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by gruez 1164 days ago
>and could even work when the power goes out.

AFAIK gas furnaces still need electricity for the fans to work. When you have no electricity you at best have a glorified fireplace. It's probably going to be a worse than a regular fireplace because it's not designed to output heat to its surroundings.
1 comments
dahfizz 1164 days ago
The fan of a furnace takes little power. It can be run off of a small generator, which ~every homeowner in New England has.

A heat pump cannot run off a small generator.

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kkfx 1164 days ago
Two notes: in a modern insulated home in not so cold climate 1kW absorbed is enough to heat a home with -20℃ outside, with is still far more than a simple fan but a power level a classic small generator can provide. The second note is that if you get gas from pipes the supplier need electricity to pump it, so it might have autonomous power or not, you can't be sure.

As a safeguard I prefer a classic wood burning stove, witch is far from being comfy but works alone, reliably and I can stock enough woods or emergency source it almost anywhere...

Living in the French Alps I do not know much about New England homes (insulation, ventilation, power system, ...) but IME gas heating systems are in the mean LESS reliable than heat pumps and electricity + wood is the combo to be comfy normally and backed up in case of trouble.

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dahfizz 1164 days ago
Yeah I totally agree. Heat pump with a wood stove / furnace as a second heat source is the way to go.

It's not unheard of to go multiple days without electricity after a bad snow storm, so I would never trust a heat pump alone. When you need them the most, they are the least efficient and reliable. And I want to have a fireplace anyway, so it makes sense to make it functional.

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daydream 1162 days ago
> It can be run off of a small generator, which ~every homeowner in New England has.

This is absolutely not true. I actually don't know anyone who lives in an urban area in New England that has a generator. And I know some who live in fairly rural Maine that don't have one.

Generators are not ubiquitous, or even common, in New England.

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