Been out looking at real estate here in Nashville and found a really great house. Brand new. Everything seems to be of way better than builder grade. Actually very nice! There is electric heat with heat pump. I have never had electric. Can you school me? Also there is an electric fireplace. Are they worth a crap? Just decoration? I mean how much heat can you get from a 110v unit? I am thinking more for the ambiance. Anyone use just electric?

Newer heat pumps are amazing. They produce heat well into the 30's before you have to switch on the emergency heat strips. As for the electric fireplaces, they are mostly for show, only about 1500 watts top. I have one and in our previous house we had a bedroom in the basement, it did a nice job in that small room.

We have a 110V plug in type from Home Depot. It does help keep our bedroom warm, but I wouldnt count on it to do any real heating if the HVAC went out during a cold night. I doubt it can handle that heavy of a job.

But it looks nice and it's remote control and the wife can set it to come on for 30 minutes or whatever to get nice and toasty before I come to bed and complain that's is 1000 degrees in here, wtf!

We like our electric fireplace, but it's really just a space heater with a light show. They are nice to sit in front of and read a book, but don't expect it to heat more than that room.

Replaced a worn out propane fireplace with an electric, it's great in that we no longer have to have a propane tank filled, light the pilot etc.

Had two choices 220 or 110 heater, the 110 puts out a nice warm flow of air, it's not going to replace the main source of heat for a home but it will take the chill off.

The 220 is a much more serious heater, and is an option for most electric fireplaces.

Heat Pumps are just an air conditioner with extra controls to reverse the flow of refrigerant to allow one to heat a home.

As the outdoor temperature drops, so does the units capacity and efficiency. At some point, usually around 30 degrees, it will no longer be able to transfer enough heat to maintain temperature of the building. This is when the electric backup heat kicks in to make up the difference.

Heat Pumps will operate around 4.0 COP at 65 degrees and around 2.0 COP at 0 degrees. This means it is using 25-50% of the energy to transfer heat as opposed to 100% cost of straight electric heat.

Examples:

#1 home heated with straight backup electric heat (no heat pump) cost $400

#2 same home heated with heat pump with outdoor temps a constant 60 F $100 and no electric backup as the heat pump is able to maintain temps with outdoor temps 30 degrees and above.

#3 same home heated with heat pump with outdoor temps a constant 30 F $150 and no electric backup as the heat pump is able to maintain temps with outdoor temps 30 degrees and above.

#4 same home heated with heat pump with outdoor temps a constant 0 F $200 + (x) the required amount of electric backup heat.

I would think t electric fireplace would provide limited and expensive heat.

My Carrier Heat Pump is rated to be efficient down to 15 degrees.
Installing the heat pump lowered my all-electric house's Heating bill by about 40%; A\C energy use was cut by over 50% vs. window units.

Thanks so much!!! Any others!!!!!

Use this to figure out the electric heaters capacity.

1 watt = 3.413 btu.

120 volt heaters are normally 1500 watts or 5119.5 btu.

Had heat pump + backup electric heat in VA (Charlottesville).

House was always cold in the Winter (frequently and for long periods of time well below freezing) until we got a wood fireplace stove insert (room w stove was right below the level w/ bedrooms) and I jury rigged a manifold to insert the heated air from stove into air handler).

Had to move to TX to get gas heat!!

Moved back to NC and specifically looked for a house w gas heat.