Heat Pump & Mini-Split Electrician in Portland, OR & the Metro Area

Your HVAC contractor sets the equipment. As your heat pump electrician, we run the circuit it needs, mount the outdoor disconnect and make the final connection, across Portland, Beaverton, Gresham, and surrounding communities.

A heat pump is an electrical appliance first. The outdoor unit runs on a dedicated 240-volt circuit sized to the equipment nameplate — the maximum overcurrent protection and minimum circuit ampacity printed on the unit, not a guess — and the indoor air handler usually needs its own circuit too. A disconnect goes within sight of the outdoor unit, so whoever services it can cut the power without going inside. The HVAC contractor sets and charges the equipment; the heat pump electrician runs the circuits, mounts the disconnect and makes the final connection.

A ductless mini-split follows the same rules on a smaller scale: one circuit per outdoor unit, a disconnect beside it, and the indoor heads wired the way the manufacturer's instructions call for. Mini-splits are a common answer for a room the furnace never reached — a finished attic, a converted garage, a room over the garage. A second or third outdoor unit later means another circuit each time, so it pays to ask the panel question before the first one goes in.

That panel question is the first thing a heat pump electrician should settle. A heat pump replacing a gas furnace adds a large 240-volt load to a panel that was never sized for it, and in Portland houses built 1960 to 1989 with 100-amp services, and older houses with less, that calls for a load calculation. We add up what the house already runs plus the new equipment and tell you whether the panel carries it or needs work first. We pull the electrical permit for the new circuit.