Looking to get some anecdotal experiences from someone living in a cold climate using a heat pump as their main source of heat.
This place uses a heat-pump for cooling, in the summer, but it uses a furnace for heating.
It used to reach -20C or colder, here, in the winter…
it’s rained damn-near every week, this winter…
since there is sooo much lag, between the climate-forcing adulteration of our atmosphere,
and the actual climate’s temperature,
it looks like we’re going to be … needing to find some other planet to be inhabiting, in a century…?
Based on actual history, this planet’s current equilibrium-temperature is +5C…+6C, not anywhere near the +1.5C delusion people are still believing-in.
but when one factors-in methane ( & only that one ), that we add, it works-out to +8C…+9C planetary equilibrium… ( using methane’s 20-y equivalent, of 82.5x factor, given the current 1.3ppm to 1.4ppm that we have unnaturally added of methane )
anyways, here’s the link stating that at this atmospheric CO2 the planetary-equilibrium-temperature is between +5C & +6C, in case anyone is interested:
Evolution of global temperature over the past two million years https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19798
Swede here, my parents use geothermal heating, my apartment has district heating.
Do you mean a ground source heat pump? What is the lowest temperature there?
I guess that would be another name for it…
We have had temps down to -30C, and it has been fine, and way cheaper than direct electricity.
Yes, ground-source heat pumps are very common in Sweden. I’ve seen a bunch, they work well. I’ve seen them working well in old houses with air temps under -10 C, but I know they’re installed even in places that get down to -20 or -30.
I see most of the people in the comments here have older model heat pumps.
Newer model heat pumps are quite a bit better than even ones made 10 years ago.
My dad had one put in two years ago for his garage kitchen, and it’s worked quite well, even in fairly cold temperatures. Most importantly, that heat pump doesn’t have an auxiliary mode, and yet it still works in sub freezing temperatures.
It would work even better if it were ground source, but those are both expensive and require digging up the yard.
Technology connections has two videos about heat pumps from the perspective of someone in a relatively cold climate https://youtu.be/7J52mDjZzto https://youtu.be/43XKfuptnik
I live in the Nordics and my house is prrimarily heated by a geothermal heat pump. The temperature here has been between -20C and -30C for the last week, the pump can easily keep the room temperatures at +19C until the outside temperatures drop under -25C, after that the electric resistor kicks in to provide assistance.
The secondary heat source is the giant baking oven, which i heat every other day if gets this cold. The fully heated oven alone raises the room temperatures by 5-6C, which helps a lot to take the load of the heating pump and keeps the electric bill smaller.
I have been planning to install air/air-water heat pumps to both floors, they would be a good backup during these cold spells and would also provide cooling during the summer. And if I install a smart control system, I can have the air units do extra heating/cooling automatically when the electricity is cheap.
I just haven’t had the time to do the research where it would be best to install them and the prices rose steeply after Russia attacked Ukraine. So I’ll wait for a while before I’ll get those.
PA isn’t the coldest, but I lived in two different places in PA that had heat pumps. I never had an issue in either place. They were awesome.
I have a heat pump heating and cooling my basement in Atlantic Canada.
Temperatures in the winter hold steady around -20C with some dips a few times in the -40c range when accounting for windchill.
Works just fine. I keep my basement a nice 21C. Heating works well. I see lots of disinfo posted online about heat pumps not working in the cold and it’s all horseshit. Make sure you’re buying a heat pump that’s built for colder temperatures and you’re golden.
I live in Ontario where we go down to -30C in the harshest conditions.
We have a heat pump and a furnace and they alternate based on efficiency
Somewhere around -5 to +5 C it switches from the heat pump to the furnace
I think you could get by a bit colder but it really loses out on efficiency vs burning gas unless you invest in a geothermal heat pump
I got one put in my 1200sqft manufactured home 4 years ago. It was able to keep most of the house 68 degrees with it in the single digits without breaking the bank. It struggles the most with just above freezing and foggy. This is because it has to constantly defrost the outside unit.
Overall 10/10 compared to forced air electric heating.Pretty cold (average low temps are below freezing 5 months of the years - lowest about 30 below, though that was before the heat pumps).
Two logs houses - the heat pumps have done a great job, though we still use the wood stoves some (often just for the coziness/nostalgia).
If temps are going to be below 30F regularly, you’ll need an auxiliary source. My parents got one last year, if they don’t switch off it’ll run constantly to keep temps at ~55F and drive their electric bill through the roof. It works well for them during the day in the winter most of the time and during the fall and spring.
It’s always good to have a backup heat source if you live in a cold climate, but heat pumps have progressed a fair bit with running at lower ambient temperatures. Many manufacturers have models that can run down to, or below, 0°F. However, those models usually are a fair bit more costly, so it makes sense to evaluate how often it dips below the low ambient cutoff for the heat pump and the cost and type of your backup heat to determine the most economical route.
my co-worker put one in a few years ago at their house out in the country, but they have multiple alternatives for heat when it’s “too cold”; the original fuel oil furnace, a pellet stove, a wood fireplace, and electric on a ripple circuit. the heat pump alone would not be enough in this climate where -40 or colder is not uncommon.
Yes, Massachusetts. I have a dual fuel heat pump with natural gas backup installed in 2020, so it’s a newer system. And I have one heat pump mini split in the least energy efficient, but most used room in my house (large, high ceilings, exterior walls on three sides, and a skylight).
The first couple of years I noticed when it got just below freezing, the central heat pump seemed to struggle to keep up. Then this year I replaced my windows and got new wall insulation in both of the main bedrooms and bathrooms (previous insulation was original from the 1960s and shredded to bits with huge gaps.)
After those improvements, I’ve been running my heat pump down to 20⁰F/7⁰C so far without any issues at all. I’m excited to see how cold we can get and this system still keep up. I am still supplementing my one large room with the mini split, but that’s mostly because all my plants are in here, so I keep this room warmer than 68⁰F/20⁰C.
The cold-climate ones start to struggle at around -20C, for reference. (Not the windchill, that’s an imaginary number)
If that doesn’t regularly happen where you live, you’re fine.
