Calling Heating & Air man

[g+16]

Big question: I had a heatpump system put in when I rebuilt my house, it will do a great job in summer, with all the heat this year and the hightest light bill was barely over $200. But in the past 2 winters it's nuts with the smallest being 450 and the largest (4 times) being over $800, i've had it checked by two local large companys and they find nothing wrong with the system but can not explain the high bills in winter and lower bills in summer. My main question is there anyway I can unplug the back-up electric furnace? or just how much of a hassell would it be to change over to gas (I had gas with the old house), and could I keep he same AC unit outside. The bills ext. are per month.
asking for a little help here

 

[O2guy]

I know som manufactures offer a dual fuel kit, where you can tie a gas furnace into a heat pump system, while allowing the heat pump remain the primary heat source down to approx 38-40 degrees then allows gas furnace to override in colder temps..

 

[eldirector]

In my experience (not a HVAC guy), heat pumps just aren't efficient in the winter, when the temp gets real low. That's why they have heating elements, which are electric, and just not efficient either.

No reason why you couldn't add a gas furnace and keep the heat pump for cooling. It might not be cheap, though. I don't know what a decent furnace is running these days.

The heat strip in your current setup can be disabled a couple of ways. I'll let the pros tell you how to mess with that, though!

I don't know where you are located, but Chapman treated me pretty well on my new AC unit this summer.

 

[IndyBeerman]

In my experience (not a HVAC guy), heat pumps just aren't efficient in the winter, when the temp gets real low. That's why they have heating elements, which are electric, and just not efficient either.

No reason why you couldn't add a gas furnace and keep the heat pump for cooling. It might not be cheap, though. I don't know what a decent furnace is running these days.

The heat strip in your current setup can be disabled a couple of ways. I'll let the pros tell you how to mess with that, though!

I don't know where you are located, but Chapman treated me pretty well on my new AC unit this summer.

First of all, today's new heat pumps are VERY efficient, mine is currently 3 years old, has a heat rating of 9.0 HSPF and a cooling SEER of 16.5 and will run with the heat pump down to 18 degrees before my backup 96% gas furnace kicks it.

Second, a heat pump does not have to have electric back up, it was just what was pushed upon people as what most people thought was more efficient/cheaper price before the the real numbers started being published on the newer 90%+ gas systems.

Over the first 3 years hear at our house we had an older Trane gas furnace and Central air, and our typical gas bill was 500+ dollars in Jan and Feb with a electric bill around 150.00.

Then we got the new system installed as part of the IAA (Indianapolis Airport Authority) soundproofing package and the gas furnace was a Carrier Infinity rated at 96% efficient, with a 13 SEER AC.

So we ponied up the extra cash and upgraded it to a hybrid system rated at 16.5 SEER for AC and 9.0 HSPF for heating. Our last 2 years the Jan and Feb gas bills was under 200.00 and the electric bill has only went up 15.00 to 165.00. We think this is mostly lighting because we now run our outside lights around the house from sunset to sunrise for security reasons.

Over all it cost us 3600.00 to upgrade and as of last August having the new system for 2 years, it has paid for itself to be upgraded.

Big thing is don't let PRICING scare you, if you get a quality system installed correctly that is properly sized for the house and is efficient enough, it will pay for itself in the short and long term.

Because of the savings we get, we decided to open a separate savings account and put exactly half of what we thought we saved into to it pay for a new system in 15 or so years when this has reached it peak life expectancy.

 

[lovemachine]

Heat pumps do work great. But, with Indiana weather, they can suck big chunky ass.

I went to school for HVAC