Heat pumps. Who's using them?

Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if anybody is using a heat pump to heat their house. Leaning that direction at my place. The alternative would be an oil fired forced hot air furnace. I think it makes more sense. My only question is how well they work... We generally like to keep our house pretty warm and I want to make sure this will work when it gets down into the twenties.
 
check the spec sheet on them, they DO have a minimum effective temperature (for outside air), my uncle has one (in VA so a little different temp range) but he also has backup gas heat for the cold days where the heatpump cannot keep up. The spec sheet SHOULD tell you how cold it can get and have them still function.
 
We had them installed when the second zone system went down about 10 years ago. Are you planning to only have a heat pump or hybrid which uses a furnace under 40-45F? Check the current efficiency rates of heat pumps in your area. Effectiveness drops when colder and more electricity is used to generate heat as the outside air is colder. Our system switches to the gas furnace below 40ish. Which is why you'll see these more in warmer climates.
 
Patrick said:
Geothermal ?
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That would be cool. I'm guessing air to air. They have cold weather systems that work well in any temperature new jersey can get down to. Just gotta make sure the person picking out the system knows what they're doing. But I'd definitely ditch the oil. I always hated working with oil, so dirty and stinky.
 
Make sure you use a calculator, many are found online to see what temperature it's cheaper to run a heat pump vs gas.

There's 4 big factors. Lowest outdoor temp, the efficiency of the heat pump you'd end up with, price of gas, price of electric.

You may find running the calculator you may not want/need gas backup. Or you may find that there's no temp where a heat pump is cheaper.
 
Santapez said:
Make sure you use a calculator, many are found online to see what temperature it's cheaper to run a heat pump vs gas.

There's 4 big factors. Lowest outdoor temp, the efficiency of the heat pump you'd end up with, price of gas, price of electric.

You may find running the calculator you may not want/need gas backup. Or you may find that there's no temp where a heat pump is cheaper.
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Gas isn't an option... would have to be oil so that changes things I think
 
Mahnken said:
That would be cool. I'm guessing air to air. They have cold weather systems that work well in any temperature new jersey can get down to. Just gotta make sure the person picking out the system knows what they're doing. But I'd definitely ditch the oil. I always hated working with oil, so dirty and stinky.
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I had no issues with oil when we had hot water baseboard, but thats not an option with the addition
 
qclabrat said:
We had them installed when the second zone system went down about 10 years ago. Are you planning to only have a heat pump or hybrid which uses a furnace under 40-45F? Check the current efficiency rates of heat pumps in your area. Effectiveness drops when colder and more electricity is used to generate heat as the outside air is colder. Our system switches to the gas furnace below 40ish. Which is why you'll see these more in warmer climates.
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Yeah, no gas here. If so, I would just be doing a gas furnace
 
Cole said:
Gas isn't an option... would have to be oil so that changes things I think
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Changes immensely. Willing to bet the #s work out so that you may be heat pump only. Even hybrid may not work out as you may only dip into resistive electric heat for short bursts.

You can always keep your oil forced hot air if you already have it and install efficient split units. Upside to that is redundancy, downside is having split units in rooms.
 
Santapez said:
Changes immensely. Willing to bet the #s work out so that you may be heat pump only. Even hybrid may not work out as you may only dip into resistive electric heat for short bursts.

You can always keep your oil forced hot air if you already have it and install efficient split units. Upside to that is redundancy, downside is having split units in rooms.
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Yeah, I don't have oil forced air, hot water baseboard. And that furnace is going away.
 
My neighbor has a small Mitsubishi Heat pump for her great room which was an addition several years ago. I am amazed at the level of heat the thing throws even on icy cold days.
 
My neighborhood is electric only, so everyone has heat pumps. Works fine but struggles under 20 degrees.
 
Originally from Clark NJ, moved to VA and now in PA... we bought into a new development in the Poconos this summer to be closer to family again. Our new house has 2 forced air heat pumps, both Goodman, 2.5T for the main/lower level and 2T for the upper level and has a secondary/aux electric coils, I don't recall the Seer but it's pretty good). We've had some low temps this season somewhere around 10 and honestly it's been surprisingly fine. I have Internet thermostats so I can see when the aux kicks on and it's not much, has to be below 30 degrees and when a new time/temp on the thermostat hits for the most part.
We moved from the Shenandoah area (over 2000ft) so somewhat comparable; there we had 2 A/C units and propane main heat forced air. When I add up the combined electric and propane vs all electric cost they are comparable. I had oil in Clark before we upgraded to NG; I'd never go back to that.
 
Thanks all...
Of course my my oil tank is 7/8 full.... And it's a Roth tank. I believe it was installed in 2018. I wonder if I'll be able to sell it
 
I heat my home with two heat pumps and a fireplace insert/I rarely have to use both heat pumps

You’re more than welcome to come over and check them out
 
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