What the work is
A heat pump is an air conditioner that can run backwards. In a climate with mild winters it is the obvious answer, and the winters here are mild by most of the country's standards.
The honest caveats are two. Below its rated outdoor temperature it leans on electric resistance heat, which costs more to run than gas, so what it costs you depends on your rate and on how cold your particular mornings get. And the equipment must be selected against the manufacturer's published capacity at the temperature your house actually sees, not at 47 degrees.
We will show you both cases before you decide.
The second question, after capacity, is what happens to your electricity bill in the shoulder seasons, and it is a question we cannot answer for you without your rate. Which utility serves your house depends on where you are in the county, and the rates are not the same. We will tell you what the equipment does; you or your utility can tell you what it costs.
The third is the panel. Backup resistance heat draws serious current, and whether your service can carry it is an electrical question, not an HVAC one. It goes to our licensed electrical partner and it gets answered before anything is ordered, not after.
What is included
- The manufacturer's capacity at low outdoor temperature, in writing, not the headline rating
- A load calculation before a size is named
- The backup heat strategy stated on the quote
- The permit, and the old system taken away
- The electrical requirement stated before anything is ordered
What is not
- A payback figure. We would be making it up, and it depends on a rate we do not set
- Electrical service upgrades. Those go to our licensed electrical partner
A heat pump is judged at the cold end, not the average
Cooling capacity is not the constraint here; heating capacity at the coldest morning is. Manufacturers publish capacity tables by outdoor temperature, and the headline number is quoted at 47°F, which is not the morning that matters.
So the number to ask for is the capacity at the design temperature for your house, and the second number is when the backup heat comes on and what it draws when it does. Both are published, both are checkable, and any quote that does not contain them is asking you to take it on trust.
What to ask anyone quoting this, us included
- What is this unit's capacity at the coldest morning you design for?
- What is the backup heat, and when does it come on?
- What does the quote assume about my electricity rate?
- What does the backup heat draw, and can my panel carry it?
- Which utility serves me, and did you use their rate?