC Technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The basics of air conditioning technology involve circulating refrigerant through coils. Because the refrigerant absorbs and releases a lot of heat when it changes state from a gas to a liquid or back again, it can be used to move heat from place to place. This requires that it be under a lot of pressure, so AC systems also have a compressor. Finally, there\u2019s a fan to move the freshly cooled air once the air conditioner does its job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Heat Pump Bonus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Generating heat the way a furnace does is expensive. It requires a lot of energy. With a heat pump, you can avoid all that. It doesn\u2019t generate heat more efficiently. What it does is skip the generating heat entirely; instead, it moves heat around.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like the air conditioner does, the heat pump circulates refrigerant under pressure to take in heat and then let it out. It might seem like there isn\u2019t any heat outdoors that could possibly be brought in when your house needs to be warmed. But it doesn\u2019t need to be hot outside for the heat pump to work. It just needs to be a few degrees less cold than the super-chilled refrigerant, and heat can be delivered indoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reversing Valve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In order for a heat pump to be able to operate in either direction\u2014carrying heat out during the summer or in during the winter\u2014it needs to be able to change the direction that the refrigerant flows through the loop of coils. This is where the reversing valve comes in. This component can open, allowing refrigerant to flow one way, or close, forcing it to flow in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do this requires pressure to be applied on a small slider. That pressure is delivered by a solenoid, which is a type of electromagnet. It can only operate when it receives an electrical charge. So, the thermostat sends a signal, it passes through electrical wires, the solenoid slides, and the heat pump switches modes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if your heat pump won\u2019t switch? The \u201cpassive\u201d position of the slider, when the solenoid doesn\u2019t receive a charge, is the position for heating. To switch to cooling, three things need to be working together: the signal from the thermostat, the electrical wiring, and the solenoid itself. If springtime arrives and you can\u2019t get your heat pump to start cooling, you need heat pump service in Slidell, LA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you need answers to heat pump questions, contact Gowland\u2019s Heating & A\/C! Relationship over revenue!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your heat pump has a specialized component called the reversing valve. Here\u2019s what you should know about how it works, and what to do if it isn\u2019t working!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[157,89],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heat-pump-service","tag-heat-pump-service","tag-slidell"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1090,"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gowlandsac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}