Moving down south and learning about heat pumps

My husband and I lived the first fifty years of our lives in the northern part of the country, very near the Canadian border.

The winter weather was awful.

We needed a very powerful furnace to handle temperatures well below zero. The system had to be reliable because the cold weather often hung around for eight months. Despite investing in a top-of-the-line, high-efficiency model, our monthly heating bills were extravagant. Eventually, my husband and I got tired of the cost, effort and aggravation of living in a cold weather area. We no longer wanted to be trapped inside because of dangerous windchill. We were unwilling to shovel feet of snow off the driveway and walkways every single day. We decided to throw away our wool coats, winter boots and ice scrapers and move south. As we toured houses in the southern region of the country, we were surprised by the many differences. None of the houses on the market included a basement. The water heater, water pump, and electric panel were frequently located outside the house. The windows were not thermal paned and the lawns were mostly sand. Most of the homes were equipped with an electric heat pump for temperature control. My husband and I were unfamiliar with heat pumps. This type of system combines heating and cooling into one unit and simply moves heat from one place to another. In the summer, it acts like an air conditioner. When the weather cools off, it reverses direction, finds ambient heat outdoors, and pumps it into the house. It provides safe, quiet and clean operation and minimizes impact on the environment. Although a heat pump struggles to handle outdoor temperatures below freezing, that’s no longer a problem for us.

electric heater