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A heat pump with a sufficiently powerful resistive preheater will be at least as energy-efficient in operation as the resistive heater alone, but it's also much
by nybble41 4y ago
A heat pump with a sufficiently powerful resistive preheater will be at least as energy-efficient in operation as the resistive heater alone, but it's also much more complex, with a correspondingly higher up-front cost and ongoing maintenance requirements. A resistive heater can consist of little more than a solid-state heating element, a blower fan, and a mechanical thermostat; radiative heaters can even dispense with the fan, which is the least reliable part of the system. A heat pump, by contrast, additionally involves pumps, heat exchangers, and volatile fluids under pressure, generally under the management of some moderately complex logic.
- brnt 4y agoNaturally a heat pump is more complex and thus more maintenance intensive, but it's worth the investment/cost in energy savings in any calculation I've seen (they do tend to require more maintenance).
- nybble41 4y agoCost is one factor, but if you live in, say, rural North Dakota, you may not be able to afford the risk that your main source of heat breaks down in the middle of a blizzard and you can't get anyone in to service it for several days… or weeks. Don't discount the value of predictable reliability.