Heat pump in Ohio ?

Search in this forum and the Green Room for "mini split". There's been some very informative discussions.

We just built a house last year and installed a luxaire heat pump/ac. The guy we bought it off said that it was a 15.5 seer? It was supposedly the most efficient system that they had. Well, we just had a baby a month ago and the wife isn't really wanting the stove ran since the stove is upstairs and she is so new. So anyways, we have been running heat pump since the cold weather hit and our bill was $327 and it has been a dang cold year thus far. That is compared to our electric bill of $130 in the summer. Our house is 1250sq ft up stairs and an unfinished basement down. The wife misses the wood heat and agreed to a basement install for next year, which means I get a new stove for downstairs.

I don't mind paying the money for the electric heat, but 70 still feels cold. With the wood heat the house is normally around 75 and is so warm, I miss it this year. But, my wood will be even more seasoned next year and I should be easily 4 years ahead. Plus, I get a new stove for the basement. also, I will get to see how much money we are really saving with the wood heat, right now it is looking like around 200 a month! But, it has been a really cold winter thus far, we haven't seen a winter like this for a while.

What is your local 'all in' cost of electricity per kWh? What is your local price for propane?

we are happy with ours but you will never be "warm" with one. wife likes 68 degrees. also if you are changing a/c anyway it is an additional back up and fairly efficient at cool temps before you need to fire up the stove. I will always have one.

You will probably notice in other posts that i just had two installed. Mitsu hyper units. Works very well. rated for -5f but have only run them a little bit at 6f or 7f was the lowest. Kicked ut some good heat. primary heat is wood boiler, but these are a nice extra to have. these are the numbers Mitsu gave me for elctric use for my 18,000btu unit. . In the cooling mode will use 1270 watts.
Heating mode when it's 47f is 1540 watts. When it's 17f it uses 2620 watts. My Kw per hour is .147cents per hour.

ironpony said:

we are happy with ours but you will never be "warm" with one. wife likes 68 degrees. also if you are changing a/c anyway it is an additional back up and fairly efficient at cool temps before you need to fire up the stove. I will always have one.

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Totally agree. I have one as well (electric, air source heat pump) but only use it in the summer to cool and as backup during the winter. BeGreen (Moderator) knows a lot of about these. I think the talk is that the Japanese "Mini Splits" seem to be the latest in heat pump technology and efficiency. There are also "Dual Fuel" heat pumps that utilize both natural gas (for colder temps) and electric. Just some thoughts.

I think you'll find the new generation of HP's are pretty impressive for heat. I can take an outside temp of single numbers and heat up the house pretty quickly. This is turning it on and within a few minutes it's kicking some good heat out. The OP is in Ohio. I know of a few people up here in the northern half of Maine that are happy with the cost of using these as a main source of heat.

I have an FHP water source heat pump. It is NOISY but seems to work ok. Electric bill probably averages $200 per month on a 3000sqft drafty house. About 50% of my heat comes from my insert in the winter though. Oh, and electricity is supposedly cheap out here.