this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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What do you consider cold? I have one in central Ohio. It was my primary winter heat source until I had gas installed a few years back. Now the price of gas is so cheap I don't run the heat pump in the winter. Obviously still use it for AC in the summer.
Iβm in central Ohio as well and had one installed when my coil died in my home a few years ago. It works fairly well down into about the low thirties, but beyond that the aux heat (gas, I kept my furnace) flips on.
There is a point where the temp dips low enough to render mine useless, but we have some at my office that work in the mid to low twenties(!)
I like the idea of heat pumps for efficiency, but I fear I would be like you. I'm in a mild climate and my (gas heat) winter utility bills are so low already I have a feeling a more efficient heat pump would actually cost more to run.
A few years ago I created a spreadsheet where I can plug in electric and gas prices. It shows me which is the cheaper option to heat with. And year after year despite my heat pump being ~3x as efficient as my gas furnace the furnace has been hands-down cheaper to run. So I just leave the thermostat on Aux all winter. One day I suspect it will flip but that hasn't happened yet.
My perfect world would be solar and batteries and a heat pump install. Free power and heating.
Unfortunately or fortunetly depending on how you look at it, both gas and electric is relatively cheap in my neck of the woods so it would take forever to pay for itself.
I went down the solar rabbit hole a year or two ago, unfortunately my house is oriented in a crappy direction and coupled with a bunch of old-growth trees there was no scenario where I would even break-even in the 20 year life expectancy of the panels. Maybe some day that will change.
Like you said though, I'm in the same boat where electric and gas are both quite cheap here.
Iβm north of the 49th parallel so my winters get a fair bit colder than yours.
When you did use it in the winter did it ever struggle?
Yeah, when it would drop below about 25-30 degrees F it couldn't keep up and the aux heat would kick in. Which at the time was VERY expensive dual 10,000 Watt electric coils in the ductwork.
Mine is an older model though from 2007 I think. I know the newer ones are MUCH better and some can go sub-zero.
Isn't it really how well your home is insulated and whether the heat pump can keep up with the escaping heat?
no, heat pumps are rated for and work most efficiently at a specific temperature range. You're pumping energy from outside in, so the outside temperature matters a lot.
you can have all the insulation in the world and it won't matter if the heat pump can't transfer that energy.
For heating specifically, heat pumps do leβt really work well (just yet). Iβm well south of you and itβs cheaper to use gas than a heat pump. Maybe you could pair it with a geothermal sink to increase efficiency?