Anybody have a heat pump for home heating system?

The condo I am seriously considering buying employs a combination central air/heat pump. From what I've been able to read, heat is extracted from the outside air utilizing the heat pump action part of it but when the temp drops below 40 degrees, conventional electric coils take over and air blows over them. That part sounds terribly expensive and this type of system sounds to me like it would be inefficient here in the northeast where the temp is rarely above 40 during the winter months. Am I missing something here? From the home inspection report, it says the system should be serviced. How expensive is this generally? What part can I do myself? A real stupid question from one who has never had to encounter this but where is the air filter located? The compressor is outside but there is some sort of furnace/exchange part in a closet on the inside.

The furnace/exchanger part is called a "fan coil". The air filter would probably be located inside where the air return goes in before the blower.

I don't have a heat pump myself but a few of my cousins have one. There's an "E-Heat" switch on the thermostat that fires up the regular heating elements when it's too cold outside to extract heat. Otherwise, it works like a backwards air conditioner in the winter.
(Stand near your air conditioner's condenser outside when it's running; can you feel the heat that is being pumped outside?) Now think of it going backwards and putting heat inside.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

Check with the local electric company to find out how they bill electric central heating. Sometimes there is a significant discount during the winter months above a certain threshold of energy usage, if you have some kind of electric heating permanently installed.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

how cold does it get where you are and for how long? If it's just a week or 2 of below freezing weather you won't be using the electric heat very much, but if it was installed in an area that gets cold for a long time a heat pump will be very expensive to run.

You don't have to do anything manually, it will switch in the electric heating coils by itself when it's necessary. The e-heat switch on the thermostat is for emergency heat, where it won't even try to turn on the compressor if you know there is something wrong with it.

I had a heat pump in the last house, it was VERY expensive for about 6 weeks in the winter, but otherwise not bad. This was in Virginia, so we definitely got some below 40 degree weather, but not much below 0 and only a little big of snow.

If they actually say that the system needs to be serviced, then I'll bet it REALLY needs to be serviced. If it's a condo the last owner probabaly never changed the filter and never had any regular maintenance done. You HAVE to keep the air coil clean or your bill will go through the roof since no air will go through the coil to heat or cool. It doesn't take too many months of running in the house with someone with a dog and no air filter to turn the coil into a solid mass.

Same for the outdoor unit. It pulls airthrough it constantly and so will be full of cottonwood or anything else that is put out by the plants near it. All these things will send your efficiency right through the floor and require the electric heat to come on more and you will pay much more than you have to.

and whatever you do, don't take a power washer to the outdoor unit! I've seen the results and the 3 days with a comb it took the dork to get the fins straightened out.

A yearly contract to maintain a small system like that with a real company shouldn't be more than $150 a year or so at worst. They will come out a couple of times and clean it inside and out. If it's in bad shape initially you'll want all that to be professionally flushed out, so add in another hundred bucks or so in the time it will take them to do it. You will make this money back from an efficiently running system vs a clogged up system. Have the guy show you what you can open up and vacuum out yourself in the future and save some of that fee next year. But don't try to do it before a pro has had a look and given you a tour.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

Thanks for the input James. This is New Englad so stretch your six weeks into about 12-14 here. It is only a one bedroom condo although there is an upstairs and downstairs so with approx 900 square feet, maybe the electric bill won't be too bad. I had electric once in an apartment but it was baseboard, not hot air blowing over coils.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

I've got one in upstate NY. The heat pump is only really useful down to about 35 degrees. Then you switch to "emergency heat," an electric forced air furnace in my case. So, it's not terribly efficient in this climate, and I would not do it again for heat. We get temps in the 20's and lower most of the winter, and it's not unusual to see -10 or less, although not for too long.

BUT... for A/C it's pretty efficient. And while the need for central air in NYS ain't long, having it is really, really nice and it tends to be very cost efficient for that.

All in all it should be cheaper than baseboard, but not in the realm of an oil/gas - fired boiler for heat.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

You may be able to contact the electric utility company, give them the address and request a 12-month history of electricity usage there. This will give you a good idea of what your costs could be.

If natural gas is available in your area, then installing a heat pump (given that it's in New England) was probably a mistake. It was probably decided based on absolute minimum cost of purchase and installation and with no consideration for cost to operate. A lot of building decisions are done that way.

It may actually be more cost effective over a number of years to have a gas system installed rather than spending money maintianing and operating this one.

An exception to this would be if the condo has very little exterior wall area. For instance, if it is in a high-rise building with neighbors or heated space above, below and on 3 sides. This would reduce the heating requirement considerably and would probably make the heat pump affordable to operate.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

Another consideration is how old is the unit? The older the unit, the less efficient it is. Life expectancy is about 8-15 years, but it's often worth upgrading before they die because of drastic increases in efficiency. In some colder climates, heat pumps are still used, but gas heat is used as the auxillary heat instead of electric electric strip heaters.

A good way to get the scoop for your area (if you don't want to do the research yourself) is to call two different HVAC contractors, and ask for a price on upgrading your __ year old heat pump. One of them should specialize in gas and the other traditional pumps. You'll get an ear full on both sides.

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

We've had heat pumps at the last three places we've had, and I have no major complaints. Didn't seem to be appreciably more or less expensive than when we had gas heat. How well the place is insulated should have more of a bearing on heating costs than whether you have gas or electric heat. There is very little you can do to "service" a heat pump yourself except for changing the filter. I've got a friend that installs heat pumps and furnaces for a living, and I let him do any work that is needed on our system.

-Keith

Re: Anybody have a heat pump for home heating syst

I've got a heat pump and a 90 plus gas furnace. It is much cheaper and warmer to run a 90 plus furnace if it gets very cold.