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Location: Texas
There are a lot of places people consider south, but each has there dry and wet climates as well as cold vs cool winters.
Some are good for heat pumps and some are better going gas.
If you get a lot of wet and cold- gas heat would be better- or even geothermal for any in between.
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Heat pumps are supposed to be much more efficient, but they only work well within a certain temperature range. Outside that range they fare poorly which is why we don't see them up north.
This from the Department of Energy:
http://energy.gov/energysaver/air-source-heat-pumpsIf it is in use in the area you are moving to, the heat pump is a really good idea.
But every once in a while even in Florida it drops below freezing and the heat pump will not be very efficient at that time.
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Location: Wapakoneta, OH
For me the choice would be based on whether that was nat gas or LP. If it's nat gas that would get the nod. With LP heat pumps can be very good, and they have improved a lot over the years. We had LP/air source heat pump (NW Ohio) for about 20 years and the heat pump heated to about 30º (+/-) then the furnace took over. With this unit, the house did feel cooler when the heat pump was doing the work, but the current ,odels are much different (I'm told). Anyway, when we moved 5 years ago (still in NW Ohio
) we went ground source heat pump (geo) and LP furnace. Now the heat pump goes down to about 10º before the furnace kicks in, and the house is actually more comfortable when the heat pump is doing the work....the geo units blow very warm air. That said, depending on exactly where you are in the south I'm not sure a geo would be needed.
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