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Heat pump aux heat in attic space:Electric or Propane?

tbart16
tbart16 Member Posts: 23
in THE MAIN WALL
I am in the process of building a new house I have a plumbing and heating background ,but left the field for a desk job at a college so I am not up to snuff on modern technologies. We are building a 2 story house and considering putting a separate unit in the attic to heat and cool the 1200 sqft space upstairs. The contractor I am working with is insisting I use electric aux heat with the heat pump. I am just curious as to why I would not use propane? Beyond of course the whole condensate drain freezing issue.

Comments

  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    Where is the house located?

    The current generation of mini-split heatpumps will perform down to -5°F (or even -15°F in some cases.) 1200 square feet is not a lot of space to heat -- with new construction you should be able to make that work.
    njtommyRobG
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,199
    edited November 2015
    I have a rental that is 2 full stories. We were able to gracefully run/conceal some 6" runs to the 2nd floor from the basement gas system. These are floor regs and with only being 6" round pipe they provide partial heat for upstairs but no AC to speak of.

    We put a attic system in for mainly AC with electric furnace back-up. The electric elements are seldom used with this set up, this is AC only, not HP. This is a 80 year old house in northern NE.

    I personally would not put LP in the attic for a variety of reasons.
    Depends upon where you are located.

    Note: simply put, you can heat a second floor from a basement system quite easily. Cooling is another matter. Just find closets/chases for heat runs going up.
  • njtommy
    njtommy Member Posts: 1,105
    edited November 2015
    Take a look at this Mitsubishi unit.
    http://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/products/multi-room/product-listing/multi-position-ducted
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    or a Fujitsu (e.g. AOU9RLFC + ARU9RLF)

    The single splits do much better at low temps.
  • hvacfreak2
    hvacfreak2 Member Posts: 500
    edited November 2015
    I'm voting electric. LP initial cost will be higher and fuel isn't cheap. Have him pull a few extra conductors ( another 4 or 6 conductor control wire ) from the attic unit to the outdoor unit. You can add an outdoor sensor and break that electric heat into stages sometime.
    hvacfreak

    Mechanical Enthusiast

    Burnham MST 396 , 60 oz gauge , Tigerloop , Firomatic Check Valve , Mcdonnell Miller 67 lwco , Danfoss RA2k TRV's

    Easyio FG20 Controller

  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,199
    OP mentioned freezing condensate. But we still don't know his location. He may still need back-up/supplemental heaters. Mini's have made a lot of low temp claims. Is that for the single units only?

    Have looked at jobs with 4-5 rooms and the with the number of inside units dollars add up pretty fast.

    Does the ducted unit have individual zone controls for the 4-5 rooms?

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