Adding heat pumps was a big plus.

User: hopkinsrs@comcast.net

Vendor: None

Action: 3484 - Get a Heat Pump

We added two minisplit heat pumps to our house in 2020.   They keep the house warm down to outside temps of -18 Fahrenheit.

The house had an existing forced-air natural gas furnace with ductwork, and we left that in place.   The furnace has only had to come on as backup twice in the four years we have had the heat pumps, and that only briefly. 

We put one heat pump at either end of the house -- one in the combined living room-dining room- kitchen space, and one in the biggest of the three bedrooms.  We also have an energy-recovery ventilation unit, that pulls in outside air for 6 to 10 minutes of every hour, warms it up using a heat exchanger with the house's warm air, and then uses the existing fan and ductwork to distribute that air around the house.   This helps to mix the air in the house, to get some warm air to the other two bedrooms.  As long as we keep the bedroom doors open, all three bedrooms stay comfortable enough even though the heat pump is only in one of them. 

The house is well-insulated and quite tight.  This helps with the ability of the heat pumps to keep the house warm even in rooms that don't have a heat pump in them. 

We signed up for GMP's time of use rate 22.  In winter, this means that on weekdays from 7:30 am to 11:30 am and again from 4:30 to 8:30 pm, we pay more for our electricity; the rest of the time we pay much less.  We use the timer function on the heat pumps to turn the heat pump settings down by 2 or 3 degrees during those 4 hour stretches.  Sometimes I will turn the heat pumps up a degree or two for the hour before the late-afternoon high-rate period.  In any case the heat pumps rarely come on before the four-hour period is up.  We use much less than 1/3 of our daily energy during the high-rate periods.