Pros, are your customers happy with heat pumps?

[kevster]

Personally I am a firm believer in the heat pump. Of course, I live in central Florida where we see the mid to upper 20's a few times a year. As compared to electric heat the economics are a no brainer. I've had success using a time delay on the blower fan to allow the evap coil to get hot before the air starts blowing.

I recommend them to MOST customers with electric heat strips.

[Airmechanical]

I've had success using a time delay on the blower fan to allow the evap coil to get hot before the air starts blowing.

i would not recommend that unless you are a seasoned HVAC technician

that time delay is a scary thought, because on the days where the temperature is just cool enough to run the heat pump

your compressor is straining due to excessive high pressure which can be dangerous as well



.

[2old2rock]

I agree with several previous posts about improper installation, and mis-information to the end user.
Heat pumps can save a great deal, sized properly, and controlled properly.
Making sure customers understand the limitations of HP's goes a long way.
Fluctuating gas and electric prices make the economic balance point a crap shoot. Had a customer with LP as back up, and he wanted to know to the penny what his balance point should be. Told him let us know each month what his electric and LP prices are, and we could give him that info. He dropped the subject pretty quickly.
As far as what we have installed, customers have been pleased with the savngs and performance.
We don't promise huge reductions in utility bills, and if a system is blowing cold air it's not the HP's fault. We go there and fix the problem.

[kevster]

i would not recommend that unless you are a seasoned HVAC technician

that time delay is a scary thought, because on the days where the temperature is just cool enough to run the heat pump

your compressor is straining due to excessive high pressure which can be dangerous as well



.

Point taken and agreed Airmechanical, that time delay needs to be tweaked to the proper length and can be done with experience and seasoning. I regularly use the time delay for customers who complain of cold air at start-up and have been doing so for many years. Can't recall a problem as of yet. I am very careful and precise with this practice though.

[2old2rock]

And that time delay thing isn't a good idea.

[Airmechanical]

And that time delay thing isn't a good idea.

it's a good idea if he would just......

wait a minute, this belongs in the technical section



.

[green jumper]

The key in his post is he had straight electric heat. If you have natural gas at least in my area it is best to use natural gas.

Natural gas in california is to cheep and doesnt save any money compared to a heat pump system. We did the numbers around the bay here and could not find an area where we'd reccomend a hp if you already have a gas furnace.

Now we did the numbers for my father that lives in the el dorado hills above sacramento with a propane fired central furnace, and it does make sense, we put in an 18 seer a/s hp with a 92% furnace and his return on investment is like 3 years. (of course he didnt pay retail for the equipment so its a bit quicker then average)

The other great thing about duel fuel which rids yourself of a complaint of hp systems is quick defrost and when in defrost you can be putting alot of heat over that coil so you dont get cold air out of the vents.

As far as heat pump systems here, we've found that the reason people dislike them and how we can fix them is improving the building envelope, to many people here have poor wall insulation or large single pane windows that are leaky and pull heat out of you, these people are always comfortable with gas fired furnace because they feel the draft ontop of them and theres no defrost mode nad this counters all of the radiant heat loss there bodys get from the walls and windows. So you couple the poor windows and walls, with a heat pump that doesnt have a high temp split, and the occasional defrost, its going to make them uncomfortable.

And on the bonus you can downsize the system after you tighten up the house.

I really need to get into the window and insulation business with how much I talk about improving that instead of putting money into a higher efficency furnace.

[beenthere]

Can you give an infiltration rate and R value?
I guess it also depends on the 97.5 percentile outside temps.

JMO

If you live in maryland. And you have a heat pump with electric aux heat.
And your thermo balance point is above 35°F, you need more insulation, and or need to reduce your infiltration.

[protechplumbing]

I’ve got a 10 year old 4 ton heat pump (york). I have no complaints. Gas is not an option because the line that runs down my street stops 4 lots from my house. It frosts up even in central Florida’s mild winters but I just spray it down with recycled rain water (red neck water source heat pump). When this old unit dies I’ll probably go with a climate master gshp with vertical wells.

[WhoIsThat?]

The ground source pumps seem like a good idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump

[mwjhvac]

Here in Minnesota with off peak power at $.05kw and nat gas at $1.15 a therm or propane at $2.10 a gal. Heat pump is a no brain er. huge savings. We use Carrier Infinity set lock out at 15-25 degrees depending on balance point and comfort. Back up is a 95% Carrier Infinity furnace. I have had great feedback on savings.

[geodude]

My most satisfied customers are those with geothermal heatpumps...

[andserco]

The main problems I see with customers complaining about their HP is, the system has install issues or the controls are not set up correctly..HPs work really well in my part of the country (North TX)..