replacing an oil furnace, with...

[InProcess]

If your wife likes it warm, a heat pump by itself will not make her happy, even one that uses water transfer.  However a heat pump with a back up heat supply is a good combo, especially if ac is a requirement.  Backup could be room like, ie stove, or whole house.  Then you can use the charts above for BU.  My significant other likes it warm and starts burning pellet stove in Oct.  I have to restrict her to 4 tons of pellets a year.  30,000 BTU PS works fine since I have 1 story open floor plan.  One day I'll figure out how to convert my 4 acres of woods into pellets cheaply instead of begging folks to take the fallen trees!  When I get ready to replace HP, will reconsider diggin wells, but that's depends on number of wells (~3) and costs to drill them.  Without BU, air from HP will not feel warm and forget about getting dampness out of the air.  BTU's is for engineers, comfort factor is what women use!  Remember if there not happy your not happy, no matter what the numbers say !!!  As was stated if your windows and doors, and attic insulation has never been updated, first area to mod!

[Joe Widmayer]

I’m just happy that a topic came up that I can speak (halfway) intelligently about.

The recurring topics seem to be cars, guns and women.......(all good subjects).

I know just enough about cars to be dangerous........less about guns........and I thought I knew about women but Kim dispelled me of that notion after the first 10 years of marriage. 

I’m convinced that very few understand women.........sort of like the select few that understand string theory or quantum physics........only more difficult to understand.

[Scott Harrison]

....  I have to restrict her to 4 tons of pellets a year. .... Remember if the're not happy, your not happy, ...

Damn...wish my wife would be happy with 4 tons of pellets.

[Wade Chamberlain]

....  I have to restrict her to 4 tons of pellets a year. .... Remember if the're not happy, your not happy, ...

Damn...wish my wife would be happy with 4 tons of pellets.

FAIL.  Anybody else see this?  Elder tries to correct the master of grammar and uses "their" to correct Ken's incorrectly utilized "there"....then goes back and mispells "they're".

[Scott Harrison]

Weasel...don't you have some work to do today.

[Wade Chamberlain]

Weasel...don't you have some work to do today.

Yes I do, a lot of it....please stop distracting me.

[InProcess]

OK, so I spelled the word correctly didn't I?  Now I'll work on my grammar 

4 tons = 200 bags @ 1 bag a day that should last 200 days, right 

OBTW wade did you misquote elder with use of the word "their" ?

[Wade Chamberlain]

OBTW wade did you misquote elder with use of the word "their" ?

No, that was the whole point!  Elder quoted you to bust your balls on using "there".  He lined out "there" in your quote and corrected you by using "their" in its place......which was funny because it's also incorrect!    Before I could bust his balls on it, he edited his original response to fix his boo boo, but he misspelled "they're"......which makes it even funnier!  LMAO

[mdman352]

KISS. I use a properly sized heat pump and run the temps where I feel most comfortable...72-74. Get rid of the hair dryer and you can save $80.00 a month. Don't ask me how I know this.

[InProcess]

I understood your point wade, I was pulled your chain by saying that he used the word "the're" vice "there".  So he actually just let a letter off! 

Thanks for trying to protect my image elder!

OBTW - just cleaned the pellet stove, what a PITA, especially glass.  But since Helen left a note on to clean it before use, no choice.

[Joe Widmayer]

Get rid of the hair dryer and you can save $80.00 a month.

Hmmmmmm.....Now I have to design a woodfired hair dryer...........The hard part will be to get Kim to agree to use it.

[Jim Harding]

I always hear that heat pumps don't put our warm air, or it's too cold.  My heat pump puts out 80 degree air at the registers.  Granted, it's not toasty air, like when the oil furnace cuts on, but it will warm the house up very nicely.  I keep the thermostat at 69, and get no complaints from the 'boss'.
I'm guessing that the "too cold" stories come from our 98.6 body temp feeling the cooler 80 degree air from the heat pump.

[Craig S]

"he's quoted $4900 for the efficient propane furnace with a stand alone 3.5ton ac unit or $4500 for the super duper 3.5ton heat pump" No expert here but...seems to me the $4900 option means you ALWAYS burn propane to get heat. Not so good based on our costs over the last 4-5 yrs for propane. W/ "the super duper 3.5 t heat pump", a fair amount of the time you just need electricity to run a compressor and a fan. The heat is pretty cheap under those conditions. Then all you need is a pellet stove or a propane radiant heater like we use to fill in the gap in a few rooms when it's real cold so you don't kick in the heat coils in the heat pump unit.

[Rob Burton]

My advice would be to get a 18 SEER variable speed heat pump, many different brands are good.  I see a lot of Goodman units here that are very nice.  You will be very happy that you went with the high efficiency and variable speed.....don't even consider the gas furnace if you are on propane

[gw6929]

@ Jim Harding - you are correct, it's below 98.6 so it feels cool to the skin.   I seem to remember something about oil/propane furnaces putting out ~120degrees @ the regster.

I talked with some neihbors who have a similar house that was built about 20yrs newer than mine, he replaced 2 stand alone ac units with 2 heat pumps about 2yrs ago & had originally planned to continue use of the propane furnace that was installed about 9yrs ago; however, he found his elec bill only went up by $12/mo avg ($144/yr) to heat with the heat pumps.   Obviously he burned a lot more propane than $144/worth.   OBTW these neighbors are in their 80s & keep the house nice & warm.   the heat pump is looking like the right choice for us, as was mentioned earlier; when it gets cold we will continue to heat with wood.

We had a blower door test done on the house, which revealed some interesting results - over our 2400SF house, crawlspace & attic we have the aggregate equivelant of a 630 square inch leak.

I'm trying to schedule some time off from work so I can be here when they do all the insulation work - I'm told that with the windows/doors we already did & foam insulation we will be installing the efficency will be similar to that of a modern construction.