Danged computer ate my first post.
I have a 3 ton water to air, "Climate Master" heat pump. I am on my third winter with it.
For the last 3 months, I have used 4490 KWH electricity to heat the house as well as pumping all the water for the house and to water livestock. My Electricity cost about $.0541 per KWH less a electric heat credit of about $.012 which makes the final cost for heating $.042 per KWH or about $189 total for the last 3 months.
I grew up on wood heat, so like my house warm. Keep the Thermostat set on 78 and the house is exactly that at all times, no getting cold, the kicking on like at my neighbors house. The basement is cooler; I didn't have heat ducts in the house so ran a hot air duct down the length of the house with no open outlets in the basement. The return air goes down the basement stairs and back to the heat pump with no return duct. That keeps the basement warm enough to be if you are active or under a blanket.
I figure that if I want to cut wood, I can sell the wood, pay the electric bill and have money left over.
I use a pump and dump system. The water that goes through the heat pump goes into the water line feeding the cattle waters. I have a regulator that keeps 20 psi on the water line when the heat pump is off. When the heat pump kicks on, the full water psi is on the line. (40/60psi) Under one of the waters, I have a relief valve that dumps any water the cows don't drink when the line goes over 20 psi. I want to replace that valve with a water line that goes up a hill about 40 feet higher than the house and run the extra water into a large stock tank.
The only bad thing I can say about a ground source heat pump is the initial cost.
In the summer time I use the water to water the lawn when the air-conditioner is running.
You may have to heavy up your electrical service if you used a electric element for back up if the heat pump would kick out. If you already have a propane tank, it may be worth looking at some kind of gas heat for backup and keep it turned down so it never runs and use a heat pump without a back up element.
The heat pump itself don't use that much juice. The backup element is 10kw which wouldn't keep my house very warm in cold weather.
As for those people replacing electric resistive heat with propane, I wonder if they got their pencil upside down. Is electricity that much more expensive in other areas? I was talking to a hardware store owner who told me that he switched his store from natural gas to resistive electric heat and cut his heating cost $600 per month. I would think that propane would cost more than natural gas. When I was figuring out what to do, resistive heat figured cheaper than propane.
I kept the wood stove in the house for backup if the power ever goes out. I have ran it only 2 days since I got the heat pump going, then decided it was not worth the effort to keep it going.
If you are using electric space heaters now, you know how much it is costing you for resistive electric heat. Then if your supplier gives a electric heat credit, subtract that from your resistive heat bill. Divide that by 4 or 5 to figure out how much it would cost you to run a heat pump
