Heating and cooling

[ALAN GEDDES]

Came back from camping a few weeks ago and lighting had totalled out my 10 year old gas furnace/ AC unit. Insurance paid a minimal bit . Have spent a little time on line and am confused about best replacement. Am in south central North Carolina. Is it better to go with a heat pump due to natural gas price increases or shoul I go back to a gas pack ? Some of the prices I have been quoted are unbelievable. Any advice or reccomendations appreciated.

[madjack]

Alan, this is strictly a personal opinion based on personal observations...at one time I was involved in the HVAC field and have never seen a heat pump that worked as advertised...most have an electric heat strip backup that they fall back on...regularly... making them as expensive to run as an electric unit...it is hard to pull heat out of the atmosphere when it is 30 degrees out and it is hard to pull cool out of the air when it is 90+ out..stick with a high efficiency gas unit......JMNSHO
madjack

[Steve_Cox]

Alan.

Have to agree with Jack on this. I put in a heat pump system a couple of years ago, didn't need the heat strip back up here in St Augustine,and it is great for down south. I'd go with conventional A/C and gas heat. You'll get more effeciency for you money spent, up front on equipment and after on energy to run the equipment. Just my opinion.

[asianflava]

My parents have a heatpump unit in FL, it doesn't heat much. Besides, even though gas prices have gone up it won't make that much of a difference if your climate is mild enough to consider a heat pump.

[Jiminsav]

Alan, down here in savannah, you won't find a heat pump too often, because they suck as air conditioners when it's 100 degrees outside.
I have a compressor outside and a air handler inside with electric heat, last year, I used the heat maybe a week total.
so, in conclusion..heat pump would work here in the winter, but it sucks in the summer, so no go on heat pumpage.

[Miriam C.]

Alan
My sister did the heat pump thing. She spent the winter hunting kerosene back ups. She is on propane and it is expensive, but she is wishing they had gone with something energy effecient.

For thos worried about Natural gas becoming expensive or scarce, a lot of electric is now produced by "clean burning gas."

Aunti M

[SteveH]

We used to live in a 1500 sq ft house with a "normal" electric A/C, natural gas heat system. In '99 we moved to a house where gas is not available, natural gas anyway, and we have a heat pump in a 2,200 sq ft house. When we moved, our total utilties bill went down by about 50%. This may have been due to the efficiency numbers of the two units, or the insulation of the two houses, but anyway, our new heat pump system is much more efficent cooling and heating than our old electric/gas system was.

[ALAN GEDDES]

Appreciate the input folks. Keep it coming.

[bledsoe3]

We live in a 2800 sq. ft. house with a heat pump and natural gas back up. The heatpump works fine for cooling and when it's too cold for the heat pump to keep up, the gas furnace kicks in. We had the same set up in our last house and liked it enough to do it again.
This is what we use in the Northwest, YMMV.

[Chip]

Alan,, gas heat and conventional cooling,,, I use the equalized payment plan and this year its 84.00 a month,, plus I got gas hot water and gas logs,,, even if the electricity goes out I can take a hot bath and fire up the gas logs and stay warm,,, Without electricity ya heatpump is a spiffy hunk of metal that will not do anything for you,,
I had a heat pump in my last house and it was cool inside during the winter,,,literally,, just my opinion thar bud

chipper

[asianflava]

Alan,, gas heat and conventional cooling,,, I use the equalized payment plan and this year its 84.00 a month,, plus I got gas hot water and gas logs,,,

I have the same setup, just no gas logs. At this time of year, your bill X 3 is just a little bit more than what we paid this month. Our house is 1900ft single story. The thing that is killing us is that there aren't any trees tall enough to shade our house.