O/T, Heat pumps

Anyone have any experience with these heat pumps?
Various discussions at this time of year and the cost of heating oil alway's increasing. Does anyone have any actual cost to operate these units compared to other home heating devices? Thanks, Murray

I have one. Haven't had anything different in this house. 100 year old two story farmhouse. Fairly good sized 4 bedroom with new windows on main floor. $200 per month is a pretty good estimate. It can be up to $50 more in extreme temps but that is unusual.

I just put in a new one last month. It is air to air like the previous (outside condenser unit). It turns on when needed and starts timing. If the temp does not rise sufficiently in 7 minutes (I think) then it ramps up the fan and starts one of the all electric heat strip. Keeps doing this progression until it kicks off.

Very happy with it but I do hear dollar signs coming out of the vent when those heat strips start. Imagine running a 20kw space heater. Luckily it isnt a regular occurrence on most days. I usually run a space heater in the living room while I am in there - that keeps it from kicking on the strips. I like that the house isn't dry inside. Usually the air coming out of the vents is in the high 70's so it doesn't burn out the moisture. If you like to feel blistering heat come out of the vents you won't like it as that RARELY happens.

Might look
Here

they work fantastic when the temps are above 32 degrees... below 32 they are just heat stripes...

so depends on where your located and how many head days are above freeze vrs below freezing.

In San Antonio, Texas, they are a real winnning solution. In Dallas, Texas, they are not so good. So depends where your located and what the winter temps are.

Been using heat pumps for over 25 years now and would never go back.. Saved me tons of money over as I"m in a all electric house and not served by natural gas.

We've had an air source heat pump for about 3 years, hr NW of MPLS. Works til about 15 degrees, then propane furnace kicks in. We don't buy much propane anymore.....just during the cold winter months. Can't tell you the cost advantage, but I feel that they are worth it.

Middle Tennessee so no many extreme cold days and lots of 40/50 deg nights. Have two houses both run air to air heat pumps. The new house 3,000+ sq ft. It was built energy efficient in lots of insulation and high dollar windows but the heating is somewhere around $100 a month this past summer with the 100+ deg days we had saw some cooling cost exceed the cost of heating. I think next to thermal (water sourced) heat pumps have a fairly good cost factor. The new house does have LPG over unit in case of extreme cold. Heat pump kicks out when the outside temp gets below somewhere around 22 deg I think. Three and half ton Trane brand total cost little over 8 grand.

We had one put in about 2 1/2 years ago and it works really good for us. Living in N.E. NE. there are usually about 2 months where we just turn it off and switch to propane since it is not efficient/too much hassle. We have a propane backup and when it automatically cycles between the heat pump and the propane the difference in BTU's is uncomfortable. The propane heat is hotter, so when the t-stat is set on 73 degrees it is comfortable/warm. however when running the heat pump the comfortable temp is 75 or 76(depends who you ask). This may be because ours is an older furnace, poor airflow design, or just the BTU difference in the 2 different heats.

As far as saving money I can't be sure if we save or just change who we pay. Our first year in this house we used about 1100 gallons of propane. That summer the central air went out and we put in the heat pump, and by using the heat pump in the fall and spring we only used about 300 gallons the next winter, however it was a more mild winter too.

We have a ground source heat pump that has worked well for the past 12 years in north central Minnesota and I would never go back to traditional heat and air conditioning. Pay back on the additional cost was about 4 years. We do have both a propane and electric in-plenum back-up systems, but I have had them turned off for years unless we are planning to be gone for several weeks. Our local power company does have a special rate in exchange for turning off power during their peak electrical demand times. The house may drop 2-3 degrees when heat pump power is shut down and we choose to live with that rather than use back up heat. Our house is new construction and very well insulated. Our annual electrical energy cost (Jan 1 to Dec 31) for heating and AC is about $500 and has been as low as $430. Install costs are much higher now and payback times are longer. Be sure to have a good heat loss calculation done on the house and have any installer give you a detailed analysis of all costs including projected operating costs. Many power companies will also do a energy calculation based on the heat loss of your house. Good luck

don't know about the ground source type but the air to air with the back up electric its good down to about 25 degrees without the heat strips ,sales gimmick was getting heat out of cold air??????? no such thing because the unit is a reverse flow air conditioner when the outside air temperature matches the refrigerant temperature in the outside coils it starts to freeze, the temperature can't raise in the inside coils because the refrigerant can't be warmed outside with air colder than the refrigerant ,no temperature differential no heat,i know they have cycle timers to elevate this problem but it still doesn't work unless you have a backup system ie electric heat strips or gas ,me personally from the headaches of having a heat pump i would purchase 2 separate units one for heat one for cooling

Not too many really cold days here in NC. I was using about 350 gals. of oil/yr. to heat plus the $180/mo. in electricity to run the furnace. Switched to an air heat 'bout 4 yrs. ago. Now I use about $200/mo. in electricity and around 100 gal/yr.

Noah W

mine works great when air temps are above 40,...but my unit is 16 yrs pld

Depends........
Where do you live? More heating or more cooling? Local price of power, oil, LP or natural gas? Air source or water source?

Lots of variations in heat pumps. 13 seer single stage won't be as efficient as an 18 seer dual stage but then the cost difference is significant also. With the dual stage unit, you also need a dual stage furnace. I just last week had a unit priced out. The 13 seer with 90% LP furnace was about $3500 cheaper than an 18 seer dual stage with 98% dual stage LP furnace. All said and done, a ground source Geo unit would have run about another $3500 more after the 30% federal tax credit was taken. But now we are talking seer ratings off the chart with the Geo. I had an air heat pump years ago and was never warm in the house till the toaster unit kicked in. Had to hang on to my wallet then though.