innews: snipped-for-privacy@s9g2000prg.googlegroups.com:
I'm in lower Michigan about 30 mile north of Indiana.
I don't know if anyone around here has an air transfer heat pump. My niece's husband (now ex husband) had a reputation for being a good heating/air conditioning guy. They lived down in Indiana and I was getting tired of paying so much for heating oil for the old stove. He recommended a heat pump. Due to all the crap he has pulled on my niece after she caught him with the neighbor lady, I don't think I want him around any more.
What I really need is a good back-up system for when it gets under 40 degrees. I think the air transfer heat pump will work fine at higher temps than that. My plan right now is before next winter to get the local guy out that always worked on my old oil furnace and see if it can be hooked back up in the system or at least see what he recommends.
BTW, here is exactly what I have. I live in an old farm house that was first built in 1910 but has been added on to several times since. The downstairs has a great room with the living room and kitchen. Off that is the bed room and off that is the bathroom/laundry room.
The pellet stove does a good job heating the living room and kitchen but not enough heat gets to the bedroom and bathroom. Also, the pellet stove need service from time to time. I moved the thermostat for the heat pump to the bedroom so the heat from the pellet stove would not effect it.
If I could depend on the pellet stove all the time, I would not have as much of a problem. But it breaks down sometimes when I am not home or in the middle of the night. Last night I came home about 7:30 to find that the pellet stove had malfunctioned. It was about 7 degrees outside and only 58 degrees in the living room and 63 degrees in the bedroom where the heat pump thermostat is. By the time I got the pellet stove running again and got the house back up to a comfortable temp, it was after midnight.
The think I like about the heat pump is that it is a damn good and efficient air conditioning unit. Which is why I want to keep it so I don't lose my investment in that end. I think that if I had my oil furnace working again, it would keep the pellet stove from having to work so much and the pellet stove would help keep the furnace oil usage down to an affordable level.
David