heat pumps

[Kim Hargrove]

There seems to be many people going to an air to air heat pump, besides the price,difference of a geothermal,or air to water, does anyone else see this trend?

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Kim

Welcome to the forum!
Not entirely sure what your question is. Air-to-air heat pumps have their place, mostly determined by your climate. As a PV installer in Ontario I bump into people that have an air-to-air heat pump, and they all complain bitterly about their heating bills in winter. Below -10C or so the heat pump can't extract heat from the outside air, and switches to backup coils (even the newer heat pumps have this limit). Heating through backup coils is no better than using baseboard heaters, very inefficient (and expensive!).

Ground source heat pumps, either using a buried loop or water, work very well in our climate. They are much more expensive though due to the extra well or buried loop. So, it's a matter of spending your money upfront, or paying over time...

-RoB-

[Dave Turpin]

The only trend I see is that most people would rather have the lowest price up front and don't consider long term economics.