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Does anyone here have experience with heat pumps? I'm on oil heat and needless to say, shit's gotten ridiculously pricy lately. I feel like I should be able to switch over to something cheaper and break even within like a year or less, because of how much I expect to spend on oil this winter.
Most local people in my very progressive corner of the world keep talking up heat pumps like they're the best thing since the invention of the chimney. I find this suspect myself. I've never heard of this technology before really recently, and I'm only hearing about it from people who are really into green energy. And it sounds too good to be true. It heats and cools for less money than any alternatives, supposedly. But I really know close to nothing about them.
My culture war shenanigans sense is tingling, so I wanted to find out if anyone here, a place I trust has not drank the green progressive Kool aid, has experiences with or knowledge about heat pumps. I guess I just don't trust the people I'm hearing from, I think they're willing to stretch the truth for what they think is the greater good. Are they worth it financially? Do they work well without tons of annoying maintenance? What about if your state offers financial incentives for moving to heat pumps, are they worth it then?
My parents have had one for approximately 10 years and they absolutely love it, and say that it's saved them thousands of pounds. Three caveats -
they live in rural UK, so not crazy cold, though since it never gets that hot there they start relying on it fairly early in the year (October-April at least).
they also have an Aga for heating the kitchen, and two log fireplaces for when it gets really cold.
they have quite a lot of clear land by UK standards (a large garden plus a small field), which made it easy to install and apparently more efficient.
Also, maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I'm surprised more people don't use plug-in electric heaters. Obviously it's different if you live in Nunavit, but my wife and I are UK-based and only turn on our central heating during the very coldest winter spells, otherwise getting by with a small electric heater in the living room or bedroom. Admittedly it's very mild where we are, but I spent some time living in a very cold part of Japan where central heating was rare, and I really liked having the temperature differential and walking in from the cold bathroom to go tuck myself under the kotatsu.
Electricity costs about twice as much as natural gas for the same amount of heat. Standalone heaters also have substantially worse temperature control, air circulation, noise, etc.
Setting up a central heating system with a lot of zones isn't that much work (at installation time. Refits can be more difficult), so you can still get the temperature differentials if it's a widespread part of the local culture.
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