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I would assume you have an AC unit as well as a gas furnace — but the AC unit is super close to just being a heat pump, so it’s worth considering replacing your

by xt00 4y ago

I would assume you have an AC unit as well as a gas furnace — but the AC unit is super close to just being a heat pump, so it’s worth considering replacing your AC unit with a heat pump at some point and turning off the gas furnace to see how the costs differ. Most likely for fairly long sections of the year in Texas you would easily heat your house with a heat pump at a low power usage since it’s not too cold out.

adrianmonk 4y ago
> assume you have an AC unit as well as a gas furnace A typical Texas house has one unit that is both AC and furnace. Most houses built in the last 50 years have central AC. Given that you'll have ducts, the simplest and easiest way to heat the house is to use them. In other words, it's forced air heating. It's really not a great form of heating, but it's adequate for relatively short, mild winters. So if you replace your one AC/furnace unit with a heat pump unit, you probably won't have a gas furnace anymore to do the comparison. (Apparently, there is such a thing as a "dual fuel heat pump", though, which can heat with gas or heat pump. I'm not sure how much those cost.) Another factor is that AC is the bigger concern for energy usage because AC is used much more of the year. So when replacing your system, whatever money you can spend on an upgrade, you're probably better off putting it toward improving AC efficiency rather than heat efficiency. Or toward something that will help with both, like insulation.
- avianlyric 4y ago
  > Another factor is that AC is the bigger concern for energy usage because AC is used much more of the year. So when replacing your system, whatever money you can spend on an upgrade, you're probably better off putting it toward improving AC efficiency rather than heat efficiency. Given that an AC is just heat pump, but with the hot bit outside, and the only thing needed to swap the hot and cold bits is a reversing valve. A high efficiency heat pump is also a high efficiency AC (that’s a very tautological statement). So investing in improved heat pump for heating, naturally means investing in an improved heat pump for cooling.
  - oakwhiz 4y ago
    The outside coil and fan also has to be sized for the worst case load that will be demanded based on seasonal climate. In some places this may influence the decision a bit.

by xt00 4y ago

adrianmonk 4y ago

> assume you have an AC unit as well as a gas furnace A typical Texas house has one unit that is both AC and furnace. Most houses built in the last 50 years have central AC. Given that you'll have ducts, the simplest and easiest way to heat the house is to use them. In other words, it's forced air heating. It's really not a great form of heating, but it's adequate for relatively short, mild winters. So if you replace your one AC/furnace unit with a heat pump unit, you probably won't have a gas furnace anymore to do the comparison. (Apparently, there is such a thing as a "dual fuel heat pump", though, which can heat with gas or heat pump. I'm not sure how much those cost.) Another factor is that AC is the bigger concern for energy usage because AC is used much more of the year. So when replacing your system, whatever money you can spend on an upgrade, you're probably better off putting it toward improving AC efficiency rather than heat efficiency. Or toward something that will help with both, like insulation.

avianlyric 4y ago
> Another factor is that AC is the bigger concern for energy usage because AC is used much more of the year. So when replacing your system, whatever money you can spend on an upgrade, you're probably better off putting it toward improving AC efficiency rather than heat efficiency. Given that an AC is just heat pump, but with the hot bit outside, and the only thing needed to swap the hot and cold bits is a reversing valve. A high efficiency heat pump is also a high efficiency AC (that’s a very tautological statement). So investing in improved heat pump for heating, naturally means investing in an improved heat pump for cooling.
- oakwhiz 4y ago
  The outside coil and fan also has to be sized for the worst case load that will be demanded based on seasonal climate. In some places this may influence the decision a bit.