Favorite Heat Pump

Zman

I have a buddy in Greensboro NC who is looking for recommendations for a ducted heat pump in the 2-3 ton range.
What are everyone's favorites?
Does anyone have a link to some good third-party testing that shows actual performance curves?
TIA,
Carl

pecmsg

Unfortunately, the installing contractor makes or breaks the job!

Zman

pecmsg said:

Unfortunately, the installing contractor makes or breaks the job!

Of course, but there are lots of new technologies out there. Is hyper-heat worth the extra $$ vs resistive,
Third part COP tests?

Hot_water_fan

Hyper heat in that climate might not matter much. I’m at ~3.5 COP using the Mitsubishi ducted 2 ton hyper heat in Maryland. Highly recommend! 

Mitsubishi has part load efficiency in their engineering manuals for the M-series. The hyper heats have COPs of about 4 down to 0 degrees at 75% capacity if I recall correctly. 

EBEBRATT-Ed

Anything that does not say "Carrier" on it

SuperTech

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Anything that does not say "Carrier" on it

The Infinity Greenspeed heat pump isn't that bad. I would rather have that and work on that over any other manufacturers communicating system. Another option is combining a mini split inverter heat pump outdoor unit with a traditional air handler using the new board Carrier offers. 

pecmsg

Zman said:

pecmsg said:

Unfortunately, the installing contractor makes or breaks the job!

Of course, but there are lots of new technologies out there. Is hyper-heat worth the extra $$ vs resistive,
Third part COP tests?

But that "New Technology" comes with a high price tag.....Finding someone that is knowledgeable, along with many proprietary parts that may or may not be available.

Hot_water_fan

The Hyper Heat option isn't that expensive when compared to a non-hyper heating variable speed heat pump. It wasn't even that much more when compared to a single stage low-end heat pump. Still, I'd go with non-hyper heat in your climate. You'll lose efficiency at the lowest temps but they're uncommon in NC and you'll gain efficiency at more mild temps (at least within the Mitsubishi line).

TAG

I really like my Carrier equipment?

Now -- I always zone and Carrier has a great zoning setup with the Infinity controls. That was the initial reason I went that way on my first one back in the 00's. That setup used the Bristol two speed compressor that they ended up having lots of problems with them. In my case both of the installs were straight AC and they are both still going strong.

For the past 5/6 years I have used the 5 speed heat pump unit in my projects. It uses a Toshiba rotary compressor and the infinity controls. The original Greenspeed product from Carrier was a full VS Scroll compressor. They had some issues initially back in 2012 when they first came back on the market -- some had a weird inverter noise. That seemed to be a common problem with others as well ... had looked at an early Trane that did the same. High pitched scream -- some manufactures still have the issue IMO. The Greenspeed was also at lot more money and in my area of the mid-atlantic did not offer much performance difference vs the 5 speed.

Looking over the latest information it seems that Carrier has dropped the VS Scroll unit and now offers only the Toshiba compressor in both the 5 speed as before and a new full VS Toshiba rotary. Last year they had both types of the Full VS compressors available. I installed another 5 speed in my latest project back in the summer of 19. I'm not sure if this is true ... but, I was told that the two rotary compressors are the same. It's the drive that changes them from the 5 speed to the full VS.

In my case I use the odd 37k BTU unit that fits the curve in my area of NJ/PA better -- it's a 3T setup in a 4 ton case with so as to get the 4 ton coil. The 5 speed was rated down to 2 degrees ... the old Greenspeed was rated for colder performance.

I have never had a problem with any of them .... one of the early heaters had a board go under warranty

yesimon

Please see https://ashp.neep.org/ detailed performance and COP data on a wide variety of heat pumps. Hyper heat would not be adviseable in NC because you have lower COPs during operation in the normal range of temperatures.

jumper

Way back in previous century Coleman sold an indoor machine with only coil & fan outside.
Seemed like a good idea to spare oil & electrics from extreme weather.