[UC] Electric heat - heat pump option

[MLamond]

Electric heat pump heat which also provides central a/c is the system we have at our carriage house, a 2+BR, 1.5 bath, 2-story building used for B&B and short-term rentals, next door to our house on 46th St. This is not an advertisement for rentals, but the use is important in the explanation below. 

This building was not originally meant to be a house -- it was for carriage storage, a large garage -- so it does not have a gas line from the street.  Nor does it have an oil tank.  Previous owners had converted it to a house in the 1960s.  When we bought it, it had expensive electric heat.  We put in the heat pump/air conditioning system.

A heat pump uses its own particular magic to extract heat from the air.  I don't pretend to understand how this happens.  It works till the temperature drops below about 30 degrees.  After that, with this type of system, there has to be a back up, and ours is plain old electric heat.  It might not be a good system to have with the average temperature in Alaska, but it works fine in West Philadelphia.  Our bills are reasonable.  However, since it isn't rented continuously, I can't give an exact yearly heating cost, because we turn the heat down when the carriage house isn't rented.

Melani Lamond