Fannie, I'm surprised that you went with a heat pump given where you live. They aren't worth a darn in cold weather. they go to the auxiliary electric heating element at around 32 degrees and struggle to keep up in sub-zero weather. Your electric bill skyrockets. If you lose power, you have no heat and your water pipes can freeze. I speak from experience. Last January we had a brief period below -25 degrees with a strong north wind. Our kitchen faces north and the pipes froze and burst. $42k worth of damage. Our heat pump was new the previous spring. We have had such weather in the past and never had a problem. Luckily our insurance paid for all but our $1k deductible. I hope you have an alternate heat source. Lots of people in our area have standby generators that kick in during a power failure. Ice storms are the bane of our area. They take down trees and power lines and some people are without power for 2-3 weeks. For the past year the electric company has been clearing all power lines of trees and overhanging branches.
Wow OldFox, I'm sorry to hear that you had all that trouble and in Tennessee, you are so far south. You are partly right about heat pumps, they are rated to a particular negative temperature. Different parts of the country have different types depending on their climate. My sister in the prairies for instance had never heard of a heat pump. But now they have a design that will work in her very cold dry climate. Here the government is offering incentives to have folks move to heat pumps as it is a greener alternative and far less expensive to heat your home with. This is not our first time owning a heat pump. It not only heats during colder months but also cools the house in warmer seasons and dehumidifies as well. Here we have to have a primary (propane furnace in our case) heat source and a heat pump is considered auxiliary heat much like a wood stove. Our heat pump is rated to -25c to -30c we very rarely get that cold here in the Maritimes. But if we were forecast for that type of weather we just turn off the heat pump as it can freeze up and run the furnace. Our heat pump does not have the electric heat element but a friend of mine does have it and she seems to be very satisfied with it. I was wondering are your kitchen water lines on an exterior wall? I suspect living were you do you probably don't have another source of heat. That was an incredible amount of damage and bill. Glad to hear your insurance covered it for you. Hopefully you will not have to experience that again.
Heat pump technology isn't anything new. Heat pumps morphed from air conditioners whose condensers were placed underground in well water. These were briefly covered, back then in the late seventies, in trade school. As far as being "energy efficient", it takes electricity to power them. In other words, they're only environmentally friendly, when the power source itself is, such as powering them from a roof-top solar panel or from a local wind park. The government over here has been perking their proliferation, almost to the point of mandating their installment. Since then, these have been targetted by theives. Since the rig is mounted without it's hosting home, these have been easy pickings for a midnight crew
Oh my gosh we've been so busy! Mostly doing not much of anything special. The weather has been so perfect, summer just hasn't ended...yet. Still doing stuff around the house, finished painting the living room, a new sofa and rug is coming tomorrow. We did have frost a few nights so a lot of the garden is done. I have a bucket of green tomatoes I have to do something (?) with. We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with the family here. Mom stayed over for a couple of nights. I took her on a long drive home through the Wentworth Valley to take in the leaves, again it was a perfect weather day. Hubby decided to sell his Chevy Colorado to buy an old Chevy square body, he is so excited with it. I found out there was a scarecrow contest in town, so of course I had to entered. Then today I got busy decorating a bit more for Halloween. I guess we are just enjoying our retirement so far. Hope you all are doing well as well.
Fried green tomatoes are a delicacy down here. The secret is in the seasoned batter and temperature control. Not hot enough and they are mushy. Crispy is good. I suppose they could be compared to a tempura.
Thanks, hubby laughed when I read your comment. The stacks have been removed, dual exhaust has been installed. It was so loud you couldn't talk in the cab while the truck was running. He has also removed the Dukes of Hazard 01 from the doors and the flag from the hood. We are waiting for a call to have the doors and hood repainted. It is staying orange, he would prefer red but an entire paint job is an option right now.
Pickled green tomatoes are good and you can also dice them and make sweet pickle relish. In addition to long term canning, there are short term recipes that are easy to make and will keep up tp 3 weeks in the fridge.
I'm presently remodelling a kitchen. It's so fun, I'm actually getting adicted. That's why I was curious as to how you did yours. This lady just inheritted her parent's house, now that her mother passed away. Her dad's 93 and he had some lady living in one of the upstairs rooms, doing nothing all day long, except sleep, eat and playing with a cellphone. Between her and the old parents who weren't in shape for keeping up the house, the original wallpaper from around 1960 absorbed all that cooking grease and above-stove heat. They had all sorts of extension cables running into each individual socket. Which is an eyesore for a former electrician. I'll get to the electrics later. In the mean time, I fetched a ventilator cowl for her. I suggested running the exhaust from the rear, so that nobody can see any ductwork, installing a one way-flapped vent through the wall. She prefered instead to have me install a duct through the wall separating the kitchen to a storage room which already was ventilated. To do that, I broke out my Rambo drill and proceeded to blast a hole in the wall, subsequently applying automotive technology for the hook-up. I did eventually get my hammer back out, not being sure if it would budge or not
