(12-27-2022, 11:06 PM)mikesez Wrote:

(12-27-2022, 05:23 PM)americus 2.0 Wrote: After living through a weekend of insanely low temperatures and seeing how much a heat pump doesn't work well in those situations we're looking into something we can use to supplement our electric heat. Seriously, heat pumps don't work well when it doesn't get above freezing for highs and lows are in the lower teens. I don't care if our neighbors or local government don't approve. We don't need their approval anyway. 

When it gets this cold it is life threatening and people need to be able to use what they can afford or, as in our case, supplement a system that wasn't built for these temperatures. Tonight it will get down to 18. Tomorrow night is our last night below freezing for about a week. It really does suck to hear the thing run all night but it's not really heating your house much.

Heat pumps are basically useless once the air temp is below 40. In Florida a small resistance heater is fine as a supplement for the rare freezing day.  In NC you'd want some sort of furnace or fireplace as a backup.  Maybe a space heater. 
But that heat pump will be back to kicking butt and saving you big bucks once the air temp is back above 40.

(12-28-2022, 08:41 AM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(12-27-2022, 11:06 PM)mikesez Wrote: Heat pumps are basically useless once the air temp is below 40. In Florida a small resistance heater is fine as a supplement for the rare freezing day.  In NC you'd want some sort of furnace or fireplace as a backup.  Maybe a space heater. 
But that heat pump will be back to kicking butt and saving you big bucks once the air temp is back above 40.

Not true.  Our heat pump maintains a comfortable 68 degrees in our home with outside temps in the low 20's.

(12-28-2022, 10:01 AM)homebiscuit Wrote:

(12-28-2022, 08:41 AM)jagibelieve Wrote: Not true.  Our heat pump maintains a comfortable 68 degrees in our home with outside temps in the low 20's.

Ours is working well too.

Heat pumps are always about temperature differences, and what you're willing to put up with. Most of them can raise or lower temperature (compared with the air temperature outside) by 50-60F when working correctly. So if you're in an area where the outside temperature is 20F then they should be able to raise your inside temperature to something comfortable. Of course that assumes your system is working well, your home is sufficiently insulated, and you're satisfied with 70-80F. If your home has [BLEEP] sealing and insulation then a heat pump outputting 70-80F air may not be enough to keep you warm, especially if you're like a lot of weirdos I know that keep their AC at 65F in the summer and their heater at 85F in the winter.

---