Heat Pumps?

[LB]

Friend lives in Phoenix AZ. Starting to research Heat Pumps. Looking for reviews and info to find "best" for his area.

Experiences? Links?

TIA

LB

[twfsa]

Maytag is great use it in Nebraska work like a champ 16 seer.

Tom

[Travis Jordan]

You're welcome.

[Travis Jordan]

No problem.

The most important concept to learn is that the quality of the installer / installation is the most critical determining factor in the performance and reliability of a system. You can pick from the high-end brands (Trane, A/S, Carrier) or the low-end (Goodman) and still get a satisfactory system if it is designed and installed correctly.

Secondly, you need a heat gain / loss calculation ("Manual J") to determine how big a system to get, and a duct / airflow calculation ("Manual D") to specify the duct layout. Don't even listen to contractors who won't offer to do these two calculations, or who refer to sizing in 'square feet per ton' or some other such nonsense.

For a good primer, spend some time reading the residential HVAC forum at

Good luck.

[SQLit]

Heat pumps are used through out the Valley of the Sun. They work well for cooling. Heating function is fine as long as the temps do not go below 40 F. They do start diminishing on the heat cycle below 45 F. Same is true of the cooling when the temp gets above 105 F. The design temp for heat pumps used to be 92 F. I do not know if they have raised that since I am not working on newer equipment any more.

The most important piece of the puzzle is the installer. 10 seer is 10 seer no matter whether you by jana-junk (Goodman) or American Standard. ( or any other manufactures that you want to substitute )

Placement of the condenser can be an issue. I would have the condenser in the shade or not in direct view of the sun. Every little bit helps.

Scroll compressors cost more and are quieter. If they are looking for the long run go scroll. http://198.147.238.24/ac_calc/default.asp this site will let you play what if to an extent. Make sure that you use at least 2000 cooling hours. Even if the map shows Phoenix in a area lower. Cooling season can run from May to October.

[Dick]

We just put in a Trane dual-fuel heat pump in the Prescott area. These use a natural gas furnace for backup rather than the conventional heat strips. This gives you the best of both worlds. The heat pump operates down to about 38F, then the natural gas takes over. Gas heat is also used for the startup in the morning. In fact, any time there is more than 1-1/2 degrees differential between the thermostat setting and actual inside temperature. We have had it only a week now (replaced a Day-Night gaspack), but so far we really like it. My wife loves the more gentle heat of the heat pump for normal heating. Will have to wait a while to test out the cooling. Should be an improvement over the old 8-SEER gaspack.

[larry moe 'n curly]

It's supposedly cheaper to heat a home here with a heatpump than a gas heater because the climate is so mild. Rheem/Ruud, Trane/American Standard, and Goettl are good brands. Goettl is a local company that's been in business for over 60 years, and apparently experts think that they're well built and easy to work on, and I think Goettl still even installs them. For a 4 ton unit, which is common for 2,000 sq. ft. homes here, the cost for a rooftop packaged unit is roughly $3500, but I found that the larger contractors usually charged the most, except for Goettl.

[Goedjn]

If only you could drive the heatpump with an NG engine, you could do both at once! (Oh, wait... you can.)

[Dick]

We just installed a Trane XL1200 dual-fuel heat pump. It uses natural gas for 2nd stage heat instead of heat strips. Here in Arizona we can opt for the timed electrical service (those on APS) which gives us electricity at 4-cents per KH from 9:00 at night to 9:00 in the morning weekdays, and all day on the weekends. Prime time power is close to 12-cents per KH. We are also paying about $1 per therm for natural gas. That means we can heat at night and weekends for the low

4-cents per KH using the heat pump instead of the expensive NG (and going up all the time.) The natural gas is still there for warming up in the morning, and taking over when the outside temp gets down to around 38-degrees F. We have only had it for a week, but I will be watching the operating cost very closely as compared to our old gaspack which used NG exclusively for heating. Our NG bills in the winter approached $200. We have a 2,200 sq. ft. house with excellent insulation. Home built in 1991.

[stretch]

Watch out for the 500 sq ft per ton rule. That is a national installed average, but does not substitute for a real load calculation. I have a

2000 sq ft house in hot, humid South Carolina with just a 2-ton unit. I did a load calculation before installing. Size depends on how much glass & insulation you have, not sq ft of house.

stretch