I have used a water to air heat pump since 1979 and its been very efficient. Air to air heat pumps are not as efficient as they use electric heating outside if the air drops below a certain temperature. I have had a strange house or backwards house, as some people call it, but its been environmentally great and a money saver.
I actually have 5 means of heating. 1. Passive solar (greenhouse) 2. Solar hot water heating 3. Water to air heat pump 4. Electric heating elements 5. Wood heating stove For air-conditioning the water to air heat pump is reversed. If anyone is interested, maybe we can discuss these options in the handy man room on for-the-people sometime. Loren ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dale Leavens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 12:39 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] what to know about replacing your central unit Hi Kevin, I have been reading about geothermal heating, very expensive to instal however the foundation technology is heat pump technology. They claim this to be 30 to 50% more efficient than resistant electric heating and the same installation is used for heating and cooling. Some of the considerations include no flame no domestic hydrocarbon burning and the same equipment can be used for water heating. Heat pump efficiency though falls off badly at something a little below freezing outdoors. If you get that sort of weather much then this might not be a good choice for you however the other advantages are substantial. Geothermal has the advantage that the temperature is always about 55 degrees but you have to lay a lot of pipe under the ground to achieve useful heat exchange which puts the installation cost way up but the running cost down enough for fairly rapid pay-back. Anyway, the advantages of no flame, no exhaust, single mechanical unit, no venting and therefore improved weather sealing, no domestic toxic emissions, substantially reduced fire risk all are commendable. I highly recommend inquiring about heat pumps in your local area and consider hot water heating as part of the installation. All summer your air conditioner pumps all that heat into an already hot outdoor environment, might as well have a hot shower and keep the pool warm before throwing it away. The new sealed combustion gas furnaces work very well and are approaching 100% efficiency. They also have closed combustion water heaters these days or even the tankless heaters. I also know that more energy efficient air conditioning units are now available. Up here heat pumps are not a suitable solution because it is far too cold to efficiently extract heat from the weather out side. This week we have had a couple of days of forty below, there isn't much heat to be extracted from that. So far I haven't bothered with air conditioning, there are probably a bout two weeks in the middle of the summer it would be nice but for that I can put up with it. If I get to do it again though I think I will do heat pump with geothermal. In Texas at least heat pump and probably geothermal for hot weather efficiency. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Doucet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 10:39 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] what to know about replacing your central unit > Hi list, > > This just might be a question especially for Boyce Ray, but, I > welcome any help from all! > > I have been smelling gas when my heating unit starts up. The gas > seemed to be coming from the air vents. I had my gas company come out > to see if it was the gas meter and they tell me it is the burner > being clogged and needing servicing. I had a local HVAC company come > out and clean the burner but I think I still am smelling gas. Can > this just be an accumulation of gas which has not dissipated or do I > need to get the HVAC folks back out? > > Also, my central unit, natural gas heating and electric air is > getting long in the tooth. It is not energy sufficient and I an > thinking about replacing it. I would like to know what to consider > when replacing this sort of unit and as well as any and all > ramifications and concerns that matter with an undertaking of this > type. I am not considering doing it myself. I just want to know > things to look at and consider; IE, energy savings verses cost of > replacement, tax rebates for this sort of home improvement, heat pump > verses a duel gas heat / electric A C, ETC. > > Any and all help is appreciated. > > > > > Thanks. > > > > Kevin Doucet > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > confuse as says > > Blind man with unmarked forehead has large belly! > > > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various > List Members At The Following address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ > > Visit the new archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.411 / Virus Database: 268.17.39/687 - Release Date: > 14/02/2007 > > To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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