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That page is talking total crap. Must be trying to sell you a furnace! Heat pumps are pretty common in Scandinavia, and readily available in Canada and other c

That page is talking total crap. Must be trying to sell you a furnace! Heat pumps are pretty common in Scandinavia, and readily available in Canada and other cold places. I found this on a Canada gov website: "At –8.3°C, the COP is typically 2.3". So at 17°F in American money, that's 2.3kW out for every 1kW in, and air source is the least efficient type. https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/publications/efficiency/heating-heat-pump/6831 https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/publications/efficiency/heati... Heat pumps for heating do degrade in efficiency as temperature drops, but stay cost effective down to -15°C, or -20°C or so. Supposedly, newer ones go even lower still. With ground source you just dig a bit deeper, as assuming we're not talking permafrost it's fairly easy to reach efficient temperatures.

lotsofpulp 7y ago
Huh, looks like I have more to learn. I’ve only ever seen gas furnaces used to heat wherever there is gas supply available in the US (Northeast/Midwest/Pacific Northwest). Heat pump is only used as air conditioner if gas available. I assumed this was because it’s not possible or efficient to operate a heat pump in colder temperatures.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  Mainly cost I'd say. 20 or 40 years ago, depending where you were, gas was cheap enough that it mostly wasn't worth caring that much, and electric anything was the expensive option. Aircon for cooling was a much easier choice. These days it's starting to look hugely attractive both ways, and I think will be ever more so. Cold areas usually have a mostly unused backup heater in heat pumps, for those few times record breaking cold arrives, and of course the nearer you get to a COP of 1 (1kW in = 1kW out) the longer it takes to pay back the extra cost.