Quoted from Rdoyle1978:It does occasionally get pretty cold here; I'm being told by the HVAC guy that the heat pump is sufficient for heating in the winter here. But what I understand about heat pumps is that unless you have a super mild winter, the thing is not going to cut it. My issue is that we're just doing this for the addition, and one of those rooms is our bedroom. If it's not gonna be warm enough, my wife's not going to be too happy. We don't have a backup furnace (I mean, we DO, but it's not connected to the same space,all new ductwork is going in for the new space only)
Further, I'm concerned about our electric bill, which is already like $300/month (the house isn't that big). I definitely don't want to double it or anything crazy, and if the heat isn't going to be enough, AND I have a much higher bill, that's not acceptable.
Heat pump is plenty fine for this area. As somebody mentioned, you have a heat pump with an auxiliary heat source. In my case, propane heat. I think mine is set to cut over to aux heat around 22-25 degrees. Before I moved to Naptown, I had a heat pump in my prior house in Montgomery county and never had an issue.
Your electric bill is crazy! Do you have electric heat or something now? As hot as this summer has been, running the pool and and the power for the boat and I have not cracked 400/month. When the pool is shut down I was more in the 150-180 range a month. Full disclosure, I have heating oil for the first floor and heat pump/propane for the second flood.