Pros, are your customers happy with heat pumps?

[edward301]

Heat pumps installed, and balanced correctly are great. I have a customer
with a big ranch house, and no gas, only electricity. They have 5 heat
pump systems that they were not happy with for many years. I was
referred to them, and went to their ranch to check out there systems.
All 5 systems Lennox systems, 2 were working correctly, but ran parts
of the house rarely used, the other 3 were 5 ton hp's running the main
part of the house, and large living-dining area with 20' ceilings. These
3 systems cooled great, but heat mode was poor, so they ran on electric
heat most of the time. They just wanted them fixed, and cost not a big
issue if they were fixed.

I stayed there for 6 hours going through these 3 systems, and found
wrong fan speeds, bad sensors, and under charged/over charged units.
When I finished I felt I had cured their problems, and when the following
winter arrived, I got a call from them saying these units were pouring out
the heat, they had never worked that good.

The biggest problem is technicians do not stay there long enough to
properly balance the charge between heat/cool cycles.

[gary_g]

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

My air handler came with a factory installed Time Delay Relay. Turn on delay is 7 seconds. Turn off delay is 65 seconds. Not adjustable.

[gary_g]

My wife doesn't like the idea of a heat pump. Her grandmother who lived in the N. Georgia mountains had one and every time my wife would visit her, she says she nearly froze to death. Per my wife, all it did was put out cold air. This was probably 20 years ago btw.

Here is temperature output data for my 3-ton, R22, 9 HSPF Goodman heat pump based on 70F return air temperature:

Outdoor--------Temp after
Temp-----------indoor coil

55F--------------103.7F
50F--------------101.5F
45F--------------99.1F
40F--------------97.1
35F--------------95F
30F--------------93.4F
25F--------------91.6F
20F--------------89.9F
15F--------------88.1F
10F--------------86.2F
5F---------------84.4F
0F---------------82.6F

[geodude]

My air handler came with a factory installed Time Delay Relay. Turn on delay is 7 seconds. Turn off delay is 65 seconds. Not adjustable.

Get a new one

[chadakaira]

The answer is Dual fuel (AKA Hybred) go with a heat pump with a gas furnace, The outdoor sensor will shut duwn the heat pump and fire the furn when the temp is to low for the heat pump to keep up, The cost is a bit more but with the correct T-stat you can have it do whatever ya want, you can go full time heat pump, or full time Gas, or you can use it as it's designed to switch between as needed for indoor temp. Very cost effective where fuel costs are higher than electric or vice versa.

[Daltex]

I have a HP and love it. Hybrid Infinity w/ 80% gas furnace.


I picked it over straight AC/Gas because in my situation the shoulder season was the killer. It gets very hot in the summer months and for about two months can get very cold (20's are very cold to a Texas).

There are times in Jan./Feb. that you kick on the AC to cool the house.

I was also concerned about the supply temps. in the coldest days and during the defrost cycle. That's why I didn't go straight HP with strips. According to my Infinity controller I have run the furnace for less than 10 hours this past winter.

The key to my success is the location I'm in along with proper ductwork. My static is below .3 WC. I can barly feel the supply air even when it's running @ 350 CFM. The unit runs on low 80% of the time.

This system was installed in Oct. so I don't have summer info on it yet but my concern was the heating side.

I think location, rates and installation are the determining factor of the viability of using a air source HP. Just my 2 cents.