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Originally Posted by JSH
The idea of saving with a heat pump in your case would need to be a hybrid approach. One idea would be to use the NG heater when the temperature is below 20F and the heat pump when it is above. Use each where they are most efficient. The crossover point would depend on the efficiency for each heating source and your cost for a therm of NG and the cost of a kWh. (What do you pay for those)
You can figure out how much NG you are using for cooking and hot water by looking at your bill in June, July, August when you aren't using your heat. (I do the same thing for electricity but I use April and September when I'm not using heat or A/C)
The other big factor is how warm do you keep your home. That has a huge effect on the cost of heating. Considering you turn off the heat completely at night when it is -20F outside and say heating a whole house is a waste I suspect you are doing just the bare minimum to keep the pipes from freezing.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
Yes, they can (mine does) but I don't see Isaac paying thousands for a Cold Climate Heat Pump. I was talking about him adding a small window unit for less the $1,000 that would provide A/C in the summer and cheaper heating in shoulder season.
Also providing 100% of BTUs at 0 F doesn't mean it makes financial sense to use a heat pump when he has a furnace.
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Well, now I'm looking at all sorts of options and don't know quite what to do.
You see, my 53-year-old furnace died yesterday. The heat exchanger cracked and filled the house up with an odd chemical smell. I don't see the point in trying to fix a 53-year-old heat exchanger. I found the heat exchanger part number, but apparently they are no longer manufactured or in stock anywhere.
I can't find a furnace that will work that I can install myself, unless it's electric of some sort. I guess my only option is to hire a company to come install a new unit.
There is a new Colorado law that goes into effect on the 1st day of 2026 (in less than a week) that all gas furnaces must be ultra low NOx. That's why I can't find one that will work. Nothing is Colorado compliant. I guess I could try to get one that meets the current standard on Monday, but that's not a lot of time to go get one, and I'm not sure where to get one.
I'm tempted to install a ~25,000 BTU 240V 30A heat pump furnace replacement, but that won't work under -15 °F. It's been a calm winter so far, but last year I remember getting to work one day and seeing it was still -36 °F at around 8:00 a.m.
I have no idea what a hybrid system would cost or if they even make hybrid systems for trailers.
Another thing, I also read that heat pumps aren't as efficient if you bump the heat up and down between awake-and-at-home times and asleep-or-not-at-home times like we've been told to do for so many years. Trying to figure out what would be most economical for when to use a heat pump and when to use a gas furnace is a bit hard to figure out, as it seems Saturdays are about the only day that it make sense to have a heat pump running all day at the same temp. Otherwise it's either not really working (sleeping at night, or night is too cold) or it's working too much (waking up and heating home). Or I could just leave it at the same temp all the time, but wouldn't that be less efficient overall (unless we mean 45 °F all the time and a cold and angry marriage?).
Any ideas? What would be best to replace this cracked furance?