On Fri, 24 Apr 2020 19:55:58 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:30:28 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

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?

Only if I feel the air coming out at all, and I only do that when I'm
barefoot in the bathroom. How much time do you think I spend barefoot
in the bathroom? 20 or 30 minutes a week.

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?

Of course there will be that additional cost, some time in the future.
I knew that before I talked to anyone.

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.

And two other estimators from other companies reacted the same way.

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.

More than enough. You're making a mountain out of little pile of dust.

I didn't like the guy who wanted to reline my chimney. He said oil
burned hotter. Maybe but it's been burning hotter all these years too,
and it's not a masonry chimney. So for that and several other things
about him, I called anotehr company.

So counting the quack there have been 4 proposals and no one objected to
using the oil furnace, even though they know all about the airspeed, and
the only one to comment on the fusebox was the quack. But in your
honor I'll explicitly ask one or two of them. They were all throrough
and I'm sure they'll say it's fine.
If you use oil for backup 60 is likely adequate - barely - but you
wouldn't get to install it thet way here (and you'd have a hell of a
time selling the house and getting new insurance with a 60amp service)