Blue88Comanche Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Tonight is projected to be about 19*F, and I am not sure about my house heater... Last night it was set to normal heat /w aux heat and the inside temp never went past 61 when set to 70. It will heat the house to the set temp while in Emergency heat mode. It's an electric heater, I guess a heat pump. I grew up with in a house with a gas heater and this is the first winter in my house that I really used heat. From what I read heat pumps generally start loosing effectiveness at around 35*F. Is the normal heater working properly considering how cold it is outside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zackcj7 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 7 degrees when I left for work this morning in Atlanta. My house has dual heat pumps and they are working as hard as they can. I'm starting to find several areas I need to insulate better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbyluvv Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 13* in deep south Georgia (Albany) this morning. I live in a travel trailer so that makes for some interesting issues with freezing weather! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 heat pumps essentially get less and less efficient as the temps drop. this is the weather than the "emergency heat" setting was created for. :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyinajeep726 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 The "Aux/Emergency Heat" is supposed to come on automatically to supplement the heat pump when the temperature in the house can't be maintained at the set point. Mine is giving me issues too and it's just over a year old. Heat pump has been running all night as we got down to about 12°F. This weather is very unusual... I say, give this cold crap back to the Canadian and the Artic... I certainly don't want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexia Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 My heater stopped working well half way through the night and water stopped working before then. The pipes do not appear to be frozen, but we simply no longer have water in the area. 7ºF outside right now. I "showered" in the work bathroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Pfft. -17 straight temp here, in WI, -41 windchill. I'm nice and toasty in the shop. How bout that jet stream shift causing a cooling cycle, negating any chance of global warming existing. Eh? Eh!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incommando Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Heat pump systems are fairly uncommon around here. The natural gas infrastructure is is everywhere and the gas is butt cheap right now. Oh: -12 air temp / -40 wind chill. The summer's high was 100 so that gives us a 112 degree swing from summer to winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yxmj Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 -24* F this am........feels way warmer than the other day when I was working on the MJ at -58*F :thumbsup: :Canadaflag: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirteatr717 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 19 is warm these days around here haha -30 with the windchill on longisland by the water and I'm working outside today... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Heat pumps are useless up north, and useless when the weather gets crazy cold for down here. They lose their efficiency at around 35*. It hit 3* here last night, the lowest on record since 1912. Rather than risking a compressor freeze-up, I switched the systems over to emergency heat. This disables the compressors, turns on resistive heat strips, and uses the inside air handler inside the house to circulate the heat. It also sends your electric bill into orbit. Tomorrow it'll be back up in the 40s, so back to normal ops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyav8r Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 8 F at 5:30 AM today in scenic Trussville, AL. Up around 20 F at noon. Natural gas heat, no problem. That is, no problem other than the psychological impact of "freaking 8 degrees in Alabama!" Us ole fat Southern boys don't like this stuff! I'm thinking about moving to South Florida and becoming a Noles fan. (Just a little dig at all my AU friends.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMCJeepMJ Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 It's a balmy 46 here in the Oregon high desert. There's people wearing shorts outside today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue88Comanche Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 I can't wait till the gas bet hooked up again at my house. then I will be able to use the fireplace for once... and I will have a better stove put in as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjrev10 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 -33 below with -50 below wind chill up here Monday. Heat wave today with -20 below air temp warming to -10 below for a high. Tomorrow it will be like the tropics, high of 3 above. Love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I grew up next to Canada in upstate VT and realized very early on that I didn't like cold weather. My work has taken me to the Antarctica when Operation Deep Freeze was managed by the Navy and Ft. Greely in AK for extended duty. I hated those places in the winters. I much prefer living somewhere in the tropics year round. Living in cold places is not for me, but I salute those who do and like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akula69 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Its alright here, it was around 12 degrees night before last but only down to 16 last night. These crazy southerners don't know to wrap their pipes, so around 11:00 AM yesterday the sounds of water spraying were all over the town where I work...and this morning we had some really neat frozen water displays. At home we live in the boonies, so propane is the only fuel of choice. Its running neck-in-neck with gasoline right now, about 2.95 per gallon. I need this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oyaji Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Its alright here, it was around 12 degrees night before last but only down to 16 last night. These crazy southerners don't know to wrap their pipes, so around 11:00 AM yesterday the sounds of water spraying were all over the town where I work...and this morning we had some really neat frozen water displays. At home we live in the boonies, so propane is the only fuel of choice. Its running neck-in-neck with gasoline right now, about 2.95 per gallon. I need this: Sure works great - but looks expensive. How about this for a cheaper solution? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbyluvv Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I keep hearing the stories of busted pipes and frozen water lines. I live in a camper and I have had zero issues. I did not wrap any pipes either. I simply opened my dump valves, drained my tanks and left the hot water drip from the kitchen sink and a cold from the bathroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 That skid loader attachment is slick! Wouldn't work well here in Kansas, all of our trees are twisted and gnarly. One 12" Osage Orange log will heat my folks place for 20 hours when placed on a hot fire. Growing up we rarely used the furnace, even on the coldest of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftpiercecracker1 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 :laughin: This is funny, if i am not mistaken that guy is spliting birch. Which i could do with a dull butter knife. I would like to see him try that on a billet of seasoned Oak or Hickory. Up until a few weeks ago, we and by we i mean I, used a 20lb splitting maul made out of steel pipe. But then a friend of ours brought over his hydraulic spliter, i was in heaven. :drool: Woodstoves are great, but ours is inside so we have to deal with the smoke all winter long. It gets very tiring. If i could i would LOVE to have a setup that uses an outdoor woodstove to heat up water and then pumps it into the house, using fans to blow air over the hot tubes and thusly heat the house. Kinda like a reverse radiator. Those things are nice, all the advantages of wood heat with none of the disadvantages. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue88Comanche Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 A metal drum over a fire or wood stove, use a pump to circulate the water through an aux transmission radiator /w a fan. A cheapish solution... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yxmj Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 http://www.centralboiler.com/faq.html A place not too far from me make somthing similar....seems to sell a lot.....A farmer buddy of mine made a home made one that you can put in a full sized round bale in one shot ( I think it is 6' round and 5' wide) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftpiercecracker1 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 A metal drum over a fire or wood stove, use a pump to circulate the water through an aux transmission radiator /w a fan. A cheapish solution... Maybe for a single room workshop or somethin, but for a household?Not so much. But that might make for an interesting little side business. :idea: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I much prefer living somewhere in the tropics year round. Living in cold places is not for me, but I salute those who do and like it. To each their own. I went out to the west coast for Christmas, and it just felt... wrong... it was in the 40's or 50's (F) the whole time, and it was a little unsettling somehow that it was as warm as it was. If it wasn't for the family I hadn't seen for years, I couldn't have come home sooner. I don't know what it is. I've even had people here call me crazy. It's hardly in my blood, either, as a I'm really only a 1.5ish generation Canadian (in my family tree, only my mother and her mother were born in Canada). Yeah, freezing your @$$ off kinda sucks, as does the painful return of feeling to numb body parts, but if you dress properly you don't notice so much. Something I've always maintained, you can always put on more clothes and be comfortable in the cold, but you can only take off so much before you start getting funny looks. I personally start getting uncomfortable around 80°F. I was down in Nebraska at 110°F back in June, and for me that was basically hell... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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