From selecting the right model to ensuring it's perfectly configured, our experts handle every detail to ensure your home comfort and energy savings. Here's what Appleby Systems will do:
No matter what your needs are, a heat pump offers a streamlined, cost-effective approach to year-round indoor comfort.
Here's the BTU math behind electrically heating your home with a heat pump versus heating your home with a gas furnace. When it comes to selecting the proper size heat pump for your home, you can only size it for the cooling load of the home and not the heating load. For example: A house that is about 2,700 ft² typically requires about 3-tons of cooling. 3-tons of cooling is equivalent to 36,000 BTUs. (12,000 BTUs in a ton) A heat pump provides both heating and cooling. Therefore, your BTU capacity for both is 36,000 BTUs. This is important because during the winter, this amount may not be sufficient for complete home comfort without a supplemental heating source.
Yes! Heat pumps are advertised that they can produce heat electrically down to temperatures of -30°C. The technology is impressive to be able to operate under extremely low cold temperatures. But how effective is it to heat your home at those temperatures compared to heating your home with a gas furnace at the same temperatures? In real-world Canadian winters, especially in places like Southern Ontario, performance can vary and should be carefully considered.
Typically, a home that is 2,700 ft² that is heated with a gas furnace would require about 80,000 BTUs. This will be sufficient throughout the entire winter season at whatever cold temperatures we reach in Southern Ontario to condition your home. Gas furnaces are designed to deliver consistent heat output regardless of how cold it gets outside, which makes them highly reliable for sub-zero conditions.
The obvious difference in BTUs between both heating options is 44,000 BTUs. Therefore, when the temperatures are extremely low, using your gas furnace to heat your home will be more effective and won't take as long to satisfy your desired temperature setting. This doesn't mean that a heat pump is not a good economical choice to install in your home, because it is. It will be most effective to operate in the shoulder months of the winter, or perhaps when the temperatures are above 0°C. During these milder periods, heat pumps can save homeowners significantly on energy bills while reducing carbon emissions. Anything below 0°C, a gas furnace might be the better choice to operate when temperatures get extremely low. Of course, Mother Nature will play a factor in how we utilize a heat pump with regards to the erratic fluctuations of weather and temperatures we experience in Southern Ontario. This is why we need a gas furnace as a backup source of heat to complement a heat pump. With our climate, we still require both pieces of equipment. This dual-fuel setup, often referred to as a hybrid heating system, gives you the flexibility and efficiency to choose the best heat source based on outdoor conditions and energy prices.
Ready to upgrade your home’s heating system? Contact our expert team today for a free in-home consultation and find out if a hybrid heat pump and gas furnace setup is right for you.
With the addition of installing an Ecobee WiFi smart thermostat to the heat pump system, the homeowner will always have control of the system’s operations. Our expert installation and service team have been trained by the manufacturers to understand how to professionally set up the heating and cooling modes to accommodate each homeowner's different preferences. Basic program modes and thresholds for different temperatures will automatically switch from Heat Pump "Heat Mode" to Gas Heat "Auxiliary Heat". These settings are custom to each and every homeowner's utility usage preference, which ultimately allows you to control heating your home electrically with a heat pump or heating your home with gas using your gas furnace. The system is designed for ease of use and automatic transitions between modes, ensuring you’re always getting optimal comfort and efficiency without manual intervention.
The "unknown" variable in all of this—what will be the cost of our utilities 5 years from now? 10 years from now? We don't know for certain, but at least if you have a heat pump installed, you will have control and the flexibility of using both sources of heat—Gas or Electric. Having that flexibility means you can adjust your usage based on future energy rates, environmental goals, or even seasonal promotions from utility providers.
Take control of your comfort and energy costs. Ask us about professional installation of an Ecobee smart thermostat and experience seamless heat pump and furnace integration all year round.
