Heat pump, or gas furnace and AC: the choice that depends on which side of the Live Oak city line you live on

Two systems, side by side, on either side of the city line

Put the two options next to each other for a Suwannee County house.

A gas furnace with a separate air conditioner. Inside Live Oak, the City of Live Oak runs a natural gas system, and a furnace on city gas makes cheap, fast heat on the twenty or so mornings a year that actually need it. Paired with a conventional air conditioner for the five-month summer, it is a sound setup, and for a downtown bungalow that already has a gas line and a good furnace, keeping that arrangement is often right. Outside the city, the same furnace runs on propane from a tank in the yard, and propane heat costs several times what city gas does for the same warmth.

A heat pump. One outdoor unit that cools in summer like any air conditioner and reverses in winter to pull heat from outdoor air, with electric strips as backup for the handful of nights below the mid 30s. No flue, no combustion, no gas bill, no tank to fill. In a county where summer is long and brutal and winter is short and mild with a few hard freezes, the heat pump’s math is strong everywhere, and overwhelming anywhere the alternative is propane or straight electric strips.

So the rule of thumb runs along the city line. Inside it, with gas already in the house, either path can win and the decision is about the age of the furnace. Outside it, on propane or on strips, the heat pump wins almost every time. Cook’s installs both, and would rather tell you which fits your house than sell the one on the truck.

Six questions to answer before you price anything

Work through these before the estimate visit, and the estimate will be better for it.

1. What heats the house today, and what fuel? City gas, propane, electric strips or an existing heat pump. Find the nameplate on the furnace or air handler and note the date.
2. Which utility sends the electric bill? FPL inside Live Oak, Wellborn and Houston; SVEC nearly everywhere else. It affects rebates and, for SVEC members, which thermostats fit the co-op’s program.
3. Where does the ductwork run, and how old is it? Attic flex, under-floor belly duct, or original metal in a downtown bungalow. Age and location decide whether it stays.
4. What has changed about the house since the current system went in? Windows, insulation, an addition, a closed-in porch. Each changes the load.
5. Did the system survive a storm on generator power? After Idalia, a lot of equipment in the county ran on portable generators for two weeks. If yours did, surge protection goes on the list.
6. Is the equipment anywhere near where water has been? River lots from Suwannee Springs to Branford, and low spots anywhere, decide whether the new air handler gets raised or relocated.

Where the homeowner’s part ends

Those six answers are everything you need to bring. The sizing, the equipment match, the refrigerant line decisions, the electrical and the permit are ours. In particular, resist two temptations: do not pick a tonnage from the old nameplate, since oversized single-stage systems are the reason so many ranches in this town feel sticky at 76; and do not buy a thermostat ahead of the install, since the right one depends on the equipment chosen.

Get a free heat pump estimate

How Cook’s installs a heat pump on a Suwannee County lot

The estimate costs nothing and arrives in writing. Cook’s installs Lennox and backs it as a dealer, with matched outdoor unit, coil and air handler selected together so the efficiency on the paperwork is what the house gets.

• Load calculation room by room on the house as it stands today.
• Duct testing for leakage and static pressure, with repairs or replacement included in the quote when needed, which on a manufactured home often means the belly duct.
• Equipment selection for this climate: capacity for a 94-degree afternoon, heating output that holds down to the mid 30s before strips engage, and two-stage or variable-speed where the budget allows, because this county’s long shoulder season is where modulating equipment earns its keep.
• Install day. Recovery of the old refrigerant, removal of the old equipment and any gas line capping or flue sealing on a furnace conversion, new pad set above grade, air handler on a stand with a float switch, line set brazed under nitrogen, deep vacuum, charge by weight and verified by subcooling, surge protector at the disconnect, heat-pump thermostat with outdoor lockout.
• Commissioning. Temperature split in both modes, static pressure, amp draws, a forced defrost, and a start-up sheet you keep.

Rebates: FPL customers can qualify for the utility’s A/C rebate on systems at SEER2 15.2 and above, paid through contractors enrolled in FPL’s program; ask where Cook’s enrollment stands. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]] SVEC has no published cash rebate on heat pumps. Equipment installed now earns no federal tax credit. New high-efficiency equipment can be carried on a monthly plan.

The first ninety days

A new heat pump settles in over its first season, and three things are worth watching.

The thermostat will show Aux heat on the coldest mornings; that is correct below the lockout temperature and wrong above it, and a glance at the outdoor temperature when the light comes on tells you which. The outdoor unit will steam during defrost cycles in winter and drip condensate in summer; both are normal. And the first electric bill after a propane or strip-heat conversion is the one most owners photograph.

Cook’s calls to confirm the first maintenance date, which for a system installed in summer means the following October, when the heat mode gets exercised under supervision before the weather does it unsupervised.