Hunter and Eddie,
I think you are making this heat pump thing too complicated.
The whole thing is really quite simple, once you understand one fundamental
concept. Neither a heat pump nor an air conditioner (refrigeration unit)
makes heat or cold - like a furnace or flame or heat strip produces heat.
Rather, an air conditioner (or refrigeration unit, or heat pump) simply
TRANSFERS heat. Thus an efficient unit can actually heat or cool using LESS
electrical energy (on the compressor) than the heat or cold transferred.
In refrigeration mode, the system removes heat with the "evaporator" (from
the refrigerator or room) and moves it to the "condenser" where it exhausts
it into the room or out doors.
The heat pump uses the same components except that it moves the heat (and
cools the outdoors) from out doors to the interior room. Thus the evaporator
and condenser functions are reversed.
For this discussion, I will not describe how a refrigeration cycle works,
except to point out that the evaporator is the cold side and the condenser
is the hot side of the system.
Alas, there is a rub. The efficiency of either a heat pump or refrigeration
unit is dependent upon the temperatures of the input and output sides of the
operation. For example, a heat pump works very efficiently when the source
of the heat (outdoor temperature is relatively high). If the outdoor
temperature drops below 40 degrees, the pump has a hard time getting the
heat to transfer into a room to bring it up to 70 degrees or so. That is
why heat pumps are usually only used in mild climates. It also explains why
a resistance (electric heating unit, not unlike the heating element in a
toaster) is often used when the outside temperature drops too low.
Note that a refrigeration unit (or air conditioner) is less efficient when
the outside (output) temperature is high.
Sometimes, the efficiency is a non issue. At MIT for example, (Cambridge,
MA - adjacent to Boston) a heat pump is used in the winter time to heat the
auditorium and freeze the skating rink, at the same time!
Oliver Filippi
-----Original Message-----
> Alan,
What is you recommendation on the optional
> heat strips for heating?>
I have a heat pump in my Dometic a/c. I always use it unless I'm in
below freezing temps for a few days.
Why? Because I don't use up propane and then have to take the tank to
be filled. Electric is good. Lugging the propane tank is bad. <g>
> Do you prefer using the drain hose rather than letting the water run
> down the roof to whatever because you prefer the water draining
> elsewhere? Why is that important to you please? >
I'm not Alan, but isn't it obvious why you wouldn't want water running
down in one spot all the time?
Hunter