techbeck Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Anyone have experience with heat pumps for the home? I am living in a condo and I used almost twice as much power during the month of February than I did during January. And my bill reflected that. I read that head pumps are not efficient and do not work below freezing and conflicting things on whether or not they are more expensive to run compared to an electric furnace. I have both an electric furnace and a heat pump. Unfortunately, no gas heating. The thermostat also says AUX heating a lot of the time a well. Whatever the heck that means. I live in N IL and it has been a colder than usual winter, but I am paying more for electricity it seams than when I lived in AZ during the summer and temps from 120-130. HVAC is not my thing so please, dumb down your responses. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted March 5, 2019 Global Moderator Share Posted March 5, 2019 It costs more to heat your home. Heat pumps are not efficient in really cold weather....below 32ish degrees (depending on system of course). Heat pumps handle both your AC and heating ... by reversing direction depending on what you need (during the summer it removes heat from the inside ... during winter it reverses to bring in heat from the outside). When it gets really cold outside ... your heat pump isn't able to bring enough outdoor heat to heat your home and/or your outside coils freeze over. Your Aux Heat is telling you that it is too cold outside and it is unable to bring in enough outside heat. Therefore it is now using the heater coils (which uses more electricity than normal) and it's probably reversed (back to "AC") to transfer indoor heat to defrost your frozen-over outdoor coils. With respect to heat pump and the furnace ... the pump will be way cheaper under normal operations. Even with your really cold outside temps ... I would still assume the heat pump + aux heat would be cheaper to run. I think the furnace would only need to be ran if the heat pump lost the battle and ice is forming indoors. /shrug (we don't have that problem down here in Alabama) Clear as mud? Edit: This explains what I was trying to say better and in only 4 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techbeck Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 1 hour ago, Jim K said: It costs more to heat your home. Heat pumps are not efficient in really cold weather....below 32ish degrees (depending on system of course). Heat pumps handle both your AC and heating ... by reversing direction depending on what you need (during the summer it removes heat from the inside ... during winter it reverses to bring in heat from the outside). When it gets really cold outside ... your heat pump isn't able to bring enough outdoor heat to heat your home and/or your outside coils freeze over. Your Aux Heat is telling you that it is too cold outside and it is unable to bring in enough outside heat. Therefore it is now using the heater coils (which uses more electricity than normal) and it's probably reversed (back to "AC") to transfer indoor heat to defrost your frozen-over outdoor coils. With respect to heat pump and the furnace ... the pump will be way cheaper under normal operations. Even with your really cold outside temps ... I would still assume the heat pump + aux heat would be cheaper to run. I think the furnace would only need to be ran if the heat pump lost the battle and ice is forming indoors. /shrug (we don't have that problem down here in Alabama) Clear as mud? Edit: This explains what I was trying to say better and in only 4 minutes. So should I turn off my heat pump and let the furnace run on its own then when it is to cold? I have breakers that control just the heat pump so I can flip them off when needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted March 5, 2019 Global Moderator Share Posted March 5, 2019 Probably not. I would think that as long as the heat pump (even with Aux Heat) is keeping your house adequately warm it would still be using less energy than the electric furnace. The only situation where I could see the furnace being used is when the heat pump isn't providing adequate heat. That is the main advantage of a furnace ... it will get hot regardless of the outside temp. Not sure if your power company is similar to mine ... but I can go online and see daily power usage. If so, you could try the furnace for a day or two and compare the power consumption. Though, I would wager your power consumption would go up (or maybe not). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techbeck Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 19 minutes ago, Jim K said: Probably not. I would think that as long as the heat pump (even with Aux Heat) is keeping your house adequately warm it would still be using less energy than the electric furnace. The only situation where I could see the furnace being used is when the heat pump isn't providing adequate heat. That is the main advantage of a furnace ... it will get hot regardless of the outside temp. Not sure if your power company is similar to mine ... but I can go online and see daily power usage. If so, you could try the furnace for a day or two and compare the power consumption. Though, I would wager your power consumption would go up (or maybe not). Comed....what I have and I am feeling like I am getting bent over for the charges. They have a free service where the will come out and evaluate things/check things out. I am going to call tomorrow. Thanks for the info tho. Will help me not seem like a total fool. haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted March 5, 2019 Global Moderator Share Posted March 5, 2019 It doesn't hurt to have your AC unit checked yearly (or even twice a year). Might be something to look into. However, I just happened to look up the temps for Illinois and you all have been having some temps in the 10's. Your heat pump will really struggle with that...kinda surprised you haven't kicked on the furnace. Once again ... they are not very efficient in really cold weather which will cause your energy bill to skyrocket. I'm not very familiar with the cost of running electric furnaces (Alabama...don't need 'em) ... might be a question for whoever comes out tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Biscuits Brown MVC Posted March 5, 2019 MVC Share Posted March 5, 2019 Yep, we have a heat pump and it does go through a lot of electricity if the difference between the outside temp and inside is greater than 30 degrees F in the winter. That's about the limit our unit will be able to heat without turning on the auxiliary heater coils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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