I am surpride you have a heat pump because I think they really suck even here in a warmer climate they are great in the summer but suck in the winter for heat and mine is a new unit i had put in last year .
To tell you the truth Sissy I can't really tell you if it sucks or not. I've never really had a chance, or reason, to run it all winter long because 99% of the time we heat with wood. I do try to run it at least once a month for a few hours just to make sure it works and keep things operational, but I've never used it to heat the house alone for more then a few days at a time, until last winter when we weren't here, but then we had it set pretty low, so it's not a fair test. Also this is a ducted central unit and has an electrical resistance backup that is programmed to jump in when it gets really cold and the heat pump alone can't keep up. The specs say the break even point where the heat pump is no longer efficient is about -10 C or 14 F. Any colder then that and the resistance element kicks in, when it's above freezing just the heat pump takes care of it all, in between those temps it can be a combination of the two.
We generally only get about 2 or 3 weeks at most of temps below -10, and a good portion of the winter here last year it was above freezing although we did get a couple really good dumps of snow. When the snow slides off the roof like you see in those videos it's usually because it's so warm out and it's melting fast, but if it doesn't get cleared away right away there is always a chance it will get cold again and turn to a big block of ice.
Anyway, I'm just glad we can heat with wood when we are home, and your'e right, heat pumps generally make better air conditioners then heaters.
