Reply to Does your heat pump heat your home in our climate?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Heat pumps are fine but if you are used to gas heat and then move to heat pump, it will not feel as warm.

Gas heat feels warmer if that makes sense. Heat pump is not as intense heat. [/quote]
That's right. Heat pump heat is dry and drafty. It only feel warm if it goes to emergency/ electric heat, which uses more electricity. You need a whole house humidifyer, too. Other than that, it's fine.[/quote]

Umm this isn't true - heat pumps actually put out more humid air - it is one of the subtle benefits.[/quote]

No heating system dries or humidifies the air.

The reason indoor air is drier during the heating season is that cold outdoor air holds a lot less moisture than warm air. When that outdoor air leaks into the house and is warmed up it feels dry.

Forced air heat of any kind will make a house leak more air than a heating system that doesn't use pressurized air, like radiators. In traditional forced air you have a vent in just about every room and one or more returns. To get the air to flow, the vents are slightly pressurized, and the returns create a slight vacuum. If the house is leaky, the pressure causes more air to leak out, and the vacuum causes more air to leak in.

All other things being equal, forced air will make a house leak more than radiators, and a forced air system that moves less air will cause a house to leak less than one that moves more air. One of the things about minisplit systems is that the return and vent are in the same spot and they don't create a pressure differential that increases leakage.

You get the same effect in the summer -- running the air conditioning increases air leakage. Except in the summer the outdoor air is more humid than the indoor air, so it makes the inside more humid rather than drier. [/quote]

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