My heat pump skepticism faded after last month's bill

I was one of those people who thought heat pumps were overhyped for cold climates. I live in Minneapolis and my gas furnace never let me down. But my buddy kept pushing me to look into a cold climate model, so I finally got one installed back in September. Last month I ran it through some real single digit temps and my electric bill came in at $142, which is way less than what I was paying for gas plus electric during the same stretch last year. The tricky part was learning to just leave it alone instead of cranking the temp up and down like I did with the old thermostat. It also hums a bit louder than I expected, but the air stays warmer at floor level which I never got with forced air. Anyone else come around on them after being a holdout, or do you have a backup setup for the deep freeze days?

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ericb6629d ago

I read an article from a guy up in Vermont who tracked his heat pump usage for two winters and he said the key was keeping the fan on low constantly instead of auto. He claimed it evened out the temps so the unit barely had to cycle. Also, my cousin in Duluth runs a propane backup but he says he only fired it up twice last winter, just on those -20 nights when the pump starts struggling. The humming thing you mentioned, I got used to it after a week, but I also put some rubber pads under the outdoor unit and it cut the noise way down. I left mine alone for the whole polar vortex and my bill stayed under $180, which honestly shocked me since my old gas bill for just December was like $210.