2 minutes ago, martin-w said:

 

Heat pump? I recall us debating about ground source and air source heat pumps a while back, and you hadnt got one. So you bought a house with a heat pump?

I used to have a split system with the typical compressor air conditioner and natural gas heat.

The house we have now uses an all electric heat pump for heating and cooling.  It's quite efficient until the temp drops below about -7C, then the auxiliary electric heating coils activate as the heat pump can no longer produce warm enough air.  The electric bill goes up a good bit when those have to be used.  Luckily, here in TN we only get really cold for about 2 months.

Dave

4 hours ago, dave2013 said:

couple strange problems with relatively new cars that were hard to diagnose

Last three decades I’ve stuck with Japanese brands, specifically Toyota. Other than routine maintenance an alternator and catalytic converter is the only out of ordinary repairs I’ve had come up. Always bought new with plans to keep at least a decade. 
Just traded my wife’s 2009 Venza on a new Highlander. My black 2010 Tundra is an old friend and I always say they’ll use it to move me to the old folks home when and if that time comes.

3 minutes ago, Patco Lch said:

Last three decades I’ve stuck with Japanese brands

Yeah, I had a Honda CRV for 10 years and never had a problem.  

I recently got a Nissan Frontier with one of the last basic V6s, no V4 with a turbocharger like many trucks lately.  I plan to keep this one for at least 10 years as well.

Dave

13 hours ago, dave2013 said:

It's quite efficient until the temp drops below about -7C, then the auxiliary electric heating coils activate.

Dave

 

 

A standard air-conditioning unit is basically a heat pump, is that what you mean?. Thats not the same as an air source or ground source heat pump.

Properly set up air source heat pumps are doing fine in the UK, in the winter. And as I'm sure you know, they are functioning well in colder places like Scandinavia too. 

New technology enables them to extract enough heat from outside air, and some units perform well at temps as low as minus 30C, which is quite astonishing.

Sounds like, when you say "heat pump" you really mean a reverse cycle air conditioner. 

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by martin-w

10 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Yeah, I had a Honda CRV for 10 years and never had a problem.  

I recently got a Nissan Frontier with one of the last basic V6s, no V4 with a turbocharger like many trucks lately.  I plan to keep this one for at least 10 years as well.

Dave

I got you beat!  My CR-V is now 22 years old and still runs great.  The paint looks terrible, but it still runs and drives well.  Of course, mileage wise, mine is just well broken in with only 151,000 or so miles on it. I'm thinking of having it repainted and keep it another 10 years.

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

 

A standard air-conditioning unit is basically a heat pump, is that what you mean?. Thats not the same as an air source or ground source heat pump.

Properly set up air source heat pumps are doing fine in the UK, in the winter. And as I'm sure you know, they are functioning well in colder places like Scandinavia too. 

New technology enables them to extract enough heat from outside air, and some units perform well at temps as low as minus 30C, which is quite astonishing.

Sounds like, when you say "heat pump" you really mean a reverse cycle air conditioner. 

They use the same compressor for the air conditioning but in reverse, so that heat is extracted from the outside air.  We've been using them in the U.S. for decades, but mostly in warmer climates.

The technology has improved to the point where they can now be used in colder climates, but they still have limits.  Yes, there are super efficient units which can work down to minus 20, but they are extremely expensive.  I've never seen any that can work down to minus 30, but I believe you when you say there are.  The latest units I've come across for an accessible price can work down to -12C.  Mine is a few years old and is in the middle of the range as far as efficiency and price.

Mine works well down to minus 7C, which for 80% of the winter is just fine, but for the really cold days it has to use the heater coils to keep the house at 15-16C.  I could "suffer" and keep the house at 10C like some people we know in Italy, but I prefer to be at least somewhat comfortable in my own house.

Dave

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

The technology has improved to the point where they can now be used in colder climates, but they still have limits.  Yes, there are super efficient units which can work down to minus 20, but they are extremely expensive. 

 

The only limit I can think of is the cost. That's apart from the need to reinstall tanks we removed when most of the UK switched to Combi Boilers. And the pipework complexity of course, often requiring larger diameter pipe than Brits were used to with Combi Boilers. 

 

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

Mine works well down to minus 7C, which for 80% of the winter is just fine, but for the really cold days it has to use the heater coils to keep the house at 15-16C. 

 

Hmmm.... still sounds like you might be talking about a reverse cycle aircon unit, not a true heat pump system. Air Source Heat Pumps have coils but not heating element coils, just heat transfer coils. If its a true air source heat pump and it can't handle minus 7C then it would probably have have been configured for just warmer weather, not cold, given your locations climate.  

 

What's the make and model?

 

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by martin-w

Good old natural gas for me. We have a heat pack with gas furnace and conventional air conditioner contained in one unit. And gas hot water heater that never runs out. My son in law has a degree in heating and cooling and works for the gas company so we get him to clean and service our units every year.

Our other son in law is a building contractor so home repairs are taken care of. It pays to know people. If I had another daughter I would marry her off to a professional car technician but two was our limit😁

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

still sounds like you might be talking about a reverse cycle aircon unit, not a true heat pump system

It's a heat pump, or air source heat pump.  

Like I said, mine isn't the most efficient model.  There really isn't a lower limit, theoretically, as there's some heat even in air at minus 100, but the trick is having a unit efficient enough capture and transfer that small amount of energy. Then there's the issue of how much space you need to heat and to what temperature.   The heating coils are a separate, auxiliary unit that is added to the system for climates where the temps get down to -5 and below.  We had some -17C days last winter and without that auxiliary heat we would have been in trouble.

It's a 2.5 ton unit for heating and cooling 1,500 sq ft.  Goodman GPH1430H41BE.  I don't think they make this model any more.  It has a SEER of 14.0 and a heating HSPF of 8.0, about middle of the efficiency range.

Dave

15 minutes ago, Patco Lch said:

Good old natural gas for me. We have a heat pack with gas furnace and conventional air conditioner contained in one unit. And gas hot water heater that never runs out. My son in law has a degree in heating and cooling and works for the gas company so we get him to clean and service our units every year.

Our other son in law is a building contractor so home repairs are taken care of. It pays to know people. If I had another daughter I would marry her off to a professional car technician but two was our limit😁

We used to have a gas furnace in our previous house.  The problem even with gas is that if the electricity goes out, the unit still won't run.  We also have an electric water heater.  If you have a gas water heater with pilot light then that might keep working even without power.

We're going to get a propane heater just in case we lose power due to an ice storm or something.  We already have a 30lb propane tank, so that should keep us warm in one room until the power is restored.

Dave

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

ice storm or something

 

Yikes! So lucky re weather where we live. Rarely drops below freezing. October and we still don't have any heating on. 

I have natural gas fireplace, stove, and hot water heater.  As I like to say, in an extended power outage we won't freeze, we won't starve, and we won't stink.😉

2 hours ago, stans said:

I have natural gas fireplace, stove, and hot water heater.  As I like to say, in an extended power outage we won't freeze, we won't starve, and we won't stink.😉

In our house in New Mexico we had a wood fireplace and lots of wood in the shed, a gas stove/oven, gas furnace, and gas water heater with pilot light that worked without electricity.  We rarely lost power, but were OK when we did.

Now our heating is electric, stove/oven is electric, and water heater is electric. 

With everything going electric nowadays, if you lose power you're scre***.  I'm probably going to have to invest in a little gasoline and propane powered generator in addition to the propane heater.

There's always a cost to everything.

Dave

20 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

Yikes! So lucky re weather where we live. Rarely drops below freezing. October and we still don't have any heating on. 

Yeah, I was surprised at how mild the weather was in the southern UK when I was stationed there.  Even the storms were tame.  It did get cold and stay cold for quite a long time, though, but not below freezing very often.

Here in much of the U.S., especially in the eastern part, we tend to have more extremes in terms of temperature and storms.

TN is at 36 degs. latitude, but can get very cold in the winter, albeit a relatively short one compared to the northern States.  It can also get very hot in the Summer.  Where we live now the Summers are a bit milder due to being 1,000ft(305m) above sea level and near the Cumberland Plateau, but it still can get up to 95F(35C) for a few weeks.

Dave

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

With everything going electric nowadays, if you lose power you're scre***.

New Mexico - averages 285 days of sunshine and is consider an arid environment.  Solar panels and a battery and complete independence from a power provider … how is that “scre***” … it’s called taking control of your power needs.