This is great, living in MA I see a majority of houses relying on old oil heating systems. Just checking Zillow listings and seeing the big ugly black tank in the basement it's very common. Mini split systems with heat pumps have started popping up more, especially in these older houses where it's easier to install than trying to install duct work for a full sized HVAC system.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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Will HVAC installers be trained on them, or will they continue to size them for AC load and as a result install systems that are unable to heat below 25F (-5C). The heat pump itself of course can provide heat down to -20F/-25C but it cannot provide enough heat for the climate and so you spend most of the year using the backup heating system (or your house is dangerously cold)
What I recommend doing is finding an installer who is certified by the manufacturer; they tend to be trained to do it right.
My installer was certified. It was installed right and works well - until the temperature gets to 25F and it just isn't large enough to keep up. This is a sales problem and a larger unit would be more expensive so they didn't offer it to me.
I'd provide that feedback. They need to hear it.
It sounds like a system design issue, i.e. they always intended there to be a "primary" heating system below 25F and it was sized as such. For every customer like you, there are 3 more that want to keep a fossil backup system in place so that's where the market is. Unfortunately that also means customers need to be very educated themselves to select the "right" opinion. There are also downsides to oversizing heat pumps too, and typically oversizing is very common since manual J is overly conservative and installers are used to oversizing fossil systems. Your best bet is more weatherization to decrease heating load so that your HP can meet that load. Yes capacity drops as temperatures decrease, but good ccASHP can maintain full output closer to 0F. Do you have like a 1 ton mini for a whole home in Maine?