Does your heat pump heat your home in our climate?

[Anonymous]

We have a heat pump and it keeps our house nice and toasty all winter. No issues. Personally I slightly prefer radiator heat, whereas most heat pumps are air-based. But it is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

They are supposed to run, it's more efficient than turning on and off.

I don't know what's up with your dryer, I don't have that issue at all. I've had only electricity (no gas) for over 15 years. Now I have solar to help with the bills too. I'm considering a wood stove for ambiance and power outages, but I'll never have gas.

[Anonymous]

No thanks, when we built our new home a few years ago I put gas heat on all floors. Didn't like the heatpump never felt hot air and to make it feel hot enough had to spend a bunch of money running the heat strips

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

They are supposed to run, it's more efficient than turning on and off.

I don't know what's up with your dryer, I don't have that issue at all. I've had only electricity (no gas) for over 15 years. Now I have solar to help with the bills too. I'm considering a wood stove for ambiance and power outages, but I'll never have gas.

I've noticed if it runs all day I have a really really high electric bill. It costs me more money. It may be mire efficient butnit certainly isnt cheap. 17 hours is too long in my opinion on a 50 degree day. We do have a woodburning stove in the basement. If we use that it warms the whole house and the heating system will run less time but I only do that in the middle of winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

Modern heat pumps do this thing called modulating. Instead of having only one speed and turning on and off, the compressor has a variable speed motor. It monitors the demand for heat and runs the compressor continuously at just the right speed to produce exactly as much heat as is needed. If it gets colder it speeds up, if it warms up it slows down. It's more efficient and easier on the motor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

Modern heat pumps do this thing called modulating. Instead of having only one speed and turning on and off, the compressor has a variable speed motor. It monitors the demand for heat and runs the compressor continuously at just the right speed to produce exactly as much heat as is needed. If it gets colder it speeds up, if it warms up it slows down. It's more efficient and easier on the motor.

It's not less cheap though. Look I accept that I'm paying more money for efficiency.

[Anonymous]

Also heat pumps/ac single units die quicker as it's running year round.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

I have to wonder about the quality of new construction. We haven't turned the heat on at all today in MoCo and our house, built in 1990, is at 68 degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also heat pumps/ac single units die quicker as it's running year round.

Well, sure. But you're only on the hook to replace one device, not two.

And nothing lasts like they used to. Too damned much planned obsolescence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

Modern heat pumps do this thing called modulating. Instead of having only one speed and turning on and off, the compressor has a variable speed motor. It monitors the demand for heat and runs the compressor continuously at just the right speed to produce exactly as much heat as is needed. If it gets colder it speeds up, if it warms up it slows down. It's more efficient and easier on the motor.

It's not less cheap though. Look I accept that I'm paying more money for efficiency.

Agreed. Weather's only getting more extreme. I'm doing my part with clean elec.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

They are supposed to run, it's more efficient than turning on and off.

I don't know what's up with your dryer, I don't have that issue at all. I've had only electricity (no gas) for over 15 years. Now I have solar to help with the bills too. I'm considering a wood stove for ambiance and power outages, but I'll never have gas.

I've noticed if it runs all day I have a really really high electric bill. It costs me more money. It may be mire efficient butnit certainly isnt cheap. 17 hours is too long in my opinion on a 50 degree day. We do have a woodburning stove in the basement. If we use that it warms the whole house and the heating system will run less time but I only do that in the middle of winter.

Something is wrong with your system if it is running for 17 hours on a 50F day.

[Anonymous]

Ninety percent of people are better spending a couple thousand dollars on air sealing hyper insulating their drafyy homes. That is the issue.

It's hard and expensive to heat a tent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ninety percent of people are better spending a couple thousand dollars on air sealing hyper insulating their drafyy homes. That is the issue.

It's hard and expensive to heat a tent.

And it's especially hard to use a heat pump to heat a tent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

I have to wonder about the quality of new construction. We haven't turned the heat on at all today in MoCo and our house, built in 1990, is at 68 degrees.

The efficiency part of the building code is far, far stricter than it was 30 years ago, it barely existed then. Now it's possible that a house built back then was built better than code, and not every jurisdiction has adopted the most recent codes nor are they always enforced. But in general today's houses are much better insulated than at any time in the past.

But yesterday was clear and sunny, on a mild day solar gain alone can keep a house comfortable. Solar gain is not by itself a sign of quality; excessive solar gain is a sign of poor design.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a heat pump that's on today. It's set to 69 and had been running all day although it was 50 degrees outside. I hear it running and think of all the dollars in electricity that are going out the door. I asked both my builder and the hvac installer why the system runs all day and they say when you get below 30 degrees heat pumps loose efficiency. I'll get a few hundred dollar electric bill. I lie to myself and say this is efficient just like my electric dryer that requires 2 cycles to dry a load. I can see through the app how many hours my system has been running. My house is brand new and well insulated.

In my old house I had a gas furnace and gas dryer. It easily got my house to temp and didn't run nearly as as long to maintain the temp and overall was cheaper in monthly cost. That was also a brand new house that was well insulated. Same thing with my clothes dryer. I used to have dry loads before the dryer finished the cycle. The joy on my new house is i have all day sun so in the summer i just hang clothes outside to dry. Its better and faster than the electric dryer.

I tell myself I'm being doing the right thing by choosing electric.

I have to wonder about the quality of new construction. We haven't turned the heat on at all today in MoCo and our house, built in 1990, is at 68 degrees.

The efficiency part of the building code is far, far stricter than it was 30 years ago, it barely existed then. Now it's possible that a house built back then was built better than code, and not every jurisdiction has adopted the most recent codes nor are they always enforced. But in general today's houses are much better insulated than at any time in the past.

But yesterday was clear and sunny, on a mild day solar gain alone can keep a house comfortable. Solar gain is not by itself a sign of quality; excessive solar gain is a sign of poor design.

Fair enough. We do get a lot of light in the afternoon.

I'm curious about the timeline for increases in efficiency requirements. The draftiest house I lived in was a 2003 townhome. You could feel the wind coming right through the windows.