Glassquilt

Are you gas or oil?
Do you have the duct work for air?
Is you house well insulated?

QKO

I think the fact that there are several types of heat pumps can cause misunderstandings here:

"Forced air" refers only to how the heat is distributed, not how it's produced. A fan distributes (forces) the heated (or cooled) air through a system of ducts to various rooms in the house, thus the term "forced air."

Air source heat pumps, like those used in California and other warm-weather states, can only extract heat from the air down to about, or slightly below the freezing point of water (i.e. 0c or 32F) Below that they typically have an electrical resistance heater as a backup, and yes, they use plenty of electricity when it gets really cold outside.

Heat pumps may use forced air to distribute heat, or like a furnace, they can also use hot water in pipes under the floor, or radiators to distribute the heat. (convection or radiant heat).

Our geosource heat pump is a forced air system.

Furnaces produce heat by burning fuel such as oil, natural gas or propane (or even wood, corn or wood pellets), or by heating electrical elements by using lots of electricity (aka resistance heating.)

Geosource (aka geothermal) heat pumps don't produce heat. They extract natural heat from the ground or water, concentrate it and move it into the home. No electricity is used in the production of the heat, only in moving it from the ground into your house.

Since no fuel is being burned or electricity consumed in the production of the heat, geosource heat pumps are far more efficient than are furnaces or resistance heaters of any sort.

As an example -- our 4500 square foot house in Minnesota, a cold region if there is one -- was heated and cooled via a ground water source heat pump (heat was extracted from groundwater). It also had a heat recovery ventilation system and excellent insulation. Heating and air conditioning averaged 50 dollars a month on an annualized basis, with the top months of January and February averaging about 100-125 dollars a month. Most of our neighbors, who were using propane furnaces, were averaging over 300 dollars a month in propane alone, and this is when propane was selling for about 1.50/gallon.

Our new house in Nevada has a lot more windows but is also well-insulated. It is in the high desert, where we do have fairly cold winters and hot summers, but not as cold as Minn, nor as hot as southern Nevada.

Our house is 2600 square feet and is a single story, which makes it less efficient than the three story home we had in MN. Here we use a ground-source geothermal heat pump, i.e. buried lines carrying methanol coolant through the ground to absorb (in the winter) or shed (in the summer) heat from/to the ground. Water-source heat pumps aren't used here much because of the lack of water, unless return wells are used in closed-loop systems.

In the coldest winter months and hottest summer months, we pay approximately 100 dollars a month extra (over the standing requirements of the house) for heating and or air conditioning. We use no propane or other fuel for heating. This compares quite favorably with most of our neighbors with similar-sized houses, who pay anywhere from 400-600 dollars a month in propane costs for heating during the coldest winter months, and several hundred dollars/month for additional electricity for standard air/exchange A/C in the summer.

As a bonus, our heat pump also uses bleed heat from the heating/cooling system to heat our hot water when it's running, saving on electricity in that area as well.

Geosource heat pumps are becoming very popular in the coldest states simply because they save so much money in heating/cooling costs. They cost more to install, but the payback time for the extra installation cost is pretty low. In our case we figured it was about 4 years -- since then it's been all profit.

In fact, the heat pump we have in our house here was manufactured in, and the company is located in Minnesota. See the link I posted above for more information -- no interest in the company, just an extremely satisfied customer.

susie0808

I have had oil heat growing up. I have gas heat in my own home. Prefer gas. 6 yrs ago replaced furnace and it cost us $2700.00 for the furnace. Water heater needed to be replaced too and cost $750.00. Expensive yr. but it runs more efficiently now.

calla

Natural gas forced air here, and when we upgraded 20 yrs ago was told by tech not to put in a 90% energy effecent unit. Because our home has 2 x 4 walls, not 2 x 6 and windows were 20 yrs old. It would of been cost effective. Went with an 80% effency unit. Also it didn't require something about a thing for the exaust. Good Luck.....calla and yes, need heat soon. One thing I like about boilers is the air seems warmer.........and even. I am trying to hold off putting on the electric blanket until Nov. calla