Heat pumps?

[moparacer]

Anyone use a heat pump for heating and cooling the house?

Like it? Cost for installation? Preferred brands? Average bill when you are heating in the winter?

The oil furnace in my moms house is bad and needs to be replaced and with the outrageous cost of heating oil I cant really see how it would be any cheaper than
electric now. We are on a co op for electricity and wont be affected by the higher
prices for electricity once the rate caps are removed.

 

[Vette73]

The work well for areas that don;t get REALLY cold. A heat pump is for the most part a AC unit runnign bacwards. So the outside unit gets cold and gets warmed up and then comes back in and warms the house up. Once it hits a certain temp a heat bump will not work.

What some people are doing is installing a heat pump and also gas. that way they have a backup if the temp goes to low for a heat pump.

 

[moparacer]

I live in the Northeast and we can get some pretty cold nights with temps around 0 and wind chills below.......

Of corse with global warming and all hasnt been too bad the last few years.....

We shoulda listened!

 

[eplebnista]

Heatpumps are great for the southern portions of the US. We have a 3 ton unit with electric heat as the backup when the unit goes into defrost or it gets too cold outside and it works very well (although the heat does not get as warm as natural gas does). Our summer electric/water bill typically averages $125/m, while the winter bill averages $175/m.