Heat Pump or AC (St. Augustine: house, transfer, buy)

[munster1234]

Was wondering if homes in St. Augustine area use heat pumps or regular AC.
Since it is colder in the winter, not sure if regular AC with electric coil will provide adequate heat, whereas, I believe a heat pump would-but will the pump be adequate for the summer??
Any personal experiences with heat pumps is appreciated.

[EricBoyd]

From my experience, even if a compressor contains a heat pump, there are still emergency electric heater strips inside the air handler. When it's too cold outside for the heat pump to generate the necessary heat in the refrigerant during the reverse cycle, the system kicks on the electric heater strips. You'll likely know when this happens because you'll notice a slight burning smell from the elements heating up.

[ssclulow]

Heat pumps work well in St. Augustine. The emergency heat elements are only used if the outdoor temperature falls below 40 - 45 degress depending on what the desired indoor temp. is set at or if the heat pump malfunctions. If you use a regular air conditioning unit, you will need to have a seperate source of heat for your home. Some people are not satisfied with heat pump heat because the air coming from the air vents seems to be lukewarm and not hot. I rarely turn on the heat for more than a dozen early mornings each year. In the cooler months, I open all window blinds during the day to let the sun naturally heat my home and my house is very well insulated.

[Destiny19901003]

A heat pump is a device that is used to transfer heat from an external source throughout the interior of your house. Rather than sizing your home for heating, the ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America) recommends sizing your home for the cooling load to determine the size of a heat pump that is needed, which is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units). To do this, you'll need to use the Manual J Calculation, which was invented in the 1960s as a way to calculate the cooling load for a single-family home.
1.Download the Manual J speed-sheet from the "References" section at the bottom of this article and open the document in Microsoft Excel.
2.Click on the "J1 Form" tab at the bottom of the screen and fill out the header portion of the J1 Form with the closest geographical location. Once you've entered this information, the form will auto-fill the remaining header area with information about the weather, elevation, grains difference and design temperatures in your area.
3.Click on the "Doors" tab at the bottom of the screen and fill out the form according to the doors in your home. The information for determining the construction number, door type and core insulation and U-Value is available under Table 4A (Construction #11) in the printed Manual J book. Each entry should resemble the following example: "11N, Metal, Polystyrene Core". Input the U-Value numerically.
4.Click on the "Glass" tab and fill out the form according to the number and type of windows and skylights in your home. Construction number, glass type, number of panes, sash type, frame type and shading (blinds, curtains, etc.) values are available in Table 2A, 3A, and 3C in the printed Manual J book. Type in the numbers for each window's cooling values in accordance with the information from Table 2A. Skylight cooling values are available in Table 3C.
5.Click on the tab for "Walls" and fill out the form with the information on the above-grade, below-grade and partition walls in your home. Correct names for the construction number, wall type, board R-value, cavity R-value and exterior finish are available from Table 4A in the printed Manual J book. Type in the U-value, group, PTDH and PTDC values based on the information in Table 4A. Specify whether the wall is shaded or not. Below-grade walls are walls that are underground, such as basement and cellar walls, whereas above-grade walls are those that are above-ground and form the outer boundary of the house. Partition walls are any walls that divide rooms above or below ground.

[Robyn55]

I think heat pumps are pretty much the norm in the metro JAX area - and we have one. They work very well here for the most part. Note that we used the heat very little last winter (it was a warmer than normal winter). But we used the heat quite a bit the two winters before that (they were much colder than normal - it's the first time in over a decade that I recall the emergency heat strips ever "kicking in"). Robyn

[mortpes]

Buy the AC such as Trane with a slightly larger size if possible.

[btard]

Originally Posted by mortpes

Buy the AC such as Trane with a slightly larger size if possible.

Do this but in a heat pump, not AC.

[grayrunner]

Been through all this down here. The biggest problem for the average single family house is the ventilation ducts run through the crawlspace from one end of the house to the other. Those crawlspaces easily get to 125 degrees. So you first have to vent the attic, and maybe put up a radiant barrier to reflect the heat back out! Then you wrap up the vent ductwork and tape the corners. Then you pump in a foot of insulation to prevent the hot air from the downstairs to go up there. Now since all the electric and plumbing is run though this small space you don't want to have to do any major remodelling after all that.