Quote:
Originally Posted by KirbyMom
I'm curious why that would be. We just bought this house, been here 2 months and the central air/heat pump unit died and it's only 7 years old. I'm wondering if the climate has something to do with the lack of longevity for this gizmo and what we should do about replacing it.  |
Disclaimer, I live in north georgia, so my climate is a little warmer in the winter (but not much) and a LOT hotter in the spring/summer. It's common for builders to put electric heat pumps in the subdivision/tract homes down here because they get incentives to do so but they have problems constantly. Even newer ones. Seems like every spring, I'm having to replace something or another. The HVAC people that I have talked to (one even lives in the neighborhood) about the heat pump say they shouldn't be used north of miami. They're inefficient and can't keep up. Just blowing all day and all night. Drying out your skin, making it hard to breathe and putting a thick layer of dust on everything. Which I've found to be true. Although I can't say with certaintly that given the same size and construction of the house, a gas furnace would be cheaper to operate.
What I can say is that the people I know that have built custom homes put in gas furnaces. I've also noticed the only organizations talking about the benefits of electric heat pumps are electric companies. I can also say that I've heated up a large part of the house relatively quickly with a propane construction heater once. In a fraction of the time the heat pump would have. All I've ever had were heat pumps but that won't be the case going forward.
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