Home upgrades - Heat Pump, Induction Range?

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,493
9,821
136
So my house is 30 years old and the AC is deffffinitely on its last legs. AC unit is about 15 years old I think? It barely keeps the house cool in the summer (struggles to maintain < 80F in a 1900 sq ft home). My furnace is perfectly functional but is the original. I'm wondering if it's worth canning both and replacing them with a cold weather heat pump instead. I live in northern Maryland, where it does get very cold from time to time (single digit F). Anyone have experience with heat pumps? I do think I need to insulate my house better, as well. The floor in particular (pier on beam foundation).

Separately, I absolutely hate my coil range. Originally I had a gas line added for a gas stove, but between health and environmental factors, I figured I'd go with induction instead. Any experience here? Seems like the Frigidaire Gallery is the best bang-for-buck.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,679
11,021
136
We had an older heat pump/electric furnace set up in the last house. Heat pump worked ptetty well...up until the time it froze solid in the winter. (way below freezing) Did a decent job cooling up to about 90f, then the weaknesses in the house's construction/insulation kicked in.
 

drnickriviera

Platinum Member
Jan 30, 2001
2,414
199
116
Love our frigidaire induction, boils water way faster than our gas stove. Only dislike is the push button for temp control. Wish it had a plain old knob, indexed to each power setting. Do a magnet test on your cookware first, unless you are in the market for new pots and pans
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
8,385
1,011
126
induction is great. do it.

heat pumps have also come a long way in the last 10 years or so. we plan to do as you are in the future to get off propane completely. Mitsubishi hyper heat is maybe the best heat pump system and has a great warranty. we put a 3 head split system in our old house and it was great.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,196
12,025
126
www.anyf.ca
If I was in market for a new furnace I'd consider a heat pump. I am in process of installing a wood stove, so for the super cold days where the heat pump can't keep up I'd just be doing a larger fire in the wood stove anyway. Same with cook stove if I was getting a new one I'd probably go induction. I have a small 120v induction one I bought for cheap off local marketplace and I like the fact that I can run it off solar power if I really want to. I will probably end up bringing that one to my cabin once I build it, but for now it's just stored away and ready in case we get a power outage.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,004
12,070
146
We have a little Mitsubishi? I think heat pump that's very effective for the space it's in (~500sqft in a ~2500sqft space), everywhere from -30 to 90's. I highly recommend them but be sure to understand you're going to need more than one for 1600sqft.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
So my house is 30 years old and the AC is deffffinitely on its last legs. AC unit is about 15 years old I think? It barely keeps the house cool in the summer (struggles to maintain < 80F in a 1900 sq ft home). My furnace is perfectly functional but is the original. I'm wondering if it's worth canning both and replacing them with a cold weather heat pump instead. I live in northern Maryland, where it does get very cold from time to time (single digit F). Anyone have experience with heat pumps? I do think I need to insulate my house better, as well. The floor in particular (pier on beam foundation).

Separately, I absolutely hate my coil range. Originally I had a gas line added for a gas stove, but between health and environmental factors, I figured I'd go with induction instead. Any experience here? Seems like the Frigidaire Gallery is the best bang-for-buck.
My house is same size but almost 4x as old (1925 sq. ft., built in 1910). No central heat (the rusting disconnected furnace sits in the crawl space under the dining room). Heat pump is on my to-do list, hopefully before next winter, but today was quite winter-like, 40F low this morning. It rarely freezes here and I have NEVER seen a snow flake at my house (been here decades).

Have gas stove, it's old (1950's? It's unvented in any way but am not aware of it making me sick or feel ill) but I like it. I use my microwave and toaster oven a lot, too.
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,282
5,054
136
My house is same size but almost 4x as old (1925 sq. ft., built in 1910). No central heat (the rusting disconnected furnace sits in the crawl space under the dining room). Heat pump is on my to-do list, hopefully before next winter, but today was quite winter-like, 40F low this morning. It rarely freezes here and I have NEVER seen a snow flake at my house (been here decades).

Have gas stove, it's old (1950's? It's unvented in any way but am not aware of it making me sick or feel ill) but I like it. I use my microwave and toaster oven a lot, too.
If you don't insulate at the same time you're going to end up with a very oversized system.
I'd check to see what kind of programs the state or PG&E have running. You might get both at a substantial discount.
 

LurchFrinky

Senior member
Nov 12, 2003
297
56
91
We had a new gas cooktop in our last house and we liked it. Our new house has an induction cooktop and we love it! We don't know how much this model cost (Jenn-Air), but it is just a smooth glass surface with touch controls. I don't think it is possible to describe just how much easier to clean this is compared to the gas one. Of course it cooks just as well or better for everything and crushes the boiling water department. Oh, if you make a mess, you can wipe it up while you're still cooking (I've done this several times)!

Do you have your AC serviced periodically? It's possible that the performance of your current system can be made whole with a "tune up". Maybe your air handler is dirty/flow restricted or your compressor has lost some charge.

The heat pump will be way cheaper to use than your furnace during the cool months and you can keep the furnace in place to help out if it gets too cold. It is actually very common to have both since the heating requirement is usually higher than the cooling and this keeps you from oversizing the system. And yeah, look at improving your insulation first.
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
7,443
3,004
136
I bought the Frigidaire you're referring to. Will let you know in a couple weeks what I think of it. Switching from gas because I don't want to spend my life breathing in natural gas.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,777
126
My 15 seer unit was a huge upgrade from the 35 year old unit that came with my house. I went with a dual fuel system so it switches to natural gas when the temp gets low. It means on cold days, there's no question it can hear the house AND I have electric backup if anything happens with NG. I also have gas logs as a backup for electric outages.

For AC, the unit I got was sizes more appropriately than the original. Consider a DIY mini split from Pioneer if you need any additional rooms added that aren't on your system. I have one of those and it works great.
 

repoman0

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2010
4,443
3,282
136
We have a little Mitsubishi? I think heat pump that's very effective for the space it's in (~500sqft in a ~2500sqft space), everywhere from -30 to 90's. I highly recommend them but be sure to understand you're going to need more than one for 1600sqft.
More than one head unit but not necessarily more than one condenser. I have a big 48k BTU Mitsubishi condenser attached to five head units for an 18xx square foot house. Works great even down below 0F.
 
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