If you want 80 degree kind of heat in the winter, use a gas furnace. Preferably natural gas as it's more cost effective.

The colder it gets outside the less heat a heat pump will produce... because it's not 'producing heat' --- it's removing it from the cold air outside and putting it inside.

So, the colder it gets outside... the less heat there is in the air 'outside'.

A gas furnace 'creates' heat via the burning of fossil fuels. Natural gas is the cheapest most abundant source there is... but some outlying areas are not serviced.

If you have a tank on the property--- usually they look like a submarine with a hub like feature in the center of them... then that is LP or propane typically. Propane costs more is more dangerous and so often times Heat pumps with back up electric strip heat is chosen.

Just realize if you choose a heat pump --- 80 degree heat may be a struggle with really cold temps outside. Given that you are in west Texas area, that shouldn't be all that often. If it were me and I was choosing a heat pump I would get the Bosch Inverter which is what I recently installed at my house in Katy, Tx.

With that said, I am a 'cool bird' I like it chilly in my house. If my goal was to have high heat like 80 degrees I would put in a NG furnace and call it a day.

You can read a long thread on the Bosch Inverter Heat Pump here.

Nat gas furnace with straight AC...if only propane available then all electric high eff HP with electric strip supplement. It would be helpful though to know your rates for your fuel choices.

Hey Austin,

Thank you for the informative response. Yeah so no natural gas in the area unfortunately and only propane. Supposedly the average temp in this area during winter is around 32-37 but only on a few days. If the heat strip kicks in, would this be enough to produce the temp we are looking for? To be clear, we set our thermostat to 80 but I don't think the indoor temp is at 80 all the time, more like 75-79. I was looking at the dual fuel such as the Trane Earthwise XL16c, but you are saying dual fuel is dangerous?

Would this Bosch inverter produce heat up to 80 deg without heat strips? If you don't mind, how much would it be, ballpark range, to install 2 of this system, I will have 2 floors and I'd like to have one for each.

Again, thanks for the response, it is much appreciated.

Another option (we used this in a guesthouse but farther north) is to use a heat pump (no backup) with an independent vented propane fireplace. The gas fireplace is technically rated as a “furnace” per specs. The thought was to use the heat pump for all a/c and heat, but when/if it got too cold the gas fireplace would be backup. The propane tank is buried underground and is also used for the cooktop and hot water heater and stand-by generator.

tigerdunes,

In West Texas, I think the propane is at 2.20c/gal, electricity I'm not sure but it's not expensive.

Would you have any recommendations for a high off heat pump? I'll take a look at the Bosch inverter mentioned above.

myricarchitect,

I'm thinking if nothing else space heaters could be a good option too but I have to think I'm forced to use space heater on a brand new home.

ok, thank you again for the response. I live in Sunland Park, NM/west Texas area so you are quite a bit aways from me. I'm leaning towards just heat pump with heat strips, and if it gets really cold, a space heater may do. Plus, dual fuel system is more expensive it looks like. We will still have propane since we need it for cooking and water heating. Thank you again for the feedback, much appreciated.

I'm leaning towards just heat pump with heat strips.

That should be fine for your area. If you plan on keeping it that warm in the house as you say in your OP, I would get the Bosch Inverter heat pump as it produces heat clear down to about 5-6 degrees ambient and very efficient at what it does. Then use the strip heat as you need it. I don't know that you'll find a contractor though for this for a new construction job as Bosch just recently came to the Houston market a few months ago. The distributor network for Bosch is in it's infancy... so there are pros and cons for choosing this brand. For what it does / how it does it --- it's a game changer for my market. (Katy, Texas area)

As a comparison --- an average run of the mill single speed heat pump will probably struggle once temps drop into the 20's for any significant amount of time. They are efficient when compared to strip heat (utility bill cost wise) but there are higher limitations with those.

I've gotten email notifications from my electric provider that they are estimating my next electric bill at less than $50 for November. This may wind up being my lowest electric bill ever for my power rate of 12 cents per KWH.

With that said, I keep it quite chilly during the winter and my house is all electric (no gas at all). I shut it off at night and really just use it to take the chill out of the house in the morning. If it gets really cold here, I will probably just heat the main part of the house over night --- as I have it attached to a 4 zone duct system. (This is to explain the how and why my electric bill is so low -- design of the HVAC system is a big part of it.)

I might be wrong, but I think that keeping your house at 80 degrees in the winter is outside the design capacity for most heating systems (it sounds like your current system has that issue). Average house temps are more like 70-72 degrees in the winter, with a few folks wanting it a little warmer.

I would expect many modern heating systems to struggle with keeping a house at 80 degrees in the winter unless they were designed and installed with that in temp mind. Your HVAC company would need to know the requirement when they did the manual J and other estimations.

This is also the time to add the requirement for a conditioned attic (if any vents will be there) and higher than normal R value for your insulation and windows. If you build a good leak-free envelope it will be much easier to heat and cool.

Bruce

...we set our thermostat to 80 but I don't think the indoor temp is at 80 all the time, more like 75-79.

It sounds like your current heating system and house can't maintain an even temperature throughout all rooms and you set the thermostat to 80 degrees to compensate for this. A properly designed heating system should not have this issue.

The HVAC contractor needs to do a load calculation. If he cannot then you need to find one who will. If you really want to maintain an indoor temperature at 80 degrees then it needs to be set in the load calculation. The heat pump should be sized for the cooling load. The electric heat strips needs to be sized to maintain the 80 degree indoor temperature on a typical cold winter night.

Austin,

ahh so I'll have to ask the builder's sub if they are familiar with Bosch...if not then another brand will work then. I don't think it ever goes down to 20 here, maybe rarely, I'm not sure since we just moved here back in March, I looked online for average temp by month and maybe lowest is around 32...

Bruce and Mike,

I think I may have said it wrong, essentially, right now we have our thermostat set to around 78-80, now I know it's not the same in all rooms but I just know that this is what we are comfortable with. The furnace only runs once in a while....so I don't think its struggling to maintain heat...

Again, I could be wrong and don't understand how HVAC works..

The new build will have foam insulation and low-e windows I'm told...so I'm hoping heat pump plus heat strip will do the trick....

Coolair,

Thank you for the feedback. When you say efficient, is that with the heat strip activated or just the heat pump only the doing the heating? Can it maintain indoor temp of 75-78 deg?

Yes, the efficiency of heat pumps goes down as the temperature goes down, but at what temperature does it drop so low that it doesn't really work? Fujitsu has some that are rated to work down to -15° F, although I don't know the efficiency at that temperature.

I suggest people who want to get into this debate post their definition of "efficient" and "rated to work".

Fujitsu is likely a mini split and mini splits operate differently than a regular forced air duct system. (I have never seen a Fujitsu forced air duct system)

A mini split cools and or heats a smaller area. Efficient yes, but the effect of a 'spot' cooling appliance can not be 'truly' compared to one that delivers cooling and heat to wider larger area. These mini splits are typically sized no larger than about 2.5 tons of cooling which is half the size that a normal run of the mill forced air duct system size.

If you're living in a small one bedroom home in a less extreme climate then a mini split could possibly be your solution. But most American homes are not sized this small. (more equipment = more maintenance = more repairs when they break = more cost when it comes time to replace them === where is the efficiency in that?)

I'll take AC & Heat Efficiency Confusion for $1000 Alex.

Looking at their website, Fujitsu does seem to have only mini-splits, but up to 36000 BTU in 4 zones.

HEAT PUMP VS FURNACE. COMPARE THE PROS AND CONS.

https://www.newcentralairconditioner.com/

AIR QUALITY

Since heat pumps don’t use combustion, they don’t produce any harmful greenhouse gas emissions. This is becoming more and more important and some communities are even instituting local regulations insisting on lower-emission heat sources. Recent advancements have made many furnace models more energy efficient and lower their impact on the environment.

COLD WEATHER EFFECTIVENESS

A gas furnace burns fuel so it can generate heat on the coldest days. If the outside air temperature routinely falls below freezing, a heat pump may have a hard time generating enough heat to keep your home warm. Supplemental systems are available to work in tandem with your heat pump and kick in on the coldest days. Unfortunately, these systems use a lot of energy – canceling out the energy efficient benefits if used too often.