Better than this, I’m in QC (basically same climate as ME) and my heatpump is rated -20C/-4F and yes it works in winter to heat the house. Sometimes the heat pump goes in a “anti frost mode”, it’s automatic. I set it to 73F in winter and depending of the room it’s between 70 and 73, even if it’s -4F outside.
In QC, ME, VT, etc it can go down to -22F in winter, not uncommon. I have electric baseboard set to 70F so in case the heatpump stops, the baseboards take the relay.
-60⁰ F windchill. You always want to install the heat pump exchanger where it’s not getting battered by wind anyway, so it’s probably not feeling temps that low
Geothermo is great if you have it, but it takes a lot of money to install for the few days you need backup heat. A regular gas furnace is a better backup.
If you have geothermo sized right for your house and climate you don’t need a backup at all. However at the expensive of installing it you can get a modern air source heat pump for a lot less $$$, and so overall that is the better plan for most people even though in many climates you will need some other backup heat source for the days that it gets too cold for the air source heat pump.
If a lot of these are Water Furnace / geo thermal heat pumps, great.
But emergency heat strips leave much to be desired
Not familiar with the weather there, but there are heat pumps out there that work in temps as low as 4 degrees F.
Better than this, I’m in QC (basically same climate as ME) and my heatpump is rated -20C/-4F and yes it works in winter to heat the house. Sometimes the heat pump goes in a “anti frost mode”, it’s automatic. I set it to 73F in winter and depending of the room it’s between 70 and 73, even if it’s -4F outside.
In QC, ME, VT, etc it can go down to -22F in winter, not uncommon. I have electric baseboard set to 70F so in case the heatpump stops, the baseboards take the relay.
And the article states that they’re working at -60 in Maine. They also aren’t geothermal. I’m intrigued.
I think that was -60 windchill. Which is odd, I would think the windchill temp is irrelevant. Marketing and spin I guess.
-60⁰ F windchill. You always want to install the heat pump exchanger where it’s not getting battered by wind anyway, so it’s probably not feeling temps that low
Geothermo is great if you have it, but it takes a lot of money to install for the few days you need backup heat. A regular gas furnace is a better backup.
isn’t geothermo the primary?
If you have geothermo sized right for your house and climate you don’t need a backup at all. However at the expensive of installing it you can get a modern air source heat pump for a lot less $$$, and so overall that is the better plan for most people even though in many climates you will need some other backup heat source for the days that it gets too cold for the air source heat pump.
Ok I think I see what your saying. All the same I would love geothermal with heat pump but I can’t even afford a stand alone property to begin with.