Heat Pump and humidity.
I just replaced my furnace at my place in kamloops, so it's a bit colder that van. However, I'd think it might be worth pointing something out about the newer heat pump systems.
I've get a variable speed fan in my Bryant system, and the heat pump runs down to a little colder than -8C before the furnace kicks in. But the BIG deal ofr me was the humidity. The controller has a humidistat and acutally adjust the fan speed the manage the humidity better. When the AC runs, it can acutally slow down the fan to reduce the coil temp, and drop more water out of the air. It will even kick in when the AC is not needed to remove moisture.
IE, if you are in "AC/heat" mode, and it's not too cold outside. I can kick on the AC for a short period, with slow moving air so the coil is near freezing, just to reduce the humidity levels in the house..... And all summer it did a real good job of keeping it down. It stayed at about 25% in the house all summer, and now that it is winter, it gets up to about 45%.
So, in short. The heat pump with a variable speed fan(which gets a much bigger grant) has a few benifits other than heating/cooling the house. I don't even know if you really need backup heat in Van with the new pumps, or at least a small electric backup only.
So far this winter, the furnace has yet to turn on once, and it ranges from +5 to -5 lately.
|