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What Is a Heat Pump and How Does It Heat a Colorado Home?
A heat pump heats your home by moving heat from the outdoor air indoors rather than burning fuel to create it. And because it transfers heat instead of generating it, it can deliver two to three times more heat energy than the electricity it consumes. In summer, the same system runs in reverse and cools your home, which is why heat pumps appear under both our Heating Services hub and our Air Conditioning Services hub: one system, both seasons.
Heat pumps come in several configurations, and McCormick services and installs all of the residential types you'll find in Northern Colorado:
Air-source heat pumps — the most common type, drawing heat from outdoor air through a ducted system.
Cold-climate air-source heat pumps — engineered with variable-speed compressors and enhanced refrigerant circuits to hold heating capacity in genuinely cold weather. More on these below, because in Greeley the distinction matters.
Ductless systems — for homes without ductwork, additions, or rooms the main system never reaches, see our ductless mini-split installation service.
Dual-fuel (hybrid) systems — a heat pump paired with a gas furnace, letting each handle the temperatures it's best at.
What Are the Signs a Heat Pump Needs Repair?
A heat pump that needs repair usually announces itself in one of five ways, and every one of them is observable without opening a panel:
1
Conventional (regular) boilers — suited to larger homes with higher hot-water demand, and able to supply several taps at once.
2
It defrosts far more often than it did last winter. Defrost cycles are normal; a sudden increase in their frequency is not.
3
Ice builds on the outdoor unit and doesn't clear on a defrost cycle. Ice that survives defrost blocks the coil from absorbing outdoor heat, and the problem compounds every hour it stays.
4
Auxiliary or emergency heat engages at temperatures where it shouldn't. A heat pump leaning on auxiliary heat far more than it should is not merely inefficient but a symptom of a refrigerant, defrost, or sizing fault that will not correct itself.
5
Air from the registers is warm but never hot. Heat pump supply air runs cooler than furnace supply air by design, but "barely warmer than the room" points to low refrigerant charge or an airflow restriction.
Unusual noises like rattling, grinding, and a squeal at startup, and unfamiliar smells from the system, also warrant a diagnostic visit before the next cold snap arrives.
How Does a Cold-Climate Heat Pump Perform in Northern Colorado Winters?
Cold-climate heat pumps keep producing full heat well below 0°F, and in Greeley, where winter nights routinely drop below zero and homes sit at 4,658 feet, that's the difference between a system that works and one that doesn't. A standard heat pump built for a milder climate loses heating power exactly when your home needs it most. A cold-climate unit, chosen and set up correctly, doesn't.
The number that matters most is the changeover temperature. It’s the outdoor temperature where your heat pump hands the job off to backup heat. Set it wrong, and the system leans on backup heat all winter, no matter how you work the thermostat. That's a setup problem, not a settings problem, and it's baked in on installation day. When McCormick installs or tunes up a heat pump, we set that changeover point based on what your home actually needs to stay warm, not a default from the installation manual.
Heat Pump or Furnace — Which Suits a Northern Colorado Home?
A heat pump is the right fit if you want one system that heats and cools all year, want to run your home on electricity alone, or want a smaller carbon footprint.
A gas furnace is the right fit if you want serious heat on the coldest nights and already have a gas line.
Neither wins every time, and for a lot of Greeley homes, the honest answer is both. A dual-fuel system runs the heat pump through the long months of fall and spring, where it's at its best, and lets the furnace take over when the deep cold sets in.
What actually tips the decision is your house, not the brochure: how well it holds heat, what shape the ductwork is in, whether gas service is already there, and how much life is left in the equipment you own today.
If it's the furnace that's on its way out, our furnace installation and replacement team can size up both options in one visit.
Still on the fence? That's normal. A free consultation, virtual or in person, settles it, with no pressure toward either answer.
What Does a McCormick Heat Pump Visit Cover?
A McCormick heat pump visit covers the three things that determine whether a heat pump performs in this climate: refrigerant charge, defrost operation, and the changeover setpoint measured against your home's actual heating load. Whether the visit is a repair diagnostic, a maintenance tune-up, or a pre-replacement assessment, those fundamentals get tested, not eyeballed.
Depending on what you've scheduled, a visit also includes:
Repair diagnostics — electrical testing, thermostat communication checks, coil and airflow inspection, and refrigerant leak detection when the charge reads low.
Preventative maintenance — coil cleaning, filter checks, defrost cycle verification, and a heating-and-cooling performance test. Manufacturer warranty coverage generally requires documented annual service, and every McCormick maintenance visit produces that documentation.
Replacement assessment — an honest evaluation of age (most heat pumps are candidates for replacement at 10-15 years), breakdown frequency, and whether the current unit was ever right for the house. Frequent malfunctions are a sign a heat pump is nearing the end of its life; a correctly sized modern cold-climate unit is often the better path than a third repair on a unit that was mis-specified from day one.
Every visit ends the same way: we tell you exactly what the system is set to, in writing.
How Heat Pump Service With McCormick Works
Step 2
We test refrigerant charge, defrost operation, and the changeover setpoint against your home's actual heating load.
Step 3
We repair, recommission, or replace and document what the system is now set to.
Heat pump service with McCormick takes three steps:
Emergency service available for the failures that won't wait for business hours.
Why Choose McCormick for Heat Pump Service in Greeley?
McCormick's heat pump technicians are NATE & EPA Certified, and the company is built around one place: Northern Colorado. Owner Jesse Trout is a Colorado native and HVAC expert who knows what this climate does to equipment: the dry air, the agricultural dust, the elevation, the winters that swing 40 degrees in a day.
800+ reviews on Google from homeowners across Northern Colorado
NATE & EPA Certified technicians on every job
Armstrong Air dealer for installations backed by a manufacturer we trust
Emergency service available when a system fails at the worst possible time
Satisfaction Guaranteed on all jobs
Need help fast outside of scheduled hours? See emergency heating repair.
🚩 TRANSFORMATION PROOF
Where McCormick Services Heat Pumps
Heat pump service from McCormick dispatches from a single point: our headquarters at 2881 S 31st Ave, Unit 3, Greeley, CO 80631. That matters more for heat pumps than for almost any other system we work on. A heat pump fault in January isn't a "sometime this week" problem. Every hour the outdoor unit sits iced over or the defrost cycle misfires is an hour your auxiliary heat carries the entire load, and proximity is what turns a diagnostic call into a same-day fix.
From Greeley, our technicians cover the Northern Colorado communities where homes sit between roughly 4,600 and 5,000 feet and the same model heat pump delivers measurably less capacity than it would at sea level.
Greeley
Fort Collins
Loveland
Longmont
Neighborhood-level detail such as recent jobs and local response specifics lives on each city page above. Wherever you are in that footprint, the visit is the same: the same tests, the same documentation, the same technicians.
Heat Pump Still Not Keeping Up?
Every week a heat pump runs with a defrost fault, a low charge, or the wrong changeover setpoint is a week of comfort you're not getting from equipment you already own. Tell us what your heat pump is doing and we'll tell you what it needs.
McCormick Heating & Cooling · 2881 S 31st Ave #3, Greeley, CO 80631, United States · Mon–Fri 8am–5pm
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