Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have to disagree on this one. I had a business for 16 years in Bellevue, at a total of 3 different locations, all with heat pumps. Every winter, when it got below 20F I would have to use a space heater to keep from freezing to death when the heat pumps iced up and stopped working.
You can still have a backup gas furnace (which is what I have in our house, we use the backup furnace maybe for a week in a year). Also the newer heat pumps are more than capable of getting to 20F, maybe not super efficiently, but definitely you wouldn't be freezing and needing a space heater.
One great thing about heat pumps is that it's not super dry in the house in the winter. Gas furnace forced air systems are terribly dry. We don't make many radiant systems anymore.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
13,072 posts, read 7,508,849 times
Reputation: 9798
^Radiate heaters are not very electricity efficient.
I may want to buy another portable heatpump, which is also not very efficient but a lot less money to obtain. It's not for me but for DS's home which is NG heated.
We live in a top floor condo. Colder months, we enjoy the transmitted and radiate heat from the people below us. Amount of time we use the radiate wall heaters are minutes per month, definitely less than 60 minutes. In the cold spell of 2018, we did use the heaters more, but not that more not much more.
as for OQ- our life style would barely change. We use the Prius <100miles/mn. Walk or bus to most places. I've discovered that my ebike can get me to "most places".
YEMV
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,576 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57813
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guineas
You can still have a backup gas furnace (which is what I have in our house, we use the backup furnace maybe for a week in a year). Also the newer heat pumps are more than capable of getting to 20F, maybe not super efficiently, but definitely you wouldn't be freezing and needing a space heater.
One great thing about heat pumps is that it's not super dry in the house in the winter. Gas furnace forced air systems are terribly dry. We don't make many radiant systems anymore.
We would definitely need the backup gas here, with 3,000 sf and we get well below 20, last winter a few days as low as 9F. In our next, smaller house when we retire, heat pump is more likely.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
