wilkes

Heat pumps are not efficient in older homes with little or no insulation and inefficient windows. If you have an older home then consider a high efficient gas furnace.

An incorrectly sized heat pump especially undersized as an example will run longer and work harder to heat up or cool a home.

A true HVAC contractor will do a heat loss study on the home to correctly size a unit and to tell you what type heat will best suit your needs.

Antithesis thank you for explaining that! I have read that about the emergency heat over and over on here but no one really ever explained what was going on. I got that it was inefficient, but never really understood what you could do to keep it from coming on. With ours the blue light indicating emergency heat will come off and on at different times. So from what you are saying if say it is 65 degrees in my house and I want to warm it up I should set it to 66 wait until it gets there and then turn it up another notch to keep the emergency heat from kicking in?

the heat pump we have is designed to kick out and electric kicks in if temps drop below 30 outside . I read in a magazine unless you have the heat pumps where the pipes are run under ground all heat pumps do that . The energy effic. ones only heat up to a low temp. which really doesn't keep you comfortable on the really cold nights. so far I really like my edenpure just fine :)

Those Hydronic heaters heat up to the set temp, then cut off and retain the heat. Regular baseboard heaters will eat you alive with the electric usage. I will say that if you use baseboard heat exclusively, then your electric bill will on average, run a little higher. I have oil heat and always keep the thermostat set on 68 degrees with the baseboard heaters backing it up. Keeps it toasty. Been considering a heat pump and using the oil furnace as the heat pump's auxiliary heat. That way I will not have to have those electric eating heat strips that heat pumps use as the auxiliary/emergency back up. Yes, oil is expensive, but my oil furnace is fairly new, so don't want to can it.

Sewerpit, I think you just didn't know how to use the heat pump correctly.

With a heat pump, if you turn the heat up more than 2 degrees at a time, it's going to use the Emergency Heat. This uses a different type of heater element and that's when you really use the electricity.

I keep my 2200 square foot house at around 77 degrees all winter using a heat pump, and my electric is usually around $150.

Smonk I'd never go with propane in Wilkes. I noticed on "autofill" they really gouged my mother several times on the price. I have heard good things from those lucky enough to be able to hook into the natural gas pipeline though.

Mtn. I didn't have baseboard heat I had Gas heat. Last year went with heatpump best thing I ever done.

the same with me.

wow surprised at the heatpump horror story....i had baseboard heat once and had the power bills that the person with the heatpump horror story had..now have a heatpump and never go above 80 to 90 with power bills year round. with baseboard heat i was going up to 400 a month in the winter.

my heat pump works great and my power bill is not bad!

George I'd wondered about the hydronic .... in fact that was one of the main reasons I started the thread. Good to know you like them. I've Googled and as with anything there is a lot of difference of opinion and I've been wondering if hydronic was worth the difference in price. Thanks for the info.

We have baseboard heaters in every room of the house. Had them setup with a thermostat on the opposite side of the room. If we are gonna be in whatever room, can heat only that room. Generally have one on if each end of house. Keeps it nice and toasty. Do not like the ones with a thermostat on the heater. Go to Home Depot and purchase the Hydronic heaters ( http://www.homedepot.com/we...ALL.) They are a little expensive, but well worth it.

Heat pumps suck...I mean they really do......just suck......baseboard heat is warmer...cheaper......HEAT PUMPS SUCK......I have one.....don't use it....why? because when it gets really cold it blows warm to the touch air and it runs and it runs and it runs and it runs and you have a cold house and a $300.00+ dollar power bill......I Say again.....HEAT PUMPS SUCK......I use a fireplace insert and a 1,500 watt EdenPure space heater that works great!!

Thanks Singer.

Just last week I replaced a baseboard heater in my living room.
I love that my house is total electric, and my power bill is very reasonable even in the coldest times.
These baseboards are at least 30 yrs old, and seem efficient to me.

I've lived with heat pumps twice, and I hate the things. Trying to stay warm in very cold times will put you in the poor house.

The man who installed my new panel told me that people with base board heat have very high power bills, but that is not the case with me. Guess my house is just easy to heat.

I replaced the 12ft panel (couldn't find 12 ft) with a 10 ft, the cost of 96.00 for the panel. Haven't used it much yet.

But about 3 yrs ago I replaced the one in my kitchen/dinning room, also a 10ft. It gets toasty warm at about 72 degrees and both these rooms are about 24 feet long, and 14 ft. wide.

The shorter the panel, the less the cost.
I can only speak from my own experience with base board, and I like it.
Once owned a house with heat in the ceiling, and that is my favorite.

I have a couple of rooms (rarely used) with baseboard heaters. The ones there are old / inefficient and I'm seriously considering upgrading a heatpump (yes, new ductwork too) to accomodate these rooms which probably total 500 sq ft. Also I'm considering upgrading the heaters that are there if the efficiency has improved over the years and I can "get by" at a cheaper cost. Power bills when I use these rooms skyrocket so I know they're inefficient as heck. I had no idea till going through the Lowe's website at how many types, and of course prices, baseboard heaters can be found.

Some are essentially space heaters with open fin type heating elements, while some circulate liquid and radiate heat from that. The price range is $50 to hundreds per unit. Basically I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with them and advice they might offer. At this point I'm leaning toward spending a few thousand to upgrade the heat pump, or install an auxillary one, before spending what could easily be a thousand bucks depending on which units I go with.

Anyone with experience / knowledge in the area I welcome your input. Thanks.