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To: presently no screen name
only warms two of the four rooms on the lower level.

All I can offer is - are the vents in the two colder rooms opened and/or an obstruction in the duct work leading to these rooms?

Maybe you read me wrong?
The heat pump works fine.
I just wanted to know if it was cheaper running my two 1500 watt electric fireplaces instead of the heatpump.

25 posted on 11/07/2010 4:59:52 PM PST by plinyelder ("I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born." -- Ronald Reagan)
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To: plinyelder

One consideration is that the electric fireplaces provide you will flexibility to heat just the room you are in. This would clearly be applicable to the bedroom. For example, you could turn the heatpump down at night and use the electric heater in the bedroom. I have three options in my house, propane central gas, heat pump, and electric baseboard. I use all three at different times and in different places in the house.


34 posted on 11/07/2010 5:11:34 PM PST by iontheball
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To: plinyelder
I just wanted to know if it was cheaper running my two 1500 watt electric fireplaces instead of the heatpump.

All electrical resistance heaters are 100% efficient, at least if you buy into that whole Conservation of Energy mumbo jumbo. Below a certain temperature your heat pump is an electrical resistance heater and will give you the exact same BTU's per kilowatt consumed as your electric fireplaces. Above that cutoff temperature, your heat pump is more efficient, and will give you more BTU's per kilowatt than the electric resistance heaters by basically extracting some heat from the air that is outside your living space.

When you're at the point of the year when you're heating your house, there's no point in turning off TV's or the stereo or the lights to save electricity. You're getting the same heat per kilowatt consumed out of those as you are from your electric heaters too.

40 posted on 11/07/2010 5:19:07 PM PST by Wissa (Gone Galt)
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To: plinyelder
I just wanted to know if it was cheaper running my two 1500 watt electric fireplaces instead of the heatpump.

Generally, the heat pump is cheaper because it gives you more heat than what ordinary resistance heating will give you (your electric fireplaces are resistance heating, as is your furnace's backup heat). Ordinary resistance heating gives you roughly 3.4 BTU per watt. A heat pump, in milder weather will supply much more heat than this, but as it gets colder, it loses efficiency.

More importantly, as it gets colder outside, the outside coil will need to defrost periodically, meaning that the resistance heating in the furnace has to operate while the heat pump is reversed into an air conditioner to thaw the coils. This is normal, and acceptable to a point. At some temperature, as the outside temperature drops, you will reach a level where it becomes more expensive to run the heat pump than it does to use basic resistance heating. I'm not sure what that point is with a modern heat pump - old rule-of-thumb (like 30 years ago) was 20-25 degrees or so. I think that with the higher efficiency heat pumps today, that temperature is lower even though the defrost cycle must occur from time to time.

Anyway, while the electric fireplaces are comfy and enjoyable, they are also less efficient than the heat pump most of the time and should be used somewhat sparingly.

62 posted on 11/07/2010 5:49:51 PM PST by meyer (Hey Obama - It's the end of the world as you know it.... ..... and I feel fine!)
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To: plinyelder

I guess I did misunderstand. You mentioned the other two rooms as colder than the rest - not receiving enough heat - so I thought I’d add my 2 cents. ;)

All the best!


71 posted on 11/07/2010 6:34:52 PM PST by presently no screen name ("Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.." Mark 7:13)
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