Ok, Educate me.... On Heat Pumps

[{OF}Blong]

Or you can install a windmill that is anywhere from $500 to $20,000 to run just about any equipment in your home you want. I was looking and it seems to be the best bang for yer buck is a whisper 200 series 1000w system for $3000. That way if your not using any energy you can sell it back to the electric company (have your meter run backwards) and then using that pump isnt as much of an issue . I know way more than most people want to spend and wind energy isnt exactly the most efficient thing out there right now . but it is a thought .

[{OF}G_Man]

Yes definately would want to turn up your thermostat in the summer when you are gone. This saves big bucks. It more than compensates for the recovery time when you do get home and set your thermostat back down. A programmable thermostat for AC summer time is a very good thing since it does it for you automatically in case you forget to adjust it manually.

In summer, heat pump systems run just like a standard air conditioner would.

One thing about design with heat pumps. Since heat pumps do both heating and cooling, when a heat pump system is sized correctly for heating capacity, it is almost always oversized on the air conditioning side since it uses the same compressor for both. This is just the nature of the design. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just the facts of heat pump design.

For heating, if you could program you programmable thermostat to increase the temperature setpoint one degree at a time from your lower set back temperature, you could then slowly warm the house back up, without kicking on the electric strip heater. So if you set back your thermostat to 66 while you were gone to work, you would to need to program your thermostat to raise the setpoint 1 degree at a time over a period of time in steps to get the house up to say 70 by the time you get home. Many programmable stats have limited amount of schedules you can put in, but you might want to look at that.

[{OF}G_Man]

I see you mentioned an 80 gallon water heater. Is it gas or electric?

By any chance is your Heat pump system connected to your water heater for heating/preheating.

If it is, that may change how you Choose to operate your system.

[Soul]

That is going in the wiki, nice info G

[{OF}Impaired]

BD,

Another thing to think about (the part that is up my alley), is the efficiency of the actual building itself.

If you have a suspended ceiling in your basement, take a look at how they insuklated the sill plate and header (rim joist). If they just stuffed fiberglass batts in there, go and buy some spray foam and seal the perimeters of each box and all joints including the ga[ between the pper sub floor and the header.
This locationis typically the leakiest joint in a home and stack effect will increase depending on how many storeys you have.

Also look at the joints around the window to walls. even a small gap can lead to uncontrolled infiltration/exfiltration of air.

Simple caulking materials, weather-stripping and foams can save you tremendous amounts of energy and comfort issues as well.

If all else fails.. dig a really really deep hole and go for Ground source heat pump

Last but not least. If that heater you are looking at is one of them jobbies that use's bulbs......... you will be shocked about the replacement cost per bulb(from what I have seen up here anyways)

Hope this helps..

Check out Keeping the Heat In
and some of the following pages..May be of use to you