“Chestnuts frozen over a missing fire…Jack Frost living in our home…”

 

I hope you guys had a fantastic holiday season, full of family, friends and fun, with a warmth that only the season can bring. You know, there really is nothing like walking downstairs on Christmas Day, seeing all those presents under the tree as you wander over to make some coffee and get to the business of unwrapping all those gifts and you ask yourself one question: Why am I able to see my breath? And why can’t I feel my toes?

 

Yeah, so our furnace died on Christmas Day (I hope Santa didn’t get stuck in there). We have had a beast of a gas furnace which was installed way back in 2003. And that antique decided to meet its maker (Coleman in this case) during the yule tide season, leaving us stockings full of icicles and huddled around our “good” space heater for warmth. 

 

The repair guys showed me the blown heat exchanger, and I knew this thing was toast (fun fact: toast cools off really fast when your house is at 55 degrees F). Now as we have been talking for years, the best time to make the switch to a heat pump is when you have too. And we definitely had to. We contracted with MSP Heating and Cooling, who installs Carrier brand furnaces and heat pumps, and we were able to schedule an install on Dec 30th. (We burned wrapping paper for warmth in the interim).

 

For our new heating/cooling setup we went with an external heat pump to replace the outside equally aged AC unit, and a new furnace as an auxiliary heat source. Unfortunately, the furnace is still a gas-powered unit, but it is a 96% high-efficiency unit and turns on for only a couple of hours a day on the coldest days. (I was unable to convince my better half of the effectiveness of an electric furnace). But the cost was the most impressive part:

 

Total: $21,102 installed

• Heat Pump: Carrier Cold Climate Heat Pump - $12,408

• Aux Heat: Carrier Performance 96 two-stage furnace - $8,694

• Ecobee Smart Thermostat

 

Then there are the tax credits and rebates that this qualified for:

• $750 and $500 rebates from Centerpoint for the heat pump and high efficiency furnace

• $1500 rebate from Xcel for the heat pump

• $2000 Federal Tax credit at tax time, which our tax liability will allow us to get back

 

So looking at $4750 in rebates and credits, the net price is virtually the same as it would be with a standard air condition and furnace.

 

Now we have a 4br 1600 sq ft rambler built in 1959, with what I like to affectionately call a “vintage" 100 amp fusebox providing our electric needs. I was afraid we would need to do an expensive panel upgrade to handle the heat pump, but they were able to use our existing 60 amp fuse connection to handle the heat pump, so I was pleasantly ecstatic about that. Also, the utility of a two-stage variable speed furnace and the Ecobee Smart Thermostat make for a much more intelligent heating and cooling situation, improving efficiency and comfort and further reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond the heat pump install. You can also add additional sensors to further improve the performance of the system.

 

We’ll see in the coming months how this new system performs and how much money goes to the heat pump vs furnace. But right now, it’s 8 degrees F outside, and we’re living in sweet, sweet heat. I am very excited to have finally put my money where my mouth has been for the past 4 years.