On Tue, 22 Oct 2019 23:28:59 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article op.z927scfkwdg98l@glass, says...

The USA has snowy parts does it not? Have they not realised you can reverse those AC units?



I have a heat pump. It does the heating and cooling.

I live about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the US. We do not
usually have very many days where it gets below 15 deg F.

Heat pumps loose efficency below about 25 deg F. Around 15 deg F they
are really poor and probably cost as much as resistive electrical heat
to run. They usually have electrical heating elements in the inside
duct work to help when it is very cold.

That is the reason that most of the Norther states where it gets to near
zero F and lower the heat pumps are not used . It is usually more
efficent and less expensive to use other forms of heat.

I have never checked the price but I would think there should not be
much difference in a heat pump and plain air condition. I would install
the heat pump and another form of heat.

There are some units called a gas pack. They have natural gas for the
heat and electric for the AC.


The flip side of that is down here around the 26th parallel and below
heat pumps don't make that much sense economically because we seldom
actually turn on the heat and when we do it is typically a small space
heater, not heating up the whole house. The 30-40 hours a year or less
that my wife has a 1440w heater going would not justify paying the
extra money for a heat pump and she only heats a small space, not the
whole house. The heat pump draws more than 1440w.