"Harry Muscle" wrote in message
ups.com...
Ontario has some hot and humid summers, it's quite
unbearable without
air conditioning.

Harry

a heat pump will be your most economical move...

a packaged heat pump the cheapest most reliable option and you
can install that yourself.. but be sure the ducts are large
enough and sealed well and well insulated. Buy the high
efficiency model. Rheem is a good buy for the money.
Simplest also. Easy to repair.


Thats cheapest heating / cheapest install.

To cut operating costs further, grossly oversize the ducts so
that you can shut down the bedrooms during the day etc when
not in use and living room areas at night... (via motorized
dampers)

or install two smaller heat pumps, one for each separate area.

(you get redundancy that way too)... you can use portable
electric heaters for back up if and when the heat pump needs
repair or replacement.

If you want ultra cheap operation look into ground source heat
pumps (personally I think the install costs offsets the net
savings though and is more complex to maintain)


Dirt cheap are chinese window mounted heat pumps, but mounted
low in the wall instead. one in each room.

Through the wall split system heat pumps (wall mounted air
handlers) are nice...but expensive. and you have wall units
to look at.




Phil Scott
Mechanical Engineer, HVAC contractor