Heat pump use in northern maine (how much, motel, house)

[TheQueenOfFrenchToast]

Hello all.
I relocated to northern Maine in November last year and survived a pretty cold winter. My house has oil heat, but I mostly used the wood stove to heat. While I'm not an expert on how much wood is in a row, my house had several rows of wood in the yard and also in the garage. It's a regular sized garage that had wood in two rows about the length of a car. It was about 8 feet high and 12 feet long. I used most of that for the winter.

The yard has at least 3-4 years of wood to use for heat. Also the oil furnace works well, but mostly as a water heater and heat at night.

My question is should I consider a heat pump? The wood will eventually run out and oil is up and down in price. Would the best course be to get a heat pump? Does anyone have any experience using heat pumps? I am a widow and don't have a man any longer to sort through these kind of things. The company (dead river suggested a heat pump installed for 3500.00, it is worth 18000 btu and also cools at 15000 btu, but I can't imagine using a/c this far north.

I love your state and its people, I just want to keep warm. Thank you for any help

[maineguy8888]

They work great, according to my neighbors. You can get a rebate for installing them, from Efficiency Maine.
They come in different sizes, depending on the size/needs of your house.
There are several places up here installing them, look around.

[maineborzoi]

Heat pumps would actually be a waste in Maine. The heat pump is designed to use in temps at 32 degrees- below that and you have pure electric heat.

When we lived on the mountain in Virginia, we had dual fuel heat. We had a heat pump, that operated at 32 degrees or above, and then a propane forced air furnance. We largely used our wood stove insert, thus the propane rarely kicked on.

Our first winter here, and it was a record breaker, we made it all winter on two woodstoves. Lowest temp ( wind chill ) was -33 while lost temp was -24.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I have been on this Maine board nearly eight years. I said many times that nobody in Maine has ever saved money by using a heat pump. That was true until about three years ago. At that time, I backed off on my comments regarding heat pumps and took a wait and see position. My original comments are still correct on those original heat pumps that used deep water circulation.

About three years ago we began to see small heat pumps called "mini-splits". ALL of the energy from them is truthfully electric heat. The new factor is the efficiency and the slow fan that moves heat. When home heating oil was selling for $4.85 a gallon the mini-splits produced more heat at lower cost than oil. With home heating oil at $2.85 a gallon It may be a wash.

Nobody knows how long one of these mini-splits will last or how high the service costs may be, but they are quiet, clean and do produce comfortable heat in small areas. I stayed at a motel on April 18 where the mini-split was the sole source of heat.

[maineguy8888]

You have to have another heat source to go with the heat pump for really cold days, and the OP does

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I know. My point s that these new mini-splits may be cost effective. Th old heat pumps definitely were not.

[gf2020]

Th newer mini-split systems from Fujitsu and Mitsubishi are very efficient and highly regarded. I don't know if the $3500 price from Dead River is good or not - I would seek alternate bids - but if this is what you mean by "heat pump" then the technology is widely used and could be a good option for you.

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by maineborzoi

Heat pumps would actually be a waste in Maine. The heat pump is designed to use in temps at 32 degrees- below that and you have pure electric heat.

When we lived on the mountain in Virginia, we had dual fuel heat. We had a heat pump, that operated at 32 degrees or above, and then a propane forced air furnance. We largely used our wood stove insert, thus the propane rarely kicked on.

Our first winter here, and it was a record breaker, we made it all winter on two woodstoves. Lowest temp ( wind chill ) was -33 while lost temp was -24.

I *think* that the heat pumps in Maine are a different breed than the heat pumps we had in Virginia. I swear, I never felt warm during the winter months with a heat pump. On the other hand, I was fine this past winter, and it was a whole lot colder here than it ever was when we lived in Virginia!

In Virginia, the basic premise of the heat pump was that it could extract warm air molecules from the air outside, no matter how cold it was. In my opinion, it just didn't work. It was fine in the summer - did a good job of extracting moisture from the air as well as cooling the air. But extracting warm air molecules?

If that's the basic premise of heat pumps in Maine, they must have really tweaked the technology to handle Maine's cold winters.

As it is, just the phrase "heat pump" was enough for my wife and I to not even consider going in that direction when we were looking to replace our very old oil boiler.

[bangorme]

I've got a friend that installs heat pumps and, according to him, they are unsuitable for heating in Maine. At best they can provide heat during the shoulder seasons and provide some supplemental heat during the winter when it isn't too cold. Now, I'm talking about heat pumps that are using outside air to produce the heat. There are heat pumps that take heat from groundwater, and they do work, but bring with them a bunch of other problems relating to all the wells you need and plumbing complications.

When I lived in Georgia, we used heat pumps for heating and cooling. Georgia, at least at that time, produced much of its electricity with atomic power, so it was fairly cheap. Maine's electricity is expensive, so I just have a hard time coming up with a scenario where the heat pump technology would ever be cost effective here.

[Submariner]

There is a radio show on 103.9FM WVOM called 'Hot and Cold', 8am to 10am on Saturdays. They discuss home heating systems and insulation.

They used to be against Heat Pumps in Maine. Said that slick contractors have tried to sell them in Maine for years. But 3 to 5 years ago, Mini-Split units with variable rpm compressors hit the market. Now they have changed their advise.

If you use electric to heat your home [the most expensive method], or if you use oil [the second most expensive method], then getting a mini-split Heat Pump should save you some.