I'm considering the going with the heat pump and dumping the electric furnace. But I've got a couple of concerns: the heat pump runs all year since it's doing both the heating & cooling, (probably shorting it's life compared to an A/C w/furnace); and will the heat pump put out enough heat in the winter?
Disclaimer: Dad works for a HVAC company that does commercial work(they do home units, but only for employees*), but I'm just IT.
1. In many cases just being installed results in wear&tear. Running a system can help keep stuff lubed and free, resulting in the same lifespan over a broad range of utilization.
2. If properly sized, it will provide all the heat you need in the winter.
3. If it can't produce enough heat in the winter, it is possible to utilize a fallback system. This is usually direct resistive strips, but having it activate a furnace of some type is perfectly possible.
4. Generally the money saved in increased heating efficiency will more than pay for the cost of the upgrade. Direct electric might be cheaper installed and probably last close to forever, but paying 3X per BTU delivered adds up fast.
*Yes, dad's house has a commercial grade system. It basically translates to: More expensive but also easier to service and basically bulletproof. For example, US built capacitors that don't have a 10% failure rate in the first month. The condenser(outside unit) is HUGE.
Heat pumps are generally good to well below 0F, so "not much" below 32F is great for them. In addition, given that, you're not going to be using it as a furnace all that much as compared to, say, Nebraska.
20F as a low? I'm used to dealing with -20F being the average.
![Wink ;)](http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
On a side note, Damn there's a hell of a markup in A/C parts! The first time I noticed this was when we were charged $75 for a $15 part. The cap that blew last time cost anywhere from $20 to $35 on Amazon - I was charged over $400 for it. Sure wish I could have had a markup like that when I had the computer shop....
What you're likely dealing with here is the minimum 1 hour callout fee.