A/c Unit and Furnace versus Heat Pump advice

My house is about 3,000 square feet and currently has central heating (furnace). We are about to have an a/c unit installed for the first time. Our house is setup for natural gas. I live in San Diego area.

Heating and a/c guy says using a/c and furnace setup is best way to go since our house is natural gas. But what about using a heat pump? Can we ditch both (a/c and furnace) and use a heat pump? Or will it cost more because that is electricity (not gas)?

They want $8k for a/c unit and $2k for a new furnace (current ones is like 30yrs old)

Any advice. Thanks

 

Heat pump isn't much good below 40F.

Being as you're in San Diego, you're probably good.

Heat pump will cover the AC needs as well.

Ongoing cost is going to depend on your rate for gas vs your rate for electric, and what heat pump you get (efficiency, SEER, higher is better).

Heat pump cost for 3000sq ft is going to top your $10k number for the other.

Natural gas has been cheap as of late.

Put it all together, sounds like your guy is shooting you straight.

I'm sure one of our resident experts will pipe in shortly.

 

Thanks for the help Chuck.

 

Only way heat pumps make more sense than conventional gas/fuel oil furnaces is if there's one helluva kickback from the power company for electric heating and cooling systems.

Is PG&E making that much excess capacity?

 

Really want to save on cost get a smaller house

 

He's over 2oo miles from PG&E service territory. SDG&E (SEMPRA) is the power and gas provisioner. No, they do not have a lot of excess electrons.
Heat pump seems a bad idea.

 

Maybe in your part of the country (ie., where it actually gets cold in the winter.)

Down here in the South, where the A/C is running 4 times as much as the heat, a heat pump is more appropriate.

Also, fuel prices are not regulated, electricity prices are.

 

I'll let JBraun comment from a point of expertise, but depending on where he is in SD, there is likely to be a lot more heating required than cooling.

 

Heat pumps in milder climate's are OK, BUT the compressors have half the life expectancy from a standard system.
Standard, compressor works in the summer, cooling mode.
Heat pump, all the time until it get's out side of it's heating range, then stage two kick's in. I like gas for second stage.

 

If you have solar, it "might" make sense to go heat pump. SDGE electricity is expensive, and only going up. Furnace plus condenser is the way to go, and you are getting a fair deal. I do the same thing on the side from my normal job (HVAC industry professional, in San Diego) and I charge in that ball park.

 

Thanks everyone for all the help. Looks like I will go with the a/c-furnace route.
The house is a few miles from the coast and don't think when it was built anyone thought it would need a/c.

 

Global warming

Honestly I have been putting a ton of ACs in this summer in coastal cities. Mostly North county like Carlsbad and Encinitas. Seems like those houses were built when things were cooler ha.

 

Ftfy

 

Wait until @JBraun replies.

 

What about a dual system. If you are getting all new installed. It uses has furnace with a be at pump and a programmable thermostat and outside temp sensor The gas furnace can be programmed to kick on at any set point say below 35 degrees when the heat pump is less efficient.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

What is the advantage of a heat pump over a gas furnace?

 

Here in Louisiana, heat pumps are great. I had one installed in our old house before we sold it. The stage 2 electric heat may have only kicked on a few days the 2 years we were there.

 

False sense of eco-righteousness.

I've wired up some ground source heat pumps, and every one of them had problems. Up here at least you *must* have a secondary heat source, gas, oil or electric. The ones I've installed had a heat exchanger in the furnace plenum like an AC a-coil, and one of them had dual 5000w electric heat elements above the heat exchanger. Another one had a complete separate furnace and AC ducted in with the heat pump air exchanger.

 

I can understand the advantage of them in climates where it only occasionally gets chilly, but to have one mixed with an actual furnace seems counter productive. Isn't a heat pump basically just an ac compressor running backwards(in very basic terms)? I've never really looked into them.

 

And from the outside looking in, what do you think I see as common denominator here? I bolded it for you just in case you missed it.