On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 12:12:19 AM UTC-4, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Tue, 21 Apr 2020 21:59:06 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Tue, 21 Apr 2020 18:21:00 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Tuesday, April 21, 2020 at 4:36:54 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:14:07 -0400, micky
wrote:

Have heat pumps improved much in the last 30 years, wrt to heating a
home in Baltimore?

I was under the impresssion that the limiting factor is often the
outside temperature, and if it's not over 45 or 40 or 35 or 30 (I forget
which), that it's hard to extract enough heat to keep a place warm.

And that since it's colder than that a lot here, the supplemental
electric heat will go on and that's much more expensive.

The salesman today, called by them a saleman, tells me that things have
improved a lot in 30 years and it can heat the house. But I don't see
how you can change the laws of physics.


I should have thought of this sooner. Instead or replacing the oil
heat/AC with new AC and, later, oil heat, how about adding a heat pump
and using the current oil furnace for the supplemental heat?

Won't the combination of elecricity and oil be cheaper than all the oil
I'm using now?

Any downside?

HIgher cost for heat pump but won't' it still be worth it.

I would guess that you'd have a hard time finding someone to piggyback a new heat pump on to an old oil furnace not meant to be used with it for several reasons.

The guys who were here today, from an AC company with 50 years
experience, suggested it.
Actually not uncommon

And what do they do when the old oil furnace blower pushes air at it's
fixed higher speed rate, suited to a 120K BTU furnace and you have air
coming out that feels cold? How about when the furnace goes kaput in
5 years and then you have the additional cost of screwing with removing
the heat pump coils, re-installing, doing that work over? What's the
benefit of a new furnace that will be higher efficiency and not cost
that much more for the eqpt, done at the same time?

As to these guys having 50 years experience, I'm not so impressed.
Micky already said he had someone out that gave an estimate on adding a
heat pump system and they didn't even look at the panel. He said he
has a 60A panel. Nuff said on that one.