Anyone have a heat pump with their furnace?

[Vette]

Yeah i know. its just furnaces tend to creep me out now after that. referring to heart pump or not. LOL

[Logan]

We heat our upstairs with a heat pump. We are in the upstate of SC. I don't remember where it is that you live. I would never choose a heat pump if I could help it because although we don't have lots of snow and don't have days and days of below freezing temps, we do get cold and a heat pump has to work really, really hard and unless the emergency heat strip comes on, it does not put out the warm air that an oil or gas furnace would. Ours still works, and we do cool with it effectively in the summer months, but I would choose something else if I had the choice.

[Cataholic]

although we don't have lots of snow and don't have days and days of below freezing temps.

Today, with the humidity level and temp 80 plus, this statement doesn't make me angry. BUT, had you said this in December, January or February? LOL- watch out!

I soooo long for a more mild climate (fully recognizing we do not have it as bad as many. Still too cold for my liking).

[pomtzu]

I have to agree that heat pumps are not what they've cracked up to be.

This house is all electric (electric furnace), and when we added a 3 room addition several years ago, the contractor recommended a heat pump for that area, since the electric furnace wouldn't handle that too. So of course he was the expert and knew what he was talking about - right?

Well as Maggie said, they are fine for temperate climates, and where the temps don't usually go below 40 for an extended time. If you live in a colder climate, they don't work very efficiently.

I too would have to say - check out other options before you commit to a heat pump.

[Asiel]

Living in one of the coldest parts of the country I can tell you heat pumps are not what they're cut out to be. My husband installs them but never recommends them. And ours are all inground heat pumps, trenches at least 6 ft deep . And you need a very large property because of the amount of piping required. One advantage is you get your a/c with it but as far as heating a huge house the air just does not blow as hot as electric or gas, most people here have gas unless the lines don't pass where they live. For our part of the country it's the cheapest way to go. Although we do have an electric furnace in the garage to kick in when we want instant heat but we also have a woodstove in the house and in the garage because I like dry heat. They are very cost efficient and not much trouble, being air tight. You can fill it in the morning and it lasts all day.

[kokopup]

Old heat pump technology required supplemental heat on colder days. In my area this was typically strip heat that on colder days could be costly. The latest heat pump technology uses two compressors and requires no suppliemental heat even in the coldest (lower 48 US) days. In fact one of the manufactures of the new dual compressor Heat pumps is in New Hampshire. The latest Heat Pump is worth looking into. iF YOU LIVE IN THE NORTH i DO NOT ADVISE THE OLDER HEAT PUMP THAT REQUIRES SUPPLEMENTAL HEAT.

[Grace]

Thank you all for your responses. And I'm sorry I didn't get back to this sooner. We lost power Friday night just after 9pm - in the nasty storms that went through. Just got it back 20 minutes ago.

We talked at length about the heat pump, and have decided that is not the way to go for us. We have a well insulated house, and generally keep the winter temp no higher than 64°. We heat with propane and I tallied up the cost of that for the past 10 years, and it would take us forever to make up the cost of the pump.

So we will stick with a high efficiency furnace