Friday, April 22, 2011

All pumped up!

After months of research, umpteen bids, working with the utility energy management people, we finally got outfitted with a Ductless Heat Pump. We've been living w a highly inefficient heat technology-- circa the 50's - ceiling heat. The only up side of ceiling heat is you can put furniture anywhere you want, as there are no ducts. The down side is the basic rule of physics-- heat rises. It was slow to actually kick in, did not circulate air, and the utility bills were huge. Our small cookie cutter ranch house was getting $300 winter heating bills- people w homes much bigger were paying less than half the amount. 

Ductless heat pumps run on Inversion technology.

I don't necessarily understand the science of it, but virtually everyone I spoke with who has a ductless heat pump was very happy with it. "I love it", "No problems" "1/2 the heating bill" "Now we have whole house A/C".  We started thinking, what's not to love, combined with you have got to be kidding, re the high heating bill for this humble home.  We discovered in the initial bidding process our old electrical circuit breaker box was @ capacity & needed to be replaced. So that was another $1000 bucks to get this old house brought up to 21 century standards.  Yes, it is kind of a Pandora's box. 


So here it is-- The compressor





The indoor unit (we had 2 installed)



The utility required more than doubling of the attic insulation
to bring it up to current code


It was 29 degrees here this late April morning & we are really happy to have the Heat Pump up & running. It moves air around & has filters to get the dust out of the air. 

I know, this is very domestic of me, & thank you for putting up with my moment of domestic heat system bliss-  but if you live in a relatively moderate climate, this could be a happy medium to energy efficiency, about half the cost of installing a ducted heat pump/A/C, and a win-win situation- to be lowering your carbon footprint & your utility bill. Woo Hoo!
We really are all pumped up!



2 comments:

Life As I Know It Now said...

So you weren't just thinking of your heating bill but about your carbon footprint as well. Great! And happy Earth Day too! :)

enigma4ever said...

wow...so amazing....very cool....