I bought my heat pump from my oil provider (they are a full-service energy company).

They told me that the balance point at which the heat pump should be set is 45 degrees, meaning when the outside temp is 45 degrees or less, my oil furnace will come on and the heat pump will remain off until the temp exceeds 45.

That seems awful high because it was my understanding that heat pumps can work efficiently as low as 30 degrees.

My suspicion is that, while my oil company liked the profit they made selling me the heat pump, they also want to continue selling me lots of oil so they set the balance point much higher than it should be.

Does anyone have a recommendation at what the balance point of a heat pump should be set to?

RickJ

Sounds high to me too. The professionals I know recommend 25-30 degrees as the "balance point".

Stay tuned for another opinion or three though

littlebear91

"Usually the Heat Pump will do it's job down to somewhere around 40 degrees then other types of heating are needed to make up the increase of heating BTU's as it gets colder"
from Heat Pumps

*Edit: I'm not an expert on this but I'll look around on the net and reply you with an adequate answer when I have free time.

RickJ

True, but RxDR is speaking about the point where the Heat Pump should not run at all. Yes, below 40-45 it cannot do the job by itself, but from what I know the point that it should not run at all is far below 40-45

NorthernHeat

All the manufacturers suggest 25-30 degrees some even lower. With the newer 410A systems even better. Even tho the heat loss of the home is much greater than the heat pump can provide, the extra lets say 20,000 btu produced by the heat pump, is still cheaper than the oil heat alone. The heat produced by the oil furnace running at the same time as the heat pump can cause the high pressure cut out in the heat pump to trip, that is why it is more desireable to use an air handler where the air is pulled through the coil before the aux' heat warms the air even more. Hope you followed all this.