Oil Furnace or Heat pump or both?

Question

I live in north east part of Maryland. I need to replace my oil furnace. I have about 2,000 square feet. The house is a bi level. I want to ad central air. Would a heat pump by its self, be the right choice or a heat pump and furnace side by side. Or what about a just a furnace with an "A" coil? Thanks for your help

Answer 1

a modern heat pump is good down to around 20 degrees outside.

what you are looking for is called a "duel fuel" system....it uses the heat pump until it gets so cold outside that they become inefficient, then it switches to the oil or gas furnace.

i recommend that you go with at least a 16 seer unit....get a r410a system ( r-22 systems will no longer be manufactured in a few years)

the cost difference between a heat pump and a strait a/c system usually isn't much more than $400. the duel fuel kits are another $100 at the most.....and you wont need emergency heat strips (unless you just want them)

i honestly believe that you will be pleased with the money that you will save in 5 years by going duel fuel.

hope this helps,
possum

Answer 2

Heat Pump With Oil Furnace

Answer 3

Heat Pumps are definitely not known for efficiency. Remember the old commercial with Ernest, I had a heat pump that pumped and pumped and pumped till it finally pumped its little guts out. OK sorry about that.

Central air and Central heating is an option. Central heat obviously has two choices, forced air electric or forced air gas. In a colder climate I would think that natural gas is probably a little bit easier on the pocket book than electric. My thoughts are that Forced air heat systems are drafty. However just get the furnace alone and have it sized accordingly by your dealer. They will be able to recommend the right amount of BTU's you need to effectively and efficiently heat and cool 2000 sq ft.

There are other options like a wood burning furnace in the basement or depending on where you live, and, or if your house is equipped with a chimney, can determine if this unit should sit in the basement or could be an external unit

Your other options include baseboard electric heat, which most folks don't like however the advantages here are a thermostat in every room, therefore if you have a room somewhere in that 2000 Sq ft that you don;t need to be heated you can simply not turn that particular unit on .


Hope this helps a bit, If your still cold put a sweater on go outside and then come back in , it will seem warmer I promise

Answer 4

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RE:
Oil Furnace or Heat pump or both?
I live in north east part of Maryland. I need to replace my oil furnace. I have about 2,000 square feet. The house is a bi level. I want to ad central air. Would a heat pump by its self, be the right choice or a heat pump and furnace side by side. Or what about a just a furnace with an...

Answer 5

Heat pumps are are energy hogs. If you have a furnace available, you will do better to heat with the oil furnace. Here's why. An oil furnace burns oil to produce heat that is directly used to warm our house. A heat pump is a refrigeration cycle in reverse. Just like the coils on your refrigerator get hot, so do the internal coils of a heat pump. The problem is the utility company burns oil to produce electricity. You use elelctricity to run the compressor in your heat pump. Both processes have some inefficiency. And when you combine the two, you pay for both. With the oil furnace, you will only pay for the inefficiency of the oil furnace.

Answer 6

skip the heat pump at all costs, there not meant for the winter season.
personally I would do a Gas Furnace from Bryant
http://www.bryant.com/index.shtml
they offer oil and gas systems.
the thing i like about using this system is that each component of a "evolution" system communicates together give you greater energy savings (especially in the summer)
the thermostat does more than just control temperature.
without the headache of the deciphering of the instruction manual. it is a breeze.