Heat Pump Installation in Portsmouth, VA
A new system here will heat from November through April and cool from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Portsmouth will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Portsmouth asks a heat pump to work almost all year
Your heat pump is doing something for you 11 months out of the year here. Heat runs November through April, cooling runs May through September, and the two seasons barely leave a gap between them. Winter nights average 35°F, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the heating load on its own. Summer afternoons average 86°F on the other side of its job.
A new split-system heat pump has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, the federal minimum since 2023. Storms are part of the picture too. The region has logged 6 winter storms and 22 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and 22% of Virginia households lost power for at least 24 hours in 2024. Worth asking how the system you install comes back on once the power does.
- 6 months
- November through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 35°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 86°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Virginia's Board for Contractors issues that license and keeps the record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It covers this installation and the next one the same way. Virginia carves out an exception for small jobs. Work under $1,000 does not need a licensed contractor. A heat pump installation runs well past that, so this job falls under the license requirement.
In most cities and counties, a heat pump installation also needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is separate from the license. It is where someone from the building office looks at what got installed and signs off on it, after the contractor doing the work is already licensed.
Sources: Virginia General Assembly · Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- A heat pump does both heating and cooling, so it replaces a furnace and an air conditioner with one system. A furnace only heats, and it burns gas or runs on electric resistance to do it, which costs more to run than a heat pump moving heat instead of generating it. Winter lows here average 35°F, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the heating load through the season. Whether it makes sense for your house depends on your ductwork and how your home is set up now, and a contractor can walk through that with you.
- 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, then reverses itself in winter to pull heat from outside air and bring it indoors. Both use a compressor and an outdoor coil, and both move heat rather than create it. The difference is the reversing valve inside a heat pump that lets it run backward when your home needs heat instead of cooling.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes. A heat pump pulls heat out of outdoor air even when that air feels cold, since there is still heat in it above absolute zero. Winter nights here average 35°F, which is well within the range a heat pump handles without trouble. As the outdoor temperature drops further, a heat pump has to work harder to pull the same amount of heat, and some systems add a backup heat source for the coldest stretches. A contractor can tell you whether your model needs that backup for this area.