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i am waiting for my first electric bill to come in, but so far its keeping up with our local temps.
i did learn (the hard way) that i shouldnt use a big temperature difference with my set back thermostats, primarily because it takes much more time to recover from it.
the temperature at the supply register is much lower than my gas furnace puts out. aprox 10 to 15 degrees different.
so far the gas furnace hasnt run much, just on a couple of 18 degree mornings.
if i didnt mention this before, my heat pump is a two stage unit, coupled with a two stage variable speed fan, furnace.
so when the temperature is above thirty degrees, and there is a call for heat in one of my zones, the heat pump runs on low stage and the furnace runs on its low heating speed, aprox 50% of its full heating fan speed.
from there my zone system and the furnace control board decide, when and how to bring the heat pump up to high stage heat.
on my zone system there is an out door temperature sensor that tells the zone panel what the out door temperature is and i can set the panel as high or low as i desire, i currently have it set to 30 degrees, i could set it a little bit lower if i had an electric duct heater to take some of the coolness out of the air. i will get back to that in a second.
once the outdoor air temperature is below 30 degrees, the furnace works like a normal two stage variable speed furnace.
in situations where an off peak meter is used with the heating system, having a electric duct heater to temper the air can allow the heat pump to work at a much lower temperature. if one was to couple this addition to my system, it would require more controls and extra wiring.
sorry for the long post.
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