Are you looking for the most energy efficient method for maintaining a comfortable temperature in your home year ‘round?
Perhaps you are thinking about installing a heat pump. A heat pump, as part of a central heating and cooling system, uses the outside air to both heat a home in winter and cool it in summer. A heat pump is very energy efficient—to a point. That point is right around 35 degrees. This is because a heat pump uses heat from the outdoors to warm your home. It can do this very effectively even at temperatures in the 40s. But once the outdoor temperature drops below 35 degrees, there’s no longer any heat left to pull. At this point the backup heat source inside the heat pump system takes over. Also known as the Auxiliary Heat or Emergency Heat, this is the most expensive, inefficient way to heat a home.
On the other hand, a natural gas furnace produces wonderful warm heat. It’s reliable and doesn’t care what the outside temperature is. The downside is that it costs a little more to heat with gas, both because a furnace can’t take advantage of the ambient air temperature like a heat Continue reading
