>Newer minisplits will work even lower, as with all minisplits their efficiency will be reduced at low temperatures
Yes. Also possible that one HVAC guy isn't up on the latest models. Efficiency aside, it's ALWAYS a good idea to have redundant heating options in New England, regardless of what your primary system is.
FYI. Not a NH resident. Lots of family and friends up there and very connected to the Littleton area.
I was thinking through this same situation. I would love to be rid of the forced hot air noisy blower and the terrible ductwork in my basement. It would leave much more room in the basement!
I’m leaning towards a propane (looks like wood stove) heater in my basement with a blower and battery backup. And mini splits upstairs in each room. My house is tiny 660 sqft! It’s been pretty mild winters down here south of Boston.
If I lose power the propane ignition will work with a battery and my hot water is propane too so it works without electricity. So we can be warm with hot water and I can cook on the gas stove top by manually lighting it to cook.
Unfortunately I’m broke right now. Aren’t the rebates set to expire soon?
this sounds like conspiracy talk but it's often (not always) the case -especially with older, long-established HVAC guys who have invested in equipment and training for one way of doing things
I think they're getting kickbacks for heat pumps the way they're pushing them. Smaller shops will warn you against them, big shiny regional chains sell them HARD.
I don’t have any insight into why certain places push them or don’t, but I got a heat pump three years ago and my overall heating/cooling expenses have gone down since then. It isn’t a massive savings, but we have been better off with the heat pump.
I have 5 Mitsubishi mini splits (heads) that were installed 3 years ago…their operating specs are as follows….
https://preview.redd.it/fc3uq1mommwc1.jpeg?width=1828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=805f68a111383cfad8374005b7db233e9e7f3783
We also have a heating oil furnace for when the electricity goes out. We DO have a generator, but it won’t power the minisplits and condenser.
I believe that the newer models of minisplits actually operate below the -5degree f that mine do, but can’t confirm that.
Your issue will be, even with minisplits that operate at an even lower temp than mine, is how are you going to power them when the electricity goes out?
From December - February, are you exclusively running your heat pump or supplementing it with your heating oil furnace? Do you think overall it has been a cost/energy saver for you accounting for the cost and maintenance of oil?
I run the furnace at 68 degrees during the day to heat the whole house (7am-7pm) then switch to zone heating at night with the minis. My home is 3000sqft, with a finished basement, main floor, and bedrooms upstairs. I lower the furnace thermostat to 60 at night, and heat the individual bedrooms with the minis.
My monthly electrical bill averages $150, and I pay about $1500 per season for oil.
Not sure when it comes to your question but I did want to at least share this. Hopefully it saves you a few bucks.
https://nhsaves.com/residential/electric-heating-cooling-equipment/
>However, one of the HVAC guys told me mini-split/ heat pumps won’t work below -8 and I would need a back up heat source.
There is some truth to that, but it isn't as bad as some of the internet will lead you to believe. We just replaced our gas furnace this year and for like an extra $500 we got a furnace that would allow us to tie a heat pump into it later down the line.
Supposedly, it looks at the cost of propane and the cost of electricity and runs whatever one is most efficient.
This is the new method of optimization with HVAC systems. Heat pumps are unmatched in efficiency but only within their idealish temperatures. The furnace will look at what would be more efficient and choose if it needs to supplement heat from gas.
Correct (sort of). In the context of unit of energy to heat produced, yes resistive heat is more efficient. It is however much more expensive on average for a homeowner to use resistive heat as their primary heat source. Resistive heat is 100% efficient (it turns all of the electricity to heat) but costs a lot to run. Heat pumps can be 4-500% efficient (weird number but for every unit of energy they consume they can move 4-5x as much heat energy).
There are also many reasons a homeowner wouldn’t choose resistive heat over gas or oil. They can include an undersized electrical panel meaning that they can’t run the whole house off of resistive heating, an already existing gas/oil furnace/boiler that still works and doesn’t need to be replaced, etc.
I have 3 mini split heat pumps in Maine.
They lose efficiency as it goes below 25°. But they will put out heat at -20° (or lower) depending on the model
https://www.blocpower.io/posts/cold-climate-heat-pumps#
Edit: that said, I don’t think I’d rely on them as my only heat source. I also have a pellet stove in the living room.
I have two Mitsubishi mini splits hyper heat in my apartment. They definitely struggled last year? When it was -30 here with that wind chill. I never had a problem in the 7 years I’ve had them on the Seacoast.
Building a new house now and did ducted heat pumps
We have 2 (Mitsubishi in the bedroom, Samsung in the basement) and have loved them, no complaints at all. We do have a pellet stove in the living room so there is another heat source in the house but have never had them “not work” in the cold.
I heat my house and garage with senville units. They work down to -20 and I've never run into issues. Most brands have a line of models for cold climates. They are much less efficient at those deep cold levels and I think just have a resistive heating element it uses at a certain point.
Added heat pumps last year 2 units 4 heads. We also run an oil boiler that we kept as backup. This past winter I could have easily used just the heat pumps only, but it was a pretty mild winter. The electric costs do go up the colder it gets though. I put in Fujitsu and they supposedly go down to -15. I also have a wood stove...i don't know if I would have pulled the trigger without the backups though... especially if the electric rates go up. The cooling side is amazing though...way cheaper than my past window units or central air. Our generator will not run the minisplits...I've been researching a battery backup for that. Best of luck!
I’ve had mini splits for going on 5 years now. They are my exclusive heating and cooling sources. They work great! You will not regret going this direction in my experience.
I recently put in a 3 zone diy Mr. Cool minisplit in my house and its supposed to work down to -14. I also have a pellet boiler with baseboard. My biggest concern when it gets really cold is the possibility of the baseboard pipes freezing in the walls so I plan on running both when we have near 0 temperatures. I have no doubts the heatpumps will keep me comfortable but I don't dare take any chances on anything happening to the plumbing.
At my old house, our attic furnace failed, and HVAC was getting up there. We bit the bullet and went with a dual heat system - heat pump runs up to 28F, propane furnace fires under. In the winter, we filled propane 3 times instead of 5, and electric bill only went up $50, an enormous savings right away. As an AC, it was more efficient than the prior unit, cooling just as well for $75 less per month in the summer. It was a huge win, no question. Doing the math, it would pay for itself in 8-10 years. We sold the place soon after, and I hope the new owners appreciate it.
> We bit the bullet and went with a dual heat system - heat pump runs up to 28F, propane furnace fires under. In the winter, we filled propane 3 times instead of 5
That's the way to do it -- cost savings and comfort.
I put minisplits in my 250 year old house as primary heat. If they are cold weather rated and sized properly, they have no issue next generation refrigeration did mine.
The better ones like Mitsubishi’s absolutely work even lower than that. They’ll operate at 40 below. My neighbor just built a new home and had mini splits installed from the get go and she said they’re fantastic
Don't listen to them. Mini splits are going to be what everyone has from now on. I redid my whole house with mini splits. So efficient! Talk to Cody at Next Level. He is the best in the business. http://nextlevelhvacnh.com
>one of the HVAC guys told me mini-split/ heat pumps won’t work below -8 and I would need a back up heat source.
You will need (and want) a backup heat source. This isn't a mini-split thing, this is true of all air-source heat pumps (ASHP).
If your area has winter power outages, be aware that heat pumps require considerably more power than your old FHA propane furnace, cannot be run off a regular 120V portable "roll-around" generator. Most heat pump and mini-split installs are also sized to maintain temperature by running constantly -- Unlike your furnace, you won't be able to run the generator just long enough to get the house up to 70°F and then shut down the generator to conserve fuel.
While newer heat pumps will "*work*" at lower temperatures, as the air temperature drops their efficiency and heat output drops, which is why marketing talks about "*Delivers 80% of rated output at –13°F!*" but doesn't mention how much electricity is consumed to produce that heat.
Generally an ASHP install includes "backup" or "emergency" heat in the form of resistive heating strips (aka "electric furnace"), these are 100% efficient at turning money into heat, and are too energy hungry to run off a generator.
>So fellow New Hampshirites, what’s the actual deal?
If I was replacing FHA with mini-splits, I would keep the propane tank and install a couple of propane-fired "direct vent gravity wall furnace" heaters (e.g. in the master bedroom), the millivolt kind. Set the thermostat on the propane heater to 55F, that way if the power goes out when you are away, you might not come home to frozen pipes.
I have a Samsung single fan/4 head syetem for conditioned 1,829 sq ft 2003 build. It was installed fall of 2021. Heating costs on the shoulder season are about $100 a month. Heating costs in winter are about $250 a month. However, temperatures at or below about 5 degrees work out to the propane baseboards being the same cost to use, so I typically switch over. When it gets around -5 F, they work, but it does get notably colder. Overall, the cost difference is about $900 per year to use the mini-splits rather than straight propane for heating.
In summer, whole house cooling costs the same as the prior, 'energy efficient' window unit, which was just in the master bedroom and used for evenings, nights, and the hottest days.
Frankly, I think whether you "need" a backup heat source depends entirely on the conditions you experience. For me, I live near a river and we get a lot of wind year-round. I also have builder-grade windows original to the house, so cold days with wind above about 15 mph definitely cause it to feel colder inside. Closer to the city where I live, some people experience less wind and/or have different exposures and have no issues with just a heat pump.
I'm not an HVAC expert but an electrical engineer with knowledge of heat pumps. Is he talking -8 fahrenheit? It almost never gets that cold.
Modern heat pumps work down to pretty cold temperatures, in new Hampshire you'll realistically see maybe 4 days a year where they become ineffective.
For where we live I'd say it's best to get a unit with backup resistive heating. You won't regret it. Or if those units are not possible for whatever reason just have a couple space heaters handy for those couple days a year.
These units are so efficient most of the year that it's really the way forward. A lot of HVAC guys are old school and see new technology as a bad thing.
My dad just installed a heat pump to a well so it runs at peak efficiency without ever having an issue, it's like $50-60k though
True and especially if at elevation, hence why they make units with built in resistive elements. Still tremendously worth it though. Oil and gas costs will only rise, electricity generally has been getting cheaper long-term (other than very recently)
When I build my own place it will be a heat pump with a wood stove to supplement heat
>Modern heat pumps work down to pretty cold temperatures, in new Hampshire you'll realistically see maybe 4 days a year where they become ineffective
Great so what do you do about those four days where you have no heat when you need it most?
I have a spare well I could run a heat pump to. Was the money for creating a well or just for hooking up to it? I haven't priced it out but I've been considering it for years.
I'm fairly certain most that cost was drilling the well. The whole house forced air heat pump is probably $15k or so and that's for a large house. Not sure if they need a specific well though, since it pumps water up and back in
Some of the issues we've run into:
Love the minisplits for cooling, not so much for heating - only because we like the bedrooms cool. Minisplits work best if they are on 24/7. Ours don't go below 61F, so you can't turn them down to say 55 at night. For 2nd floor bedrooms the minisplits are not on, but since the downstairs need to be on, heat rises and the bedrooms get too warm (especially the one with the door open a cat's width). So, we turn the minisplits off at night and set them to come on at 5:30am, but when it is 25F outside, it takes a darn long time to warm up the house. We only use them for heat in Spring and Fall, we couldn't turn them off in the winter.
We also found that although a minisplit maybe sized for sufficient cubic feet of air space, it doesn't push the heat through a doorway (even an open double door) very well and we should have gone with 2 smaller units (this is likely exasperated by not running them 24/7).
They are also loud with the fan going.
Cooling is great, we don't run them 24/7 and find they cool off a space quickly enough that we are comfortable.
My mini splits are rated down to like 0 degrees. I have heating oil. The only time our boiler has kicked on has been for the water heater. I topped it off in December, and I still have about 2/3 of the tank left. The heat pumps are awesome because they can heat and cool. They are incredibly efficient as well. My most expensive electric bill with them has been like $250 with running them virtually 24/7. There are times where it can get too cold for them, but I haven’t experienced it yet.
Edit: I believe they are still 100% efficient down to zero. I think they are then like 80-something at -10 degrees.
> Edit: I believe they are still 100% efficient down to zero. I think they are then like 80-something at -10 degrees.
That sounds like the "*percentage of rated output*", maybe pitched as "*effective*" rather than "*efficient*"?
A simple resistive heating strip is "100% efficient" (this is what many heat pumps have as emergency/backup heat), but at current prices "*100% efficient*" electric heat is still 50% more expensive than oil heat.
Thank you everyone! I appreciated all your answers!
I’m pretty sure we are going to move forward with the Mini splits but we just need to wait for the quotes.
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>Newer minisplits will work even lower, as with all minisplits their efficiency will be reduced at low temperatures Yes. Also possible that one HVAC guy isn't up on the latest models. Efficiency aside, it's ALWAYS a good idea to have redundant heating options in New England, regardless of what your primary system is.
FYI. Not a NH resident. Lots of family and friends up there and very connected to the Littleton area. I was thinking through this same situation. I would love to be rid of the forced hot air noisy blower and the terrible ductwork in my basement. It would leave much more room in the basement! I’m leaning towards a propane (looks like wood stove) heater in my basement with a blower and battery backup. And mini splits upstairs in each room. My house is tiny 660 sqft! It’s been pretty mild winters down here south of Boston. If I lose power the propane ignition will work with a battery and my hot water is propane too so it works without electricity. So we can be warm with hot water and I can cook on the gas stove top by manually lighting it to cook. Unfortunately I’m broke right now. Aren’t the rebates set to expire soon?
New set of rebates will be available before too long. Some are income based. It's part of the inflation reduction act. Worth looking into.
Good to know. TY!
this sounds like conspiracy talk but it's often (not always) the case -especially with older, long-established HVAC guys who have invested in equipment and training for one way of doing things
I own an HVAC company, no we aren’t. Make my biggest profits on minis. That said i consider THEM the back up at my house
And a good one will have backup resistive heat so will always work at 100% "efficiency" or better
I think they're getting kickbacks for heat pumps the way they're pushing them. Smaller shops will warn you against them, big shiny regional chains sell them HARD.
I don’t have any insight into why certain places push them or don’t, but I got a heat pump three years ago and my overall heating/cooling expenses have gone down since then. It isn’t a massive savings, but we have been better off with the heat pump.
I have 5 Mitsubishi mini splits (heads) that were installed 3 years ago…their operating specs are as follows…. https://preview.redd.it/fc3uq1mommwc1.jpeg?width=1828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=805f68a111383cfad8374005b7db233e9e7f3783 We also have a heating oil furnace for when the electricity goes out. We DO have a generator, but it won’t power the minisplits and condenser. I believe that the newer models of minisplits actually operate below the -5degree f that mine do, but can’t confirm that. Your issue will be, even with minisplits that operate at an even lower temp than mine, is how are you going to power them when the electricity goes out?
From December - February, are you exclusively running your heat pump or supplementing it with your heating oil furnace? Do you think overall it has been a cost/energy saver for you accounting for the cost and maintenance of oil?
I run the furnace at 68 degrees during the day to heat the whole house (7am-7pm) then switch to zone heating at night with the minis. My home is 3000sqft, with a finished basement, main floor, and bedrooms upstairs. I lower the furnace thermostat to 60 at night, and heat the individual bedrooms with the minis. My monthly electrical bill averages $150, and I pay about $1500 per season for oil.
Thanks, that is insightful. For reference, how many square feet are you heating?
I just explained that above!
Ha, totally missed the sq ft. Thanks!
Not sure when it comes to your question but I did want to at least share this. Hopefully it saves you a few bucks. https://nhsaves.com/residential/electric-heating-cooling-equipment/
>However, one of the HVAC guys told me mini-split/ heat pumps won’t work below -8 and I would need a back up heat source. There is some truth to that, but it isn't as bad as some of the internet will lead you to believe. We just replaced our gas furnace this year and for like an extra $500 we got a furnace that would allow us to tie a heat pump into it later down the line. Supposedly, it looks at the cost of propane and the cost of electricity and runs whatever one is most efficient.
This is the new method of optimization with HVAC systems. Heat pumps are unmatched in efficiency but only within their idealish temperatures. The furnace will look at what would be more efficient and choose if it needs to supplement heat from gas.
But fuel is still less efficient than resistive heat
Correct (sort of). In the context of unit of energy to heat produced, yes resistive heat is more efficient. It is however much more expensive on average for a homeowner to use resistive heat as their primary heat source. Resistive heat is 100% efficient (it turns all of the electricity to heat) but costs a lot to run. Heat pumps can be 4-500% efficient (weird number but for every unit of energy they consume they can move 4-5x as much heat energy).
There are also many reasons a homeowner wouldn’t choose resistive heat over gas or oil. They can include an undersized electrical panel meaning that they can’t run the whole house off of resistive heating, an already existing gas/oil furnace/boiler that still works and doesn’t need to be replaced, etc.
Right. Initial cost is the barrier. Same with solar, etc
I have 3 mini split heat pumps in Maine. They lose efficiency as it goes below 25°. But they will put out heat at -20° (or lower) depending on the model https://www.blocpower.io/posts/cold-climate-heat-pumps# Edit: that said, I don’t think I’d rely on them as my only heat source. I also have a pellet stove in the living room.
I have two Mitsubishi mini splits hyper heat in my apartment. They definitely struggled last year? When it was -30 here with that wind chill. I never had a problem in the 7 years I’ve had them on the Seacoast. Building a new house now and did ducted heat pumps
We have 2 (Mitsubishi in the bedroom, Samsung in the basement) and have loved them, no complaints at all. We do have a pellet stove in the living room so there is another heat source in the house but have never had them “not work” in the cold.
>but have never had them “not work” in the cold. Its not that they won't work, it is just that their efficiency drops off a cliff.
I heat my house and garage with senville units. They work down to -20 and I've never run into issues. Most brands have a line of models for cold climates. They are much less efficient at those deep cold levels and I think just have a resistive heating element it uses at a certain point.
Added heat pumps last year 2 units 4 heads. We also run an oil boiler that we kept as backup. This past winter I could have easily used just the heat pumps only, but it was a pretty mild winter. The electric costs do go up the colder it gets though. I put in Fujitsu and they supposedly go down to -15. I also have a wood stove...i don't know if I would have pulled the trigger without the backups though... especially if the electric rates go up. The cooling side is amazing though...way cheaper than my past window units or central air. Our generator will not run the minisplits...I've been researching a battery backup for that. Best of luck!
I’ve had mini splits for going on 5 years now. They are my exclusive heating and cooling sources. They work great! You will not regret going this direction in my experience.
I recently put in a 3 zone diy Mr. Cool minisplit in my house and its supposed to work down to -14. I also have a pellet boiler with baseboard. My biggest concern when it gets really cold is the possibility of the baseboard pipes freezing in the walls so I plan on running both when we have near 0 temperatures. I have no doubts the heatpumps will keep me comfortable but I don't dare take any chances on anything happening to the plumbing.
At my old house, our attic furnace failed, and HVAC was getting up there. We bit the bullet and went with a dual heat system - heat pump runs up to 28F, propane furnace fires under. In the winter, we filled propane 3 times instead of 5, and electric bill only went up $50, an enormous savings right away. As an AC, it was more efficient than the prior unit, cooling just as well for $75 less per month in the summer. It was a huge win, no question. Doing the math, it would pay for itself in 8-10 years. We sold the place soon after, and I hope the new owners appreciate it.
> We bit the bullet and went with a dual heat system - heat pump runs up to 28F, propane furnace fires under. In the winter, we filled propane 3 times instead of 5 That's the way to do it -- cost savings and comfort.
I put minisplits in my 250 year old house as primary heat. If they are cold weather rated and sized properly, they have no issue next generation refrigeration did mine.
The better ones like Mitsubishi’s absolutely work even lower than that. They’ll operate at 40 below. My neighbor just built a new home and had mini splits installed from the get go and she said they’re fantastic
Don't listen to them. Mini splits are going to be what everyone has from now on. I redid my whole house with mini splits. So efficient! Talk to Cody at Next Level. He is the best in the business. http://nextlevelhvacnh.com
>one of the HVAC guys told me mini-split/ heat pumps won’t work below -8 and I would need a back up heat source. You will need (and want) a backup heat source. This isn't a mini-split thing, this is true of all air-source heat pumps (ASHP). If your area has winter power outages, be aware that heat pumps require considerably more power than your old FHA propane furnace, cannot be run off a regular 120V portable "roll-around" generator. Most heat pump and mini-split installs are also sized to maintain temperature by running constantly -- Unlike your furnace, you won't be able to run the generator just long enough to get the house up to 70°F and then shut down the generator to conserve fuel. While newer heat pumps will "*work*" at lower temperatures, as the air temperature drops their efficiency and heat output drops, which is why marketing talks about "*Delivers 80% of rated output at –13°F!*" but doesn't mention how much electricity is consumed to produce that heat. Generally an ASHP install includes "backup" or "emergency" heat in the form of resistive heating strips (aka "electric furnace"), these are 100% efficient at turning money into heat, and are too energy hungry to run off a generator. >So fellow New Hampshirites, what’s the actual deal? If I was replacing FHA with mini-splits, I would keep the propane tank and install a couple of propane-fired "direct vent gravity wall furnace" heaters (e.g. in the master bedroom), the millivolt kind. Set the thermostat on the propane heater to 55F, that way if the power goes out when you are away, you might not come home to frozen pipes.
I have a Samsung single fan/4 head syetem for conditioned 1,829 sq ft 2003 build. It was installed fall of 2021. Heating costs on the shoulder season are about $100 a month. Heating costs in winter are about $250 a month. However, temperatures at or below about 5 degrees work out to the propane baseboards being the same cost to use, so I typically switch over. When it gets around -5 F, they work, but it does get notably colder. Overall, the cost difference is about $900 per year to use the mini-splits rather than straight propane for heating. In summer, whole house cooling costs the same as the prior, 'energy efficient' window unit, which was just in the master bedroom and used for evenings, nights, and the hottest days. Frankly, I think whether you "need" a backup heat source depends entirely on the conditions you experience. For me, I live near a river and we get a lot of wind year-round. I also have builder-grade windows original to the house, so cold days with wind above about 15 mph definitely cause it to feel colder inside. Closer to the city where I live, some people experience less wind and/or have different exposures and have no issues with just a heat pump.
I'm not an HVAC expert but an electrical engineer with knowledge of heat pumps. Is he talking -8 fahrenheit? It almost never gets that cold. Modern heat pumps work down to pretty cold temperatures, in new Hampshire you'll realistically see maybe 4 days a year where they become ineffective. For where we live I'd say it's best to get a unit with backup resistive heating. You won't regret it. Or if those units are not possible for whatever reason just have a couple space heaters handy for those couple days a year. These units are so efficient most of the year that it's really the way forward. A lot of HVAC guys are old school and see new technology as a bad thing. My dad just installed a heat pump to a well so it runs at peak efficiency without ever having an issue, it's like $50-60k though
> It almost never gets that cold. Northern New Hampshire goes lol.
True and especially if at elevation, hence why they make units with built in resistive elements. Still tremendously worth it though. Oil and gas costs will only rise, electricity generally has been getting cheaper long-term (other than very recently) When I build my own place it will be a heat pump with a wood stove to supplement heat
There was - 20 day last year even for central NH
>Modern heat pumps work down to pretty cold temperatures, in new Hampshire you'll realistically see maybe 4 days a year where they become ineffective Great so what do you do about those four days where you have no heat when you need it most?
As I stated a unit with a backup resistive heating element would cover that. Or space heaters is a less convenient option
I have a spare well I could run a heat pump to. Was the money for creating a well or just for hooking up to it? I haven't priced it out but I've been considering it for years.
I'm fairly certain most that cost was drilling the well. The whole house forced air heat pump is probably $15k or so and that's for a large house. Not sure if they need a specific well though, since it pumps water up and back in
Some of the issues we've run into: Love the minisplits for cooling, not so much for heating - only because we like the bedrooms cool. Minisplits work best if they are on 24/7. Ours don't go below 61F, so you can't turn them down to say 55 at night. For 2nd floor bedrooms the minisplits are not on, but since the downstairs need to be on, heat rises and the bedrooms get too warm (especially the one with the door open a cat's width). So, we turn the minisplits off at night and set them to come on at 5:30am, but when it is 25F outside, it takes a darn long time to warm up the house. We only use them for heat in Spring and Fall, we couldn't turn them off in the winter. We also found that although a minisplit maybe sized for sufficient cubic feet of air space, it doesn't push the heat through a doorway (even an open double door) very well and we should have gone with 2 smaller units (this is likely exasperated by not running them 24/7). They are also loud with the fan going. Cooling is great, we don't run them 24/7 and find they cool off a space quickly enough that we are comfortable.
My mini splits are rated down to like 0 degrees. I have heating oil. The only time our boiler has kicked on has been for the water heater. I topped it off in December, and I still have about 2/3 of the tank left. The heat pumps are awesome because they can heat and cool. They are incredibly efficient as well. My most expensive electric bill with them has been like $250 with running them virtually 24/7. There are times where it can get too cold for them, but I haven’t experienced it yet. Edit: I believe they are still 100% efficient down to zero. I think they are then like 80-something at -10 degrees.
> Edit: I believe they are still 100% efficient down to zero. I think they are then like 80-something at -10 degrees. That sounds like the "*percentage of rated output*", maybe pitched as "*effective*" rather than "*efficient*"? A simple resistive heating strip is "100% efficient" (this is what many heat pumps have as emergency/backup heat), but at current prices "*100% efficient*" electric heat is still 50% more expensive than oil heat.
Thank you everyone! I appreciated all your answers! I’m pretty sure we are going to move forward with the Mini splits but we just need to wait for the quotes.
Where are you located?
About 20 minutes north east of Manchester
Gotcha.