In this conversational episode, Derek Cole and William Skipper explain home heating options for homeowners in southeastern North Carolina. They contrast furnaces (gas or oil) with electric heat pumps, noting that heat pumps deliver slightly cooler air and rely on electricity. They caution against a full switch from gas to all‑electric heat pumps, especially for older occupants, because of perceived cooler airflow and the need for sufficient household electrical capacity (most older homes have 100 A service, while a heat pump typically draws 80‑90 A). They discuss upgrading to 200 A service if needed. The hosts then present the dual‑fuel system as the most popular solution: a heat pump handles moderate temperatures while a gas furnace takes over when outdoor temps drop below a crossover point (≈35‑40 °F). This approach avoids the high electric cost of auxiliary heat strips and the high gas cost of running a furnace on milder days, delivering efficiency across a range of outdoor temperatures. They conclude by directing listeners to their website for more information.
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Hey, this is Derrick Cole and William Skipper with The Comfort Experts, and today we're talking about home heating and the different types of heat for your home. And in this area, Southeastern North Carolina, we have split and package furnaces and heat pumps, and really the most popular is dual fuel. And, but William, before we get to that, what is the difference between a furnace and a heat pump?
The biggest difference between the furnace and the heat pump is furnaces tend to operate on either gas or oil. Heat pumps are all electric. So you're going to get a furnace that's going to have a little warmer heat coming out of the vent than the heat pump, but the biggest difference is they're operating fuels.
Yeah, exactly. And you have the gas for the furnace, you have the electricity for the heat pump. We get the questions quite a bit. People have the gas unit and want to switch to a heat pump. So would you recommend that, and what do I have to do to get it done?
Well, I would not recommend switching from gas to all-electric if that's what you've been accustomed to all of your life, because even though a heat pump, an all-electric heat pump, is going to heat your home just like a gas furnace or oil furnace will, it's going to get to the temperature that you set it at. There is a difference of the temperature air coming out of the vent. If you're used to that and you switch over and that heat pump starts blowing, it's gonna feel like cold air or cool air. And you'll get some— we'll get some nuisance calls, customers concerned about my heat pump not heating, I get a cold air blow. Really and truly, it's not. It's just a little cooler than you're used to. We find older folks and people that are wanting to get away from the gas heat because of gas prices, LP gas prices, and go to all electric. And that, especially with the older group, that is a— that's really not a good idea because as you get older, everybody knows as you get older you're going to get more sensitive to the cool air. And if we take a gas furnace or oil furnace out and put a heat pump in, then the cold air, the cold blow that we were just talking about, is exaggerated because now they, they feel it a lot more than you normally would. If it is something that you truly want to do, you need to make sure that if I'm switching from my gas to my electric, that you've got enough power in the house to handle a heat pump. Most houses that were built 20, 30 years ago, most of them were built with 100-amp service. And if you've got an electric dryer, an electric stove, and now you're going to add electric heat, you need to make sure that your power at your home is sufficient enough to handle the extra load that you're getting ready to add to it. Because a heat pump itself most of the time will average somewhere between 80 and 90 amps of power that is needed to operate. Now, if that can be fixed, if you truly want to do that, you can do an electrical upgrade and upgrade from 100-amp to 200-amp service. But what I would tell customers is if you've had gas heat all your life and you want to switch out Let's switch out, but let's switch out to what you said just a few minutes ago, which is what we call a dual fuel system, which is your heat pump without auxiliary heaters. The only downfall to a heat pump in your home is I've got electric auxiliary heaters that come on to help that heat pump on those extremely cold nights when it's down 30, 20, 10, below 35 degrees. A heat pump can't keep up by itself, so we energize some electric heat strips which give us that extra boost, but also will make that little black dot on your meter look like a black line and start spinning so fast. Yeah, well, now I can combine that heat pump and take the auxiliary heaters out and put gas heat in it. And now when my heat pump gets down to that temperature, to that crossover temperature, whatever we desire in the house— we recommend between 35 and 40 degrees— when it gets there, we'll shut the heat pump down and then we'll fire that gas furnace off. We've got that gas heat that everybody wants when it's real cold, but we don't have those high LP gas prices that we have to burn to keep warm during those 60 and 50 degree days. And I don't have the high electric bill that I would have had if I had the heat strips coming on. So there's a lot of pros and cons both ways. It just really depends on your wants and needs of your home and what your home allow you to do.
Yeah, because dual fuel is by far the most popular thing we do, especially when clients call in and say, look, I got gas, I want to switch to electric. And usually we do have an electrical panel problem, but that can be solved by going dual fuel because now you have the best of both worlds. And it's really what's most efficient during that time of year. I mean, it is much more efficient to run off of gas heat when it's 30, 20 degrees outside.
That's right.
And it's much more efficient to run on heat pump heat when it's, you know, 45, 50, 60 degrees outside. So it's really using the best of both worlds. But for more information, visit us at 1houraircarolinas.com. Today's episode was brought to you by the Comfort Experts.
See us for all your heating and air conditioning needs.
For more information, visit 1houraircarolinas.com.
