gungriffin
Rising Sun Member
The unit has held up well. I am averaging about a 28 degree heat rise in the negative temps. Less than I would prefer, but good enough to keep things warm. My big issue was that my thermostat was getting impatient and calling for the AUX heat. That caused me to use a lot more electric than I normally would. If I had it to do over again, I would really really size down the AUX heat. Probably to only a 3kw heater.
I am keeping the house at 55 most of the time. I am not living in the house presently. The heat pump alone usually has no problem easily increasing interior temps when exterior temps are above about 5 degrees. That will improve when I have ANY insulation in the ceiling as I presently have zero. If the temp is above 30 degrees and sunny I usually see heat rise in the house from the solar gains alone.
I have not had Xcel come out to pull the meter yet. I wanted to have one winter with the all electric heat pump before I pull the nat gas. Permits SUCK. I don't want to find out what permits or costs are involved with reinstalling nat gas. Once I pull the nat gas I will save about $19 a month by ceasing the nat gas connection fee which will be awesome. I did pull all the old nat gas lines out of the house and I capped the house at the meter.
I would highly recommend swapping to a cold climate heat pump. If it is a cold climate heat pump, it might be possible to forego any nat gas aux heat. The unit I installed would only cost about $3600 total in materials before the federal credit which is 30%. That is pretty amazing to me for the performance. The unit should also greatly reduce your summer cooling costs.