Heat Pump Installation in Tucson, AZ
A new system here will heat from November through March and cool from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Pima County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
A heat pump in Pima County works almost the entire year
Winter nights here average 38°F, mild enough that a heat pump does the job without much strain. Summer afternoons average 99°F, and that's the harder test. Your heat pump needs to pull heat out of the house for seven months, April through October, and it needs to work in the other direction from November through March.
A new split-system heat pump has to meet federal minimums of 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating. In a place where cooling runs seven months and the heat only backs off for five, the cooling side of that rating matters as much as the heating side, maybe more.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 7 months
- April through October, it cools
- 38°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 99°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Arizona requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is tied to the contractor, not to your job specifically. It means the state has tested this contractor and keeps a record of them, so if something goes wrong there is a license on file and a body that can act on it.
For a heat pump installation, that license is what stands behind the work itself. On top of that, the local building office will typically want a permit for the installation and an inspection once it is done.
Sources: Arizona State Legislature · Arizona Registrar of Contractors
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- It depends on what you're weighing. A heat pump handles both heating and cooling from one system, where a furnace only heats, so you'd still need a separate air conditioner to get through Tucson summers. Winters here are mild, averaging 38°F on winter nights, well within what a heat pump handles without trouble. If you already heat with gas, as about half the homes in this area do, a furnace paired with an AC is a reasonable setup too. A contractor can look at your ducts and your current system to tell you which makes more sense for your house.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only cools. A heat pump cools the same way but can also run in reverse to heat your home, pulling warmth from the outside air and moving it inside. Both use a compressor and refrigerant, and both need the same kind of ductwork. The heat pump just adds a heating mode the air conditioner doesn't have.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes, and in Tucson that's rarely a concern. Winter nights here average 38°F, which is well above the temperatures where heat pump performance starts to drop off. Heat pumps lose efficiency in real cold, below freezing and colder, but Tucson winters don't get there on a typical night. A heat pump sized right for this climate will keep up through the whole November to March heating stretch.