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> Presumably the same might be true of ground source heat pumps and frost, though I know less about that. I looked into this, since I'm getting an air-to-water

> Presumably the same might be true of ground source heat pumps and frost, though I know less about that. I looked into this, since I'm getting an air-to-water heat pump installed next month, and considered a ground heat pump. Ground heat pumps require a large area of pipes, roughly 3x the area of the house. Less than that, and I was told that I'd risk creating permafrost around the pipes, greatly reducing the efficiency of the pump. Regarding cost, my heat pump will replace a gas heater, and should actually cut my yearly expenses to almost 1/3. If that is actually how things are going to work out (and assuming the electricity price surges in Europe are temporary) then it'll pay itself back in 8-10 years. Granted, I live in Denmark where most of the price of gas and electricity is environment taxes, and those are cut for the electricity that is spent by a heat pump, thus making it more cost effective than if those taxes weren't there.

stormbrew 5y ago
Most of the cost for me was really a "no one here does it yet tax" on the unit itself, along with an "everything is much more expensive in canada tax" tbh. If I were in the US the unit would have been half the cost and it'd probably be cost effective on a reasonable timeline, esp. if carbon taxes increase over the next ten years as currently scheduled. Right now though the cost to heat my house with gas and the cost to heat it with the heat pump at the marginal temperatures is about the same. I still have an operational and relatively new gas water heater though or I'd be looking into turning off the gas for 2/3 of the year and that would save a lot of money since there's a lot of fixed costs on my bill for even having gas at all.