Mary, My air pump has not let me down as it continues to do an impressive job. I've had a few nights of near zero temps and although the holes were smaller, the bubble continued to maintain two openings in my pond ice. While I was in Walmart to purchase my air pump, I passed through the sporting goods department and spotted a boat battery box which I also purchased. The battery box is made of heavy plastic and is intended to transport and contain a car battery for use in a boat. It has a roof like lid with and open area on the side for battery cables. The openings allow plenty of oxygen in , but keep the rain and snow out. I did drill two small holes to run the air hose out, but that was easy. The box is doing a great job and cost me about $7. The equipment cost is easily recovered in reduced electricity usage. So far, I'm very happy with the setup. I wish I had tried it years ago.

tigerdunes: The installer is also the Amana service person. We have a 10 yr parts and labor contract w/Amana. I could call Amana and see if they will send over another company at no charge to us, but we thought if it was an install problem, then Amana wouldn't cover the service. So... 1) Is there any way we can tell if there is an 8kw heat strip installed? And, if it is, is there anyway for us to tell whether it is hooked up properly AND working properly? 2) Again, the installer/service person "tells" us it is working (i.e., he put the compressor into defrost, came inside and looked at something and said "yup, the heat strip is working") He has even called a couple other HVAC people to ask them questions while he was here. He feels since we are getting 36,000 BTU's of cool and only 30,000 BTU's of heat (with the 8kw strip) that it will always be colder. But what I've read on other posts is that the heat strip has a 30/70 and I wondered if perhaps in defrost mode that it is only operating at 30% capacity??? (Like I really know what I'm talking about, so forgive me if I'm WAY off base). We did have him adjust the CFM down to 1100. It was running at I think 1400 and the noise through the duct/vent was too much (the vents were cleared out, though). Also, in the summer, it would only run for about 4 minutes, not enough time to help w/the humidity in the house. When the temps are above 40, the "heat" runs for 9-15 minutes normally. If you or anyone else has any further info for me, let me know. Otherwise, I will try to get someone else to look at it. I'll let you know.

Tom I have been following your other thread and I believe I said that for your area/climate, I recommended a matching var speed air handler paired with a HP rather than backup gas furnace. There may be two obstacles to this type configuration. 1.size of air handler and its location 2.whether your electrical service/breaker panel requires an update to handle the backup electric strips. and yes, you do require electric backup strips both for defrost function, aux heat when needed, and emergency heat if you have breakdown situation on outside HP condenser. If the electric service update is necessary but is cost prohibitive, then go with gas furnace backup-only 80% eff var speed would be more than adequate. now to get on my soapbox for a minute. Trane is clearly falling behind on dual fuel applications.I would not want to leave $1500 on the table due to their shortcomings. I am not a Trane basher as I have a 4 yr old Trane dual fuel system and have generally been very pleased especially with my savings over gas. To date, I believe I have used about 60 therms of nat gas backup this winter as opposed to relying almost exclusively on my Trane HP. My Trane furnace is an XV90 that has been phased out for the XV95-93% eff vs 95% eff. I have never used the second stage on the furnace and really the furnace is overkill for my home along with my SE area/climate. on a three ton Trane XL15i HP, there were 6 configurations that qualified for the tax credit-all with air handlers,none dual fuel. on the Lennox three ton XP14 HP, there were about 18 configurations that qualified-both air handlers and gas furnace.(No XP15 HPs qualified at all) and for Carrier's three ton Performance 15 "H" mdl, there were over 100 configurations that qualified-both air handler and gas furnace backup. If you require the gas furnace backup, then you must look at the Carrier systems. the gas fireplace backup is nice but it should not be depended on as the exclusive backup/emergency heat for your home. let me know if you have questions. IMO

Hello Your heat pump air-to-air sounds like the best options. If you dont need to use it for water the COP is quite high, usually COP-3-4. The COP means a ratio of what you get out vs what you put in. The COP of 3 is 3 times the heaat of what you put in. There are a number, some that get a COP of around 5 using source of 30F. Others list between 3-4 quite generally. Carrier is a maker of one type which has a COP of 3 and is a small size. When the source (outdoor temp) is low the COP goes down as does the output. (Below freezing especially). Its worth having an oil or wood or gas heater to go with the system as back up. Heat pumps that can heat water have to work harder as the water is warmer than the air used in buildings, so they use expensive CO2 heat pumps which will set you back about $5K easily. Therefore I would suggest keeping a boiler system, outdoor boiler. An indoor stove needs fresh air which is not ideal for heat pump system which works ideally with heat recovery on the ventilation system (extract heat from waste air at 90% or so efficiency). A neat approach may be to operate an air -to-air heat pump, aim for as high a COP as possible, but install a gas boiler if you have this. The smaller boilers, condensing systems, are surprisingly cheap. If you install a waste water heat recovery system which is just aa heat exchanger on you waste water from your shower, you can half the energy you need and thereby get by with a smaller boiler and consume only about 4-5kWh/day for shower water. A condensing boiler works most efficiently when working with water heating rather than central heating, and plus, the typical condensing system now heats so quickly that you dont need a hot water tank, reducing loses. You would still have at least 15KW available for heating the home. This can be done by putting in a heating loop into the air ducting that is shared with the air-pump. This could be a compact fan assisted system. There would be expense in heating controls for all the ducting. However, if you cannot put in ducting, then you can install a water radiator central heating system. To work with a heat pump, you can go for the super-efficient CO2 based systems that are emerging but expensive. The efficiency can be raised if the heat is needed at a low temperature, so requiring either under-floor heating or a 'fan assisted radiator' which extract more heat and can return the water to the heat pump much cooler than normal radiators, and require a lower temperature, raising COP. I would go with: Waste water heat exchanger ( I guess $500 est with capital cost $200-$300 plus basic installation if incorporated with a boiler installation and pipework anyway) -this will reduce the energy requirement of the condensing boiler, potentially allowing a smaller system. Condensing boiler - 15-25kW output, 90% efficient, capital cost $500 ebay Air-to-Air heat pump (in loft) - COP 3-5 (later figure seen in an Austrian GSHP but should work with airsource unless outside air is usually very cold?) cost? controls? Fan assisted radiator in ducting for backup (run off boiler)? Ventilation heat recovery