3 ms·

What was the answer you came to? I'm in a very similar situation

• sokoloff 2y ago
  Ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39144329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39144329 A two-part answer: From the Mechanical Engineering/Thermodynamic angle: > Ultimately, I proved to myself that a heat pump could work down to an outside air temp of about 18°F [which is slightly above our 99th percentile design temp] with flow temps of 135°F, so an air source heat pump could work with slightly reduced comfort on about 2% of days or could work all the time with supplementation with a 9kW [30K BTU/hr] electric boiler. From the commercial angle: > What killed the project is no heat pump installer was interested in doing the work (as reflected by outright declining to bid, while bidding a 4-hour gas boiler swap, or by bidding so high that they might as well not have bid, while also cheerfully bidding a 4-hour gas boiler swap). So my house still burns gas for heat. On the engineering front: I think the answer is often going to "<hissing inhale> It's going to be close; we should probably test it..."
  • hojdra 2y ago
    Thanks for the response. My feeling is that maybe in about 10 years Air-to-water Heat pumps will be more common in the US and we might have a better chance of getting a reasonable installation quote