There's a technique that can help keep costs down when the temperatures drop low, typically at night. It starts with turning you heat pump off when the temperatures are so low, that emergency mode would be active. Then during the daytime watch for the temperature to rise above 30-40 degrees. At that point, turn your heat pump on and set the temperature quite high, perhaps 85-90 degrees. Let it run continuous, heating your house about as hot as you can tolerate. Since it is warm out, this is relatively cheap heat for you. Then once that warmth has settle in, turn your heat pump off. Let you house coast through the night on the stored heat until the warmth of the next mid-day, when you again turn the heat pump on. That works. I did that during a cold wave that sent temperature plunging to 8 degrees. My power bill was only about a fourth of that of a neighbor.
My friend is Hetas registered and fits multifuel stoves for a living. He is regularly coming across enquiries to fit stoves because people cannot afford heating from their recently fitted heat pumps. People are reporting that the cost of air source heating is between £10 and £15 per day. YES, PER DAY!!! They cant go back to gas because they took the government grant so that leaves them turning to multi fuel or wood burning stoves, their radiators don't even get warm. My advice to anyone thinking of Air source is fit a new gas boiler which is very efficient, it will last 15 years by which time there will be a far more sensible alternative to heat pumps
Very general explanations. The auxilary component on thermostat is a thermostat-specific feature. And when aux heat engages, heating bill will go up x2
Very good video explaining heat pumps. They are very efficient. But only to regions of above freezing temps in winters. As they become inefficient below freezing. I keep mine at 65 during winter. Cost me about $3 a day to operate.
That's quite true unless you get your heat from deep underground. But geothermal heat pumps cost more to install and service. Where heat pumps shine are where winters are mild and summer are hot. Then one device, that heat pump, can both heat and cool your house.
Great Video and good information! I have a question about my heat pump. I was having a heat on issue with my old thermostat. Bought a new one and ran it. Several days later my copper tubing leading from the outside unit began sweating and water was dropping on the floor from the ceiling of my unfinished basement ceiling. The smaller copper pipe was very cold. I opened my air handler and the coils were iced over. I ran an installer test on the thermostat which ran heat stages Heat 1-3 and the ice melted rapidly running into my trap and the coils were then ice free. I tested the fan only through the thermostat and the fan didn’t turn on? I ran the unit for 2 hours and checked and it was again icing up on the coils and fins. I am perplexed on what’s amiss. By the way the old thermostat ran fine for years and the new thermostat was wired exactly as the old one from pictures I took of it.
I'm a hvac apprentice in training now i know this i live in the east coast it gets below 30 and sometimes at 0 I'll never give no one an heat pump this far north just gas oil and electric heat
I’m currently building a house in MN. They are suggesting we install a heat pump with an LP furnace as an auxiliary back up. The electric company will give electricity at half price 7¢ for heating and cooling using the heat pump. LP can be expensive. Is it worth it with half price electricity in summer and winter with LP back up?
@@cclementson I’m in NY and have heat pump with propane back up. I love it. my Bosch 3 ton is “efficient” until single digits. not as many huge/often/ANNOYING propane bills/dependence for me heat pumps are very different than fossil fuels/space heaters. they’re made to run run run, and aren’t “making” heat, they’re sucking heat out of the air. running those electric strips/supplemental heat strips are super dooper expensive. the boiling point of the refrigerant is so low, like -30F or something. what’d you end up doing there in MA?
@@ivanzecevic934 Do it! my place is a mobile home/trailer it’s 1,200 sq feet. highly recommend it, it runs quite a bit though when it’s cold but that’s what it’s meant to do. used almost zero propane for heat and our electric bill wasn’t crazy. higher for sure but maybe 20-30% higher than the year before without the heat pump. you’ll love it also the heat isn’t as dry, and it’s meant to maintain the heat as opposed to jump the heat up 5 degrees quickly. when we had a huge storm with a foot of snow I just turned it off, covered the top with plywood and switched to propane for the 2 days I was out plowing. if I was home I could have made sure it stayed clean though. lemme know if you have any more questions, I’m no expert but know a bit
how to quiet a TXV DURING DEFROST sounds like air brakes. Is there a way to quiet it or wire it so the heat scripts come on instead of that air brake sound?
I just bought an ac and heat pump system and it is a 5 ton carrier and I want to ask what is the temperature I can use heat pump and it does not freeze I live in Dallas Texas
This video is very misleading. Not all heat pumps need aux heating below 30 degrees. There are systems on the market that heat 100% efficiently down to 0-17 degrees ambient temps outside. I am using a heat pump system in Massachuetts as my only heating source and it works fantastic in my region. Its spec'd to run 100% efficient down to 0 degrees and 80% efficient down to -5 degrees. If you do your research.. there are systems out there that do far better then what is explained in this video.
@@MetroRatRace I have an Ecoer. Its working fantastic. In fact, we just got 8" of snow and temps dropped to single digits last night and we stayed toasty and warm inside.
Maybe this video was made before heat pumps improved. It’s still informational to those who are thinking about getting a heat pump in the future to cut down on power bills in the winter months. I’m one of those people. It’s great that they have improved and can work in cold temperatures.
doesn't this auxiliary heating modes in the heat pumps depend on the boiling temperature of the Freon used in it? In other words if you have a freon that boils at -40 degrees, you can still produce heat without burning much electricity.
The aux heat doesn't rely on the boiling point of the refrigerant. In weather that's below 40°F the heat pump will need aux heat because 40°F is the balance point. On cold days the thermostat may say that it's reached temp. But it hasn't that's why the thermostat cycles the aux heat periodically. When the heat pump goes into defrost. The defrost board turns on the aux heat your thermostat may say "aux heat on" or it may not. While the defrost cycle is on the unit switches to A/C mode for a few minutes the outdoor fan is off during defrost. To raise the refrigerant pressure to melt the frost off the coil. Then it goes back into heat mode.
I have an 8 year old Bryant 213B heat pump & Bryant gas furnace. This morning (at 35 degrees outdoors) I upped my thermostat from 64 to 69 degrees. The heat pump and furnace fan came on and ran for just a couple of minutes. Then, due to the call for 5 degrees of heat all at once, the Aux gas heat was initiated which makes sense. I heard the gas burner fire up and the vent pipe got hot. My concern is this: I could hear that my heat pump was still running. I learned that the 2 units (HP & gas furnace) should never run at the same time. I suppose it could be that the HP is possibly running in a different mode, such as defrost or possibly in some way that would not be harmful, but I don't know. So, I immediately dialed back the thermostat to shut it down. I don’t know how to confirm if this is a ‘dangerous’ situation or not. I don’t know if the heat pump is supposed to ‘run on’ in some otherwise safe mode temporarily. I am afraid that if I let it run on just to see if it eventually shuts down I might do damage in the meantime. The fact is that it may have been doing this all along but since I installed a new thermostat recently I am being hyper-vigilant now. I am very confident that my thermostat wiring and setup is correct. I would feel better if I knew that the HP is supposed to behave like this under these conditions. Can anyone comment on this if you happen to know?
My wife and I bought a house I’ve personally been renting for almost 8 years before the purchase. We live in NW Iowa. I’m a strictly electrical home in a town of about 500 people. Our electricity is ran by the town and not a traditional power company. Our bill during the winter is outrageous. January and February. Nearly 500 dollars. Would it be more cost effective to replace the whole system?
Or get a heat pump system that uses a smart thermostat that turns off the normal mode when the temps dip below 30° and runs in auxiliary mode only whenever the heat pump. My system is a 5-ton system whenever it ran in normal mode and and auxiliary it used more like $250 a month because it would run both the heat pump and my auxillary electric coil heat at the same same time once I had them replaced my system with a variable speed heat pump that would run without the heat pump it only used roughly $150. Long story short the heat pump running when it knows it ain't going to be able to heat your home anyway it needs to be shut off entirely when the outside temperature gets below a certain range. No point in the pump running at all when it can't supply heat.
A heat pump is only good for down south that doesn’t have nasty winters so it’s a no go for the Washington DC metro area and especially in Alaska Minnesota the Dakotas New England Pennsylvania upstate New York Canada Michigan Wisconsin Illinois Missouri Kansas Iowa Ohio Indiana Idaho Washington state Oregon Utah Vermont Maine and all those extremely frigid cold Northern climates where temperatures can dip to below -50 even sometimes -70 to -100 during the winter time and heat pumps are only good for southern states like Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Alabama Oklahoma Texas Tennessee Kentucky West Virginia Florida Louisiana Mississippi Arizona California Nevada New Mexico where they don’t usually have nasty winters except for Northern Virginia in the mountains of North Carolina in Georgia of course all mountain climates heat pumps are good for beach climates and climates that don’t get below freezing during the winter and heat pumps don’t work in northern states or Countries because it’s too cold
Northern Virginia is full of heat pumps. washington DC is also full of heat pumps. multi family projects in town are packed with heat pumps. Most new construction in Maryland and eastern shore is as well. its the most economical way to get heat when there is no natural gas available. It might not be the best but when nothing else is out there, what do you do
No not not anymore, I have Dakin mini split heat pumps two 3 ton units one for down stairs and the other for the upstairs bed rooms. And I have a Mr cool heat pump two ton for the basement/media/kids room. Last week it got down to - 8 degrees and my house never dropped below 69 degrees where I keep it at. Now two years ago before I installed these systems the heat pumps would have stopped working and I would be using my gas logs . I wanted to see if it could heat and it did wonderfully without using back up heat which I dont even have.
Wrong. When it gets below 30 F your supplemental heating kicks in. My HP saved me $70 per month on cooling costs for the months of June, July and August. HP's are 200-300X more efficient than any forced air gas furnace. There's alos very expensive HP's that will work at temperatures well below 0 F. HP's are the future of heating and cooling.
Your analysis is not fair. The temperature of the heat pump is 30 degrees and auxiliary heat is 10 degrees. How can you possibly compare that. This is just like when Ford and Chevy do truck testing to see who’s best. They never compare the exact trucks
