When the cost of natural gas, propane escalated in the early 2000’s Carrier introduced the Hybrid Heating System which was very popular.
This system gives the homeowner the option of using an electric Heat Pump or your High Efficient Gas Furnace to heat your home. It gave you the option depending on the cost of Electric per Kilowatt or the cost of Natural Gas per Therm to Heat your home.
Typically this Dual Fuel system or commonly known as Hybrid Heat would operate with the electric Heat Pump heating your home down to 30 Degrees. This is when the Heat Pump is the most electrically efficient in operating costs. The Heat Pumps now are not your “Fathers” Heat Pumps of 25 years ago because they proved warmer temperatures at the register. You can now feel comfortable during the milder weather as well as being very Efficient.
During the last 10 years with the decline of the cost of natural gas/propane costs because of “fracking” the Hybrid Heat system was not an option because it has been cheaper to heat your home with a High Efficient Gas Furnace. In fact many of the Dual Fuel systems which we installed years ago the homeowner would just use the High Efficient Gas Furnace to heat the residence.
Now that both Natural Gas and Propane costs are escalating it makes sense to use the Heat Pump during the mild weather.
If you are thinking about replacing your old air conditioning unit in the future it would be worthwhile to consider a Hybrid heat System in your home. The Heat Pump outside looks like an air conditioning unit but it has the capability to reverse the refrigerant cycle and supply heat to your home.
As long as you have an existing High Efficient Furnace you can install this Heat Pump to have the Hybrid Heat feature.
You are looking at approximately a $1000-1500 Upgrade from a normal air conditioning replacement. You have to install a two-stage thermostat and make sure that it is wired properly for the Dual Fuel system. You can use a Setpoint on thermostat around 30 degrees Ambient Temperature where below this temp the Gas Furnace would operate. After set up this Hybrid Heat will perform automatically.
With the “Greening” of America and legislation to limit “Fracking”as well as the current administration shutting down the Keystone Pipeline the cost of Fossil Fuel will likely climb substantially in the coming years. So consider this Hybrid Heat as on option when replacing your air conditioning system to hedge against rising fuel costs.
