Heat Pumps Are Inferior…

…To Gas Furnaces in Every Way In The SF Bay
–

Do you think that heat pump is going to save you money over a gas furnace? If you pay full price for PG&E’s electricity, think again. Even if you don’t, your heat pump contractor better be an improbable mixture of Dudley Do-Right and MacGyver. Heat pumps are complicated and delicate. They require the absolute best practices or their efficiency drops like a rock.

Despite PG&E’s insanely expensive electricity, a heat pump might be a good choice if…

If you have a huge PV system that offsets a heat pump’s MASSIVE electricity use and a grandfathered NEM 1/2 rate plan, then a heat pump may be a good choice. Or it was.
If you don’t want to use fossil fuel, then a heat pump is a good choice that may cost you 15% to 50% more. That “Math Doesn’t Lie…” link below explains.
If you don’t have natural gas or propane service, or if propane costs a lot more than natural gas, then a heat pump may be your only logical choice.

Those exceptions don’t disprove these five ~~rules~~ statements that are usually true.

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than gas furnaces in this area.*
Heat pumps are less reliable and die sooner than simple gas furnaces.
Heat pumps are less comfortable than gas furnaces.
Heat pumps are noisier than gas furnaces.
Gas furnaces can be terrible too.

* If you are so blessed as to not live under PG&E’s reign of fire and terror-rible prices then the first statement may not apply to you. Even so, heat pumps are inferior to gas furnaces in every other way. A simple gas furnace is just an unstoppable beast. These are my opinions of course. Let’s see if I can make them yours by expounding.

If, after reading this, you’re still going to install a heat pump then you MUST read this. (link coming later) My decades of experience suggests the majority of heat pump installers are clueless. The heat pumps they install perform terribly and die prematurely. That link gives you one way of determining if your chosen installer might be an exception to my experience.

1. Heat Pumps Cost More to Run

If you’re a PG&E customer or anyone who pays PG&E-like rates, a central heat pump usually costs more per BTU than a gas furnace. This may come as a surprise because electrification advocates tell us that heat pumps are more efficient than gas furnaces. They’re not lying, but they’re not telling the whole truth either: Efficiency and cost of use are different things.

A heat pump is indeed efficient, but for PG&E customers its cost of use is unbelievable high. That’s because it’s a purely electric heating device and PG&E has some of the highest rates in the country, second only to Hawaii! PG&E’s natural gas costs a lot less than its electricity and gas furnaces use comparatively little electricity, so they’re cheaper to run than a heat pump.

What all that means is that, in a better-case scenario, converting from gas heat to a heat pump may raise a PG&E customer’s heating bill by around 15%. A worse case? By 50%! That may be hard to believe given all the heat pump hype, but it’s just math. Click the next link for the math and to learn how heat pumps are credited for saving energy they didn’t save.

Math Doesn’t Lie About Heat Pumps, Contractors Do

2. Heat Pumps Are Harder to Fix, Less Reliable, and Don’t Last as Long

If there’s one thing that performing 20,000+ repairs has taught me, it’s that heat pumps fail more often and are harder to repair than a simple gas furnace. That’s partly because heat pumps are complex and their compressors run all year. Variable-speed heat pumps in particular are going to be problematic. That’s just my opinion, but I’ll gladly die on that proverbial hill.

If there’s another thing those repairs have taught me, it’s that there’s nothing longer lasting than an HVAC system comprised of a simple natural gas furnace paired with a simple air conditioner. That’s especially true if that AC has a single-stage scroll compressor inside of it. Install that kind of system correctly; don’t abuse it; and you just might get 30 years or more out of it.

As for heat pumps, an old-fashioned version can last 30 years locally, but 20 to 25 is more like it. Variable-speed central HVAC is relatively new locally, so I’m not supremely confident that most variable-speed heat pumps will die by 15 or 20 at the latest. I’m just mostly confident. Once you understand the life cycle of most local HVAC systems, you may be pretty confident yourself…

How Furnaces, ACs, and Heat Pumps Live, Die, and the Trouble Between

3. Heat Pumps Are Less Comfortable

Compared to most gas furnaces, most central heat pumps put out “barely warm air” in the winter. Many heat pumps put out a higher volume of air too, so it may feel drafty when they run. Some heat pumps can be adjusted so that their output air is pretty warm, but then they’ll run less efficiently and die sooner. Most heat pumps just aren’t meant to put out toasty air.

What’s more, heat pumps occasionally go into defrost mode. Defrost mode is basically air conditioning mode. If a heat pump system is installed with a secondary source of heat like electric heat strips, then the air may just be tepid during defrost mode. If it’s not, and a lot of variable-speed heat pumps aren’t, then it’ll occasionally spit out icy cold air on the coldest days.

Central heat pumps can be comfortable, but that requires intelligent system design and the best installation practices. I see intelligence in the universe, but not in most local HVAC contractors. :) Multi-zone mini-split systems can also be very comfortable, but they have their own problems. I talk about multi-zone minis in “Math Doesn’t Lie” above and “Heat Pumps Are Noisier” below.

4. Heat Pumps Are Noisier

Both heat pumps and furnaces can be very noisy or very quiet. It all comes down to system design. Nevertheless, in my opinion it’s easier to design a quiet centrally-ducted gas heating system than it is a centrally-ducted heat pump. That’s because both types of system require the noise of an interior fan, but only a heat pump has to run the exterior fan during winter.

As for mini-split systems, they can be extremely quiet. However, to heat the whole house with a mini usually requires multiple zones. Multi-zone mini-split systems are expensive and complex. Some of them are indeed whisper quiet. But some years later that quiet may be shattered by the “sound” of you writing too many fat checks to get the fool thing fixed.

5. Terrible Furnaces & Closing Thoughts

“Just buy a gas furnace and all will be well.” are words I’ve NEVER spoken. Gas furnaces can be just as terrible as heat pumps. However, that’s almost always due to poor equipment choices, bad system design, and terrible installation. If you’ve been scarred by your gas furnace experience, call me. Tell me your story. I bet the real problem was contractors.

Want peace? Install a simple AC and natural gas furnace correctly. That means NO heat pumps, NO hybrid heat, NO ULN furnaces, NO modulating furnaces, NO variable-speed compressors, NO communicating systems, NO generic coils, NO microchannel tubing, NO push/press fittings, NO purifiers, NO proprietary filters, and NO cutting-edge anything!

Want frustration? Buy lots of “NO”. Then wait a few to a dozen years. Then search in vain for MacGyver and settle for Mac or Bill or Billy or Buddy. Then strum your fingers while Mac spends all day on the phone trying to fix it. Then pay him thousands if he does. Then pony up again as you replace that heat pump at 15 years when a simple gas burner could’ve lasted 30.