Need a new furnace and AC...checking into a heat pump but don't know enough about them....lots of sales on new units.

LET ME KNOW

What type specifically ...air, water source or ground...?

Not sure.... it would take place of our furnace...so air I'm thinking???

They have a somewhat limited use range, ie: when it gets too hot or too cold it basically stops working. You will need some kind of supplemental heat or cooling source for those out of range days. They do work well inside that range tho.

I have geothermal, been happy with it. Any specific questions and ill try to answer them....

I wouldn't recommend an air exchange heat pump. Bought a house with air exchange heat pump, not living in house yet, thermostat set at 45° . First electric bill was $447 due to emergency heat turning on to heat house. I'm ripping it out and putting LP in. Avg temperature for billing cycle was 20°.

it is an air conditioner that heats and cools

my parents have one in a well insulated 3 bed ranch about 1500sqft in southern WI

it works on the electric till a point then they have a regular gas furnace that takes over.

it really can't be your only source of heat unless you are way down south.
heat pumps work well as an air conditioner and they work fine while it is still above freezing outside as a reverse air conditioner for heat.

you are pumping freon one direction or the other to heat the outside and cool the inside or heat the inside and cool the outside.

but once you get below freezing they get less and less efficient and they do not do sub zero at all
some have electric coils to heat when it gets below freezing

others switch to the gas furnace when below a given temp outside

if you like it 70 all the time I guess it does a good job in the spring and fall when it is 45-50 outside
my dad wants it 70-72 all the time

I will wait till the house is 62-64 and start a fire or if the house gets 77-78 but it will cool off at night I just open windows

I have the furnace off since we got out of the sub zero stuff and it was 58 the other morning but 70 after an hour with a fire.

swings don't bother me but they make my dad hurt.

so just an air conditioner that works in both directions.

Been installing them for 30years. They cool just like any other unit but with the winters in your area it wouldn’t be my first choice. If you have natural gas stick with that I live and work on the gulf coast of Mississippi and I tell my customers to stick with a furnace if they have natural gas. A furnace is 110V a standard air handler is 220V so there is going to be wiring involved also.If you do your research and the math I think you would be happier with a new furnace.

My heat pump has a natural gas backup that kicks on when temps fall below 40°. Very pleased.

Might want to talk to an HVAC guy on that, setting it that low is probably panicking your system into going into EM mode.

I run one, but also have a gas stove and a woodstove as well to keep the strip heaters from kicking in during the low 20's....Saves big $$.

Multiple heat sources are advantageous, both for energy cost and having options for backup heat.

With the heat pumps pay close attention to the seer rating, how well your home is insulated, and the square footage to get the right unit sizing.

I have one,the highest electric bill i've had was 290.00.
but if it's below 20 @ night i start my woodstove.
I am pleased with it,here in central Pa.

Thanks guys great info....I am more educated now. Our furnace is 25 years old so wife and I are seriously looking...wanted to make a good choice.

You are fortunate to get 25 years out of a unit. A new one should be more efficient than the old one but do not expect to get that many years out of the new one. If you get half of that, you will be doing well.

My electric bills, back in Nebraska (all electric), during winter with a heat pump were nearly double what my gas/electric bill is here in MN with a gas furnace/water heater/dryer. My HVAC person said, if you live in a warmer climate, where it rarely gets below freezing in the winter, heat pump all the way. In colder climates, not so much.

During my 40 years of HVAC experience, I spent the first 20 installing and servicing residential equipment. I probably installed around a hundred air source heat pumps. These were all in west central Wisconsin. I would say that 95% of the people were happy with them. The older people had a hard time getting used to the lower temperature air at the register. We installed units with Air Handlers and electric heater back up as well as heat pumps with gas furnaces. If you install a heat pump with a gas furnace you will have an outdoor thermostat on the low voltage (thermostat) wiring that will switch from the heat pump to the gas furnace when the outside temperature drops below the set point of the outdoor thermostat. We usually set that between 35 to 40 degrees. The efficiency drops off below that temperature. Most of the heat pump thermostats also have an emergency heat switch that allows you to run the gas furnace regardless of the outdoor temperature. I see that you are in Northern Illinois. You should have lots of days where your heat pump would be the primary heat. Most of the heat pumps that we installed were a higher SEER than the standard air conditioner, so the cooling was more economical with the heat pump. We usually upsized the unit by 1/2 ton for heat pumps over what the normal air conditioner sizing called for. That gave a little more heat but the downside to that is sometimes it would cool the home to quickly and not lower the humidity properly. Not all HVAC contractors are proficient in heat pump installation and service. Check around and find one that has experience with heat pumps. I hope this information helps you out a little.

Electric bill will be higher, however you have to figure what your other alternatives to heat would cost.

We heat with heat pump, solely. It’s a different heat, not real warm , feels like it blows cool air. Runs all the time when it’s real cold, under freezing . You’ll want a well insulated house.

I think a heat pump with an alternative source of heat would be the way to go. Heat pump plus wood stove/pellet stove/small furnace.

Good luck!

John

Wow! Some great info from veteran installation guys....thanks again everyone!

Geothermal furnaces are set up to blow forced air like your old furnace through the same ductwork. They are also more efficient than air source heat pumps....lots of information on the internet on efficiency ratings. Any particular reason you would steer clear of geo?

I have a heat pump with propane backup. Natural gas backup would be better / cheaper for my system but if I had natural gas I wouldn't have a heat pump. NG is probably cheaper than the heat pump electricity. The heat pump runs when its above 35, I might have changed that to 40. Basically your outside a/c unit will be a combo a/c and heat pump. It draws heat out of the air somehow and uses it to heat the furnace so it can blow the heat into the house. You can have electric backup but that's a southern thing. Us northerners would go broke paying for an electric heating element. New ones are pretty good. Maybe consider getting a larger unit. They are probably rated for how low of temperature they work at. Mine could run at say 30 degrees outside but the heat isn't as warm as when its burning propane so like I said I think mines set to kick over at 40* now. So depending on the outside temp it just kicks back and forth from one system to the other as needed. I don't mind mine at all and its heating quit a bit sq ft wise. Good luck.

Underground pipes and what not is geothermal not heat pump typically.