I did a search & saw the heat pump being recommended, but they were all south. The salesman did tell me he rarely sells A/C's anymore -- but that could just be because he talks them into heat pumps. I have little trust of salesmen. The heat pump will be about $500 more.

I'm in the midwest. The hottest part of the summers get about 80-90's. We don't get a lot of 90's, except for right now, and my 35 year old A/C isn't quite cutting it. (This is very hot for June.) We can still get a lot of 70's in early/late summer. It's also fairly humid, but it's not like Florida or something.

Winter is all over the place & not consistent. It can be in the 40's, and it can go down to 0. Can go below 0, but not often. (We do get some nasty wind-chill factors though.) And ranges like 0-20 is about the worse part, maybe 2 months. Lot's of 20-30's. We have crazy weather here though -- it's hard telling what it might do. I was told my furnace would kick on when it was <30 outside and I thought that would mean a lot, but my brother seems to think it's >30 more often then less. I guess if you count spring & fall, he's right.

Brother said the biggest problem with the heat pump is how slowly it will heat up. So I think my life-style is important to this issue. One of my jobs is at home, and I don't go out roaming a lot, so I'm home more than most people. I also don't turn the heat as low at night as some people. I do have days I'm gone for quite a few hours and have the heat down to like 60. And if I do go out, I'll tend to get many things done at once and be gone a while. Since I'm home a lot, my brother thinks the heat pump could be more advantagous to me.

But... I also like to do things like turn the heat way up when I take a shower and turn it down when I'm done, and he says that isn't going to work very well. I also have a very low tolerance to the cold and am not liking the idea of it taking too long to heat up. When I get up (or home) I like to kick that heat on, especially if I have to start getting ready for work.

But, can I manually switch it over to the furnace if I want? I don't see how I could do that with the current thermostat, and I don't think running down to the basement to do it would be worth it. I'll probably be getting a Bryant, if that makes any difference. (I have a Bryant gas furnace.) Or, is there another solution to that issue?

Anything else needed?

I also have more questions, like about tonage and all that. Again, don't trust the salesman, but I can get to that later.

Well, first of all,, with a heat pump you get a special thermostat, you can flip a switch and it turns your furnace on priority heat over the heat pump, quicker heat up then when you get out the shower you can switch it back to normal. A heatpump will heat your house much much cheaper till its get down to about 30-35 degrees, then the furnace(backup )heats helps it out,even though it sounds like maybe you not concerned with utility cost, the up-down-up-down you are doing with your tstat is costing you bucks. Hope this helps you a little to make a choice, a good HVAC will usually educate you of the choices ,advantages,and disavantages,and let you make your choice,, its your money and your lifestyle

Thanks for the info about the special thermostat. From what I'd learned so far, it sounded like a possible savings of money, but I didn't like that idea of taking so long to heat. I'd love it if I had control for when I want to heat up quickly.

I'm not sure what you interpreted as me going up and down with the thermostat all the time. And yes, I am concerned about the utility cost. (If I weren't, I wouldn't bother with the heat pump at all and just get a new A/C.) If you're referring to things like turning it higher for a shower, all that does is ensure the heat will keep pumping out while I'm in there. And turning it down when gone and such is normal and supposed to save money. That may not be true with a heat pump, but I would have to learn the most efficient way to use it.

OK,, I`m sure everyone is concerned about utility cost,, its just that I have found that setting a thermostat at one temperature and leaving it is the cheaper way to go,when you leave for a few hours or even all day with the tstat turned down the house naturally gets cooler,then when you return and raise the temperature on tstat your system has to work/run much harder a whole lot more to reach the setting,therefore using up the energy that was saved while you was gone,, if all is working right when you go into a shower and its 72 degrees in house,, it should still be 72 degrees when you come , but this is just my thoughts,, I wish you goodluck with you plans,