We haven’t experienced any issues with our heat pump.

We have a new EE heat pump and it struggles when temps get into 30s. We use oil heat as back up then.

We have a high end heat pump from Carrier and it has zero issues. It uses the backup heat strips when necessary but I am not seeing them kicking it very often. The performance of the system will depend on the specific heat pump in the house and on how well the ducting system is designed. Gas won’t make a difference if your ducts are not well designed.

The ability of the heat pump to effectively heat your house declines as temp decreases. Starting watts for heat pump is also very high so you would need a large generator to keep it running during a power outage.

At least when you freeze to death you won’t be adding to co2 emissions so you will be helping the climate crisis anyway. Think on the bright side!

Anonymous wrote:We're going into negative numbers this week I hope my heat pump can handle this.

Not in the DC area.

Anonymous wrote:Our upstairs heat pump has an "Emergency heat" setting that I was told to switch to in very cold situations. Basically I think it bypasses the outdoor unit in favor of the (warmer) attic unit?

Usually, it uses the electric "backup" heat instead of the heat pump.

It depends on what refrigerant your system uses. Newer systems are now available that use different refrigerants and very good cold weather performance. However, the fact that a system is newer is not sufficient to ensure good cold weather performance. The specifics of the installed technology matter.

Our upstairs heat pump has an "Emergency heat" setting that I was told to switch to in very cold situations. Basically I think it bypasses the outdoor unit in favor of the (warmer) attic unit?

I have an all-electric house with a heat pump installed in 2024 (converted from oil). We have no gas or oil backup. It will struggle to go over 60 degrees in next week’s temperatures. Our electric bill will be huge. The house also has old single plane windows that no doubt contribute to heat loss. We use space heaters as needed and might turn on the auxiliary heat.

We're going into negative numbers this week I hope my heat pump can handle this.

My heat pump is 10 years old. The breakeven point is around 10-12 degrees. At that point the heat loss from my home meets what the heat pump can provide from the ambient air. I need to see what the outdoor thermostat is set to, but I am not allowed to make changes this week. If it gets to single digits, I will turn on some space heaters and lower the thermostat a bit.

We have a "modern" one and it struggles when the temps go below freezing.

The modern ones work great, even in very low temps. But if the house has reallly old windows, poor insulation, that can be a challenge

For those who have heat pump for heating in the house, what have your experiences been? I am interested a listed house, yet besides it is facing a major road it is using heat pump for heating. Since we are having the coming storm and very cold temperature for several days, I would like to hear some real feedback if heat pump really works generally in DMV area.