One thing people tend to do when they look at heat pumps is look at the typical extreme low for the year and size the heat pump based on that. But even if you touch -20 a few times a year, your heat pump doesn't need to be sized to heat in a constant -20. If you hit -20 once or twice per year then it's usually only for a few hours and the lowest that you really need to heat through is usually much closer to -10 or higher.
But, yes, if you're in a climate that sees frequent and sustained temps of -40 then a heat pump probably isn't for you or the rest of the Canadian Prairies.
You can also do heat pump for 90% of the time and emergency heat as oil/gas/wood stove.
- It's probably going to be more expensive than heating with natural gas if you're in the northern US - at least as things are today.
- A modern/high tech heat pump capable of heating when the outdoor temp is < 10f / -12c is likely going to be quite a bit more expensive than a standard AC unit - making it even more difficult to justify financially
- A natural gas furnace can keep you warm (and keep your pipes from freezing/bursting) even if there's a power outage. It doesn't take much of a generator to run a furnace/blower fan.. but good luck staying warm with ONLY a heat pump in those circumstances.
The one thing that can really help improve the financials of getting a heat pump is if you intend to install solar power at some point in the future. Depending on your power company, you may be able to generate enough credit in summer with excess generation to pay for heat the entire winter. I'd still go with a heat pump AND gas furnace for backup though.
Thankfully, this isn't too expensive of an option to do. Gas furnaces are cheap. Heat pump that isn't sized to go to -40F/C is also pretty affordable. The crazy high SEER ratings drive up the price.
Then, what's the point? If you still have to have gas lines and infra, just use the gas. It's vastly cheaper.
A) Not everywhere
B) Heat pumps can be powered with solar, reducing costs even if your gas would normally be cheaper
C) Some people are willing to spend a little more if it helps push electrification forward, for environmental reasons
It's not a little more though, that was the point. In my area, California, it's about 4x more. Gas here is so cheap, it's almost free.
Anecdotally, I don't know anyone who's opted into the "green energy" plans offered by the area's utility providers - because they all cost a lot more than regular.
People talk a lot - but their bank account dictates their actual decision making. Running a heatpump seems very expensive for a lot of the country, with negligible gains.
Natural Gas isn't exactly what we would call "dirty"... seems like a min-max issue, with people forgetting there's still areas burning coil and oil for electricity production.
> Heat pumps can be powered with solar
Not in the dead of winter you can't... not everyone lives in big cities folks, and where it snows, it gets quite cold.
There will be a feedback loop once that really starts: individual prices go up because infrastructure costs remain the same, but less people are using gas. Once natural gas prices go up, people will switch to more efficient appliances, or switch to electricity. Forcing prices to go up some more to make up for infrastructure costs.
I agree with you about people following their wallets and that's why people will want to change to heat pumps when gas becomes too expensive. Remember the prices in December?
Minimizing your gas use?
Depends on where you live
Modern heat pump systems have an outdoor temp sensor and will avoid even trying the heat pump if it is too cold outside. Your installer should be able to adjust that setpoint. How low it can go depends on the refrigerant and rating... in the US higher SEER ratings often also means it can extract useful heat at lower outdoor temps.
tl;dr: The heat pump function is a trivial bit of material addition to a standard A/C and saves you gas/electricity even if it is only used for part of the cold season. There is no reason not to use one.
I say this as someone who recently helped undo the damage after an inept HVAC technician replaced someone’s thermostat (for $500, thanks California prices) and did it wrong. The quality of the instruction manuals is low, and the quality of online resources about how conventional HVAC controls work is lower.
As far as I can tell, the theory is that HVAC systems used to consist of a bunch of discrete components, strung together, with control power coming from one or two transformers or thermocouples [0], and essentially no logic in the equipment. A relatively modern heat pump may well rely on a mechanism in the thermostat to protect the compressor. The actual equipment contains nothing resembling a microcontroller.
[0] Yes, the actual power available from the equipment to the thermostat may be negligible, and old thermostats were mercury switches on bimetallic strips that were powered solely by temperature changes in the room.
Do you mean real -40? Or wind chill "-40" which doesnt affect HP?
Edit: Edmonton?