My dad has a older York heat pump system & lives out in a very rural area. House is on slab & brick exterior about 2100 sq ft of heating & cooling. Heat pump will not switch over to Auto emergency heat but he can set it to manual. Can’t get part replacement on this system. He’s thinking of upgrading as this system is 18-20 yrs old. He’s not crazy about the heat pump & it running constantly chewing up electricity on the real cold days. He is wondering if it’s best going with a gas furnace system? He would have to install propane tank & have it plumbed into the house as he is all electric right now. Is it worth the extra dime for this to have more efficient heating on cold days? Is the heat pump fairly efficient in most cool type days? I realize the total # of extreme cold days are not a lot in our area when the unit will run on emergency heat & use more electricity. What’s the TBH HVAC experts say or recommend?
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Heat pump units are still cheaper to run than propane furnaces. Propane units are stupid expensive to run. If he's concerned about the effeciency when it's below freezing they make dual fuel units that are heat pump to a certain temp, then switch to propane. My dad loves his Tappan, saves him almost 2k a year in propane as there aren't many sub freezing days in Texas. -
Thanks. That’s my thoughts as well. Figured someone more knowledgeable & experienced than me could shed some light on thisOriginally posted by Samson View PostComment
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Personally, I would tell him to just go with the heat pump. The only time you have issues with them in the winter is when its REALLY cold like it has been lately, but this isnt exactly normal Texas weather. So for a crash course how the heat pump system work is, you want your house cool, it drags the heat from inside your house and puuts it outside while pushing cold air in the house using the refrigerant, in the winter it works in reverse and drags the heat from outside and puts it inside. The electric heat on there just assists the heat pump and also ensures that there isnt an excess amount of cold air being pumped into the house when the blower kicks on and is waiting for the outside unit to kick on. At the end of the day it is his choice but I would personally just stick with a heat pump. Plus if he has homeowners insurance he can contact them and tell them the system isnt working right, they will send someone out and they will hopefully condemn it (I would) and then home owners insurance should cover **** near all the costs.Comment
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I have a heat pump. It really struggles on days like today when it's 14º. But this is Texas, and that's not common. I'd buy a heat pump again for sure. It works great in all other conditions.Comment
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Do most units have this feature? I have a Carrier. I feel like mine definitely blows some cold air either at the beginning or the end of a heat cycle. Maybe not as cold as the outdoor air, but cold enough that I wish it wasn't blowing.Originally posted by 11B View PostComment
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Yeah all (new..ish) heat pump units should have that feature. Could be that you got screwed out of a heat strip so thats why it feels colder or it could be that whomever hooked up your thermostat didnt do it properly so the strips wont kick on whenever the blower doesComment
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The guy we bought our place from had just installed a new Carrier heat pump and showed my wife and me the elec. bills... almost $200/month savings... Ours has the auxiliary electrical coils and it has kept the house at 71-72 degrees through this little cool snap...Comment
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I would have loved to go with a heat pump, but it would have required some electrical modification, as we had diesel furnace before, and had to replace with propane, propane is running $2.42 per gallon and has been rather expensive to run this winterOriginally posted by Samson View Post
but average cost for the year is about $125 per month
I just have to bite the bullet in December and JanuaryComment
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I've had a heat pump for twenty years in our primary residence. I liked it so much that when we built our hunting cabin we put in a heat pump there also. I have a catalytic heater in the primary, (looks like a fireplace insert), and that keeps ours from running much at all on these cold days. Seasoned red oak is the best, cheapest heat yet ! You get warm three times, once when you cut it, once when you split it, and once when you burn it !
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Heat pumps are far more efficient than those 20 years ago. Short of hearing the defrost kick on I doubt he’d have any complaints. As mentioned before dual fuel are awesome we’ve put several of these in but in your case of having to install tank and plumbing I wouldn’t do it. I’d install new heat pump and be done with it.Comment
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Do you mean home warranty? He has homeowners insurance but I wasn’t aware they will pay for an old HVAC system not functioning properly?Originally posted by 11B View PostComment
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Is natural gas not common in Texas, to have in your house ? Here 99% of the houses have natural gas. And it is far cheaper to run gas heat then a heat pump ( elec.). Plus it's a lot colder here also. You guys must also have cheaper electricity then we do here. i have a gas range, water heater, furnace, and our gas bill is like 25.00 of our utility bill. Where as our electricity is about 280.00-300.00 a month. Electric heat strips ( electric furnace) are very very rare here, they cost a fortune to run. Heat pumps don't heat the air as hot or as gas or electricity and have to run for longer periods of time, the colder it gets out side the less efficant they become ( the air temp. delivered to your house get colder also) Here some people with heat pumps run them until the outdoor temp. get to 50 degrees, then the thermastat kicks them over to back up ( emergency) heat , nat. gas. The thing is most people don't run there heat here much until outdoor temps. are well below that. Most of the ones with heat pumps here were convinced by the salesman as a good thing. Here you can install a gas furnace and an a/c unit for less then a heat pump only unit costs.( but here you have to have a back up heat) So what ever " source" is cheaper, is the thing to use to heat your house.Comment
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HVAC systems have come a long way in regards to efficiency in 20 years. In Texas heat pumps are they way to go. I’d say on average we get way less than 30 days per year of extended sub freezing temps so they work well here.
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not to hijack but how loud is the defrost supposed to be? i have a relatively new Lennox (ca. 3 yrs) that is loud as heck! normal?Originally posted by chancito1 View PostComment
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