I’m getting more and more annoyed at my heating oil delivery company. The woodstove does a fair job most days, but the when it’s really bitterly cold the furnace kicks on. It also keeps it from getting too cool in the morning after the woodstove dies out.
The furnace is getting on in years. However, like a car, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage, or usage in this case. There were quite a few winters when the furnace didn’t run at all or ran very little. Those years we shut the house down and did the snowbird thing. Even so, the years have added up.
A decent heat pump system would do the job, supplemented with wood heat. It would be very nice to say goodbye to the oil company. Right now a heat pump capable of doing the job would be pretty expensive. That’s an issue. Eventually the State of New Hampshire is going to get its act together and offer rebates. Only a fool pays retail when they don’t have to.
With that in mind the house is going to limp along on what it currently has. With any luck nothing major will need to be replaced in the mean time.
-Sixbears
Yes, heat pumps are very efficient. So long as the ambient temperature is above freezing. Below that point , not so much...the defrost coil on the outside unit will pretty much be on all the time , and that is resistance heat...
ReplyDeleteIt would make a good supplement to the woodstove.
Delete. . . and that's why I'm waiting for the rebates. The "affordable" units are next to useless in my climate.
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