Stretch wrote:
A couple of things to mention.

1) The COP of the heat pumps I normally install is greater than 3.5
when the outdoor temperature is 47 degrees when heating and greater
than 2.5 at 17 degrees outdoor temperature when heating. The COP of
strip heat is ALWAYS 1.0. In my area it does not often get below 20
degrees outside temperature. Even at 0 degrees the COP of air to air
heat pumps manufactured in the last 20 years will be at least 1.5.
More efficient units will have a COP of 1.7 to 2.0 under the same
conditions. Look it up in your engineering data guys.

2) The heat output of air to air heatpumps drops as it gets colder
outside while the heat load of the house goes up under the same
conditions.

Yep the lower the temperature source the lower the heat output.

3) The balance point of most properly sized heat pumps is around 35
degrees outdoor temperature. That means that most properly sized heat
pumps without heat strips cannot heat the house to 75 degrees indoors
when it is below 35 degrees outdoors. Therefore when it is below 35
degrees outdoors, such as at night, the compressor will run constantly
and the heat strips will cycle on & off to maintain comfort.

4) As an experiment, I installed a setback thermostat in my house 10
years ago. I locked out the strip heat and programmed the temperatures
at 68 degrees setback at 11:00 PM and 75 degrees setup at 5:00 AM. The
heat pump started running constantly at 5:00 AM and did not bring the
temperature back up to 75 degrees till after 5:00 PM. The day time
temperatures were in the mid 50s and the nighttime temperatures wewre
in the mid 20s.

Yep not arguing there, 75 is on the high side tho for a winter set
point. A setpoint of 68 to 70 set back to 60-65 overnight will be
similar tho. Running without heat strips will take a long time to bring
temperature back up and would need the help of the sun, unless of
course the heat pump is sized for triple the heat load .

I have seen ground source sized to the heating load in Canada and end
up being 100% oversized for cooling. In this situation the summer
humidity was still low enough as to not be problematic and create an
overly humid, mold condusive indoor environment in the summer.

A system sized for the full heat load, in a warmer climate with a hot
humid summer most likely will be oversized for cooling and enf up with
high indoor RH in summer. Just imagine what something sized for 3 times
the heating load will do in summer.



5) Setback thermostats were originally designed to save money
operating oversized fossil fuel furnaces. If your heat pump is
properly sized by the cooling load, it will not be able to recover in a
reasonable amount of time whithout using the strip heat. Therefore,
you will either be cold much of the time in the winter or your electric
bill will INCREASE with a setback thermostat. NOTE: If your heat pump
is oversized the setback penalty will be reduced, but the fact it is
too big will reduce the effective efficiency all year long. NOTE also
that setback thermostats WILL save money in the cooling season, even
when the heat pump is properly sized.

No arguement there. A unit oversized to the point of not needing heat
strips to recover from a setback would short cylce in heating as well
as cooling.

For what it is worth. Measured data, not guesses.

Stretch