Per esh:
My husband and I want to replace our old furnace and defunct central air system. We have called four contractors for estimates. Each one of them has tried very hard to sell us a heat pump. Several of our neighbors who got heat pumps are quite unhappy with them as their electric bills have skyrocketed. Our only choice in this location is either propane or electric. Our current furnace runs on propane and we want the new one to do so also, just more efficiently.

... We live in Southwest Oregon. We normally would run the air conditioning only 2 to 3 weeks per year. The furnace is mostly used to warm the house in the morning until we get the wood stove going. I can't see the big benefit of switching over to a heat pump system.

Maybe somebody who actually knows something can comment on this:

- A heat pump will mean that if you have a power outage, you will not
have the benefit of central heat because it would require
a much larger generator that you probably would want

- The same propane that powers your furnace could power a small
generator in event of a power outage.

- If you put in split AC units (where there's a little compressor/
condenser outside the house for each room with pipes running up
to a blower/evaporator below the rooms window you might be able
to AC at least one room during a power outage.
--
Pete Cresswell