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Traditional HVAC vs Heat pump
All this talk of HVAC is enlightening. Does anyone have experience with Heat Pump vs Traditional HVAC?
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What are you referring to when you say “traditional HVAC?” |
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I prefer a standard split system for cooling and gas furnace for heat over a heat pump. My preference is only based on my past life as a commercial HVAC technician.
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If you have natural gas service to your house, you can buy a gas furnace for heat and an electric air conditioner. But, if your house is all electric, your only logical choice is to install a heat pump. Heat pumps work very well in warm climates like Florida. They are not as efficient in colder climates up north. Even if I had access to natural gas in The Villages, I would opt for a heat pump.
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I live in a small village in UK, and there is no natural gas connections. Oil or electric only. UK government is phasing out oil and gas, and those types of supply will not be allowed soon in new builds. We had an Air Source system installed, and went all electric. Government Green subsidy actually paid for installation, about £7000.00 Wonderful in summer and keeps our water heating bill minimal. Winter is a different story. Our heating bill is enormous, as there is little benefit from the system in cold weather. Also Ground Heat Pumps and Air Source heating use quite a bit of electricity just to operate. If I lived in Florida, Air Source would be my choice, it works well in hot conditions, and will minimize electric bill. |
Heat pump no matter what type of furnace you have. Here in Florida, we use heat maybe 5 days a year, whereas we use the cooling cycle at least 200 days a year. The heat pump is much more efficient to run than a standard air conditioner. A heat pump is also more efficient to heat a house than using an electric furnace, much more. I had a 5500sq ft house with 3 heat pumps (new house we built) than was cheaper to operate than a 3600 Sq ft house (also new, 20 miles from the house above) with a natural gas furnace and a typical air conditioner. We used the heat for over 60 days and cooling for over 200 days
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Heat Pump vs. Furnace | What Are the Pros & Cons | Carrier. |
A Heat Pump "costs" more. A Heat Pump has more parts that can break. A Heat Pump operates at much higher pressure in reverse causing wear/tear on compressor and using more power and many times causing freon leaks at fittings.
A Heat Pump does have higher efficiency over conventional system but does that outweigh everything I mentioned prior?? And it will take you years for that better efficiency to pay for the added initial costs/repairs, etc. |
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and hopefully get good service when needed. |
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Heat Pumps are one of the most efficient heating systems out there, even in the frigid North where I live. In most cases, they're 2 or 3 times as efficient as fossil fuel systems and their environmental footprint is significantly better. |
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The 'Inflation Reduction Act' (and more specifically the 'HEEHRA' part of the bill) passed by Congress last year provides for rebates of up to $8,000 for the purchase and install of an electric heat pump. Program IS funded by Congress, but not set up yet in Florida. Expected to happen by end of Q3.
Understanding The High Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act (HEEHRA) - CleanTechnica Since our median income in Sumter County is about $83,000-If your income is less than $66,400-you will qualify for the full $8,000. If you make less than 150% of the median income, or less than $124,500 then you qualify to have HALF of the purchase and install covered up to a maximum of $4,000. Area Median Income Lookup Tool I'd certainly wait for this program to kick in before I purchased anything. |
no heat
you will almost never run the heat here
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I prefer HVAC with a gas furnace over a heat pump. Have had both.
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But, The Villages stopped selling Trane units many years ago and switched to Carrier. |
Bought a new home in Fenny area. We have a heat pump only, for AC and heat, but we also have NG for oven, hot water, and dryer.
Best of all worlds, IMO. Heat pumps make alot of sense in Florida, where you rarely need heat. I had one in NJ, and no way would that have worked without a back up NG gas unit. Heat pumps are not as efficient if you wait for your house to get cold, and then try to warm it up. Heat pumps heat slower than fossil fuel heat, so after a bit, it will turn on the electric heating strips to speed things up. That is expensive. Better to set the heat pump to hold a constant temperature, vs setting it back at night like you might a fossil fuel system. As we also have NG, on the rare chilly morning, I will use the range cook top to supplement. Put on a pot of water or a pot of soup and fire up a burner. The house quickly warms up. And no, unless you have asthma or other respiratory concerns, you don't need to worry about having a burner on in a closed up house for a short period of time. |
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14 SEER - so, so performance 16 SEER - ok performance 19 SEER- very good performance 20+ SEER excellent performance Make sure yo get a 10 year+ warranty (labor as well as equipment). Expect to pay for the performance increases. You will see roughly 5 year pay back on each SEER increase. |
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Heat pump are much more efficient that a typical air conditioning unit. More moving parts, sure, but that doesn’t mean they are not reliable.It’s also not true that heat pumps are not good for cold climates. I had a heat pump in the northwest near Canada (cold down to 20 degrees below 0) and my heat pump provided heat efficiency down to 0 degrees by allowing the furnace to only turn on each stage when the temperature drops.
If you really want to save money with a heat pump, get a geothermal heat pump which means burying the supply line deeper in the ground where the temperature is much cooler than the air and the heat pump is more efficient. In the late 80’s, I was considering putting the heat pump supply line in the septic tank to make it more efficient. |
Both work well. HVAC in Pennsylvania - $235 / month on budget. Heat pump in Florida - $126 / month. Homes about same size. I like my heat pump!
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[QUOTE=Battlebasset;2221751]
Best of all worlds, IMO. Heat pumps make alot of sense in Florida, where you rarely need heat. I had one in NJ, and no way would that have worked without a back up NG gas unit. /QUOTE] That's ridiculous. I have one near Worcester, MA & one in NH. Worcester works perfectly fine all year round. The Electric backup strips ("emergency heat") went one exactly once throughout the winter. The NH house has backup oil heat. It cost less than $200 in fuel to run the backup (house was maintained at 64 degrees), from the time I left for TV in September, through to when I got back to NH in May. |
[QUOTE=BrianL99;2221890]
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