[micro_cam]

We are running a large single head Mitsubishi ductless h2i in Montana. It easily provides most of our heating needs down to about -5F and some heat down to -15F, we have our old propane boiler / in floor system that kicks on when its really cold.

And it provided ac in the summer which we didn't have previously.

There are some downsides, it was expensive to put in and the outdoor unit is loud. While it does save us money, it probably wouldn't make sense as something that will pay for itself in heating costs with current propane prices and natural gas is much cheaper if you can get it. But definitely makes sense for new construction especially when paired with a wood or propane stove for back up heat in power outages/ambiance/quick heating.

[TEP_Kim_Il_Sung]

Erect sandbags around your unit, leaving about 4' or enough for servicing. Make it 2 bags wide, and 4 bags higher than the unit.

This will turn the noise into a slight murmur.

[micro_cam]

It needs good air flow to work well and the noise is only really a problem inside the house in the room next to it. I may put some sound insulation on the wall at some point.

[windexh8er]

Really? I'm curious what brand of heat pumps these are. I have two air source units. One is a whole home Carrier Infinity unit (4 ton) and a GE single head ductless mini-split. The Carrier heats and cools our entire home save for a sunroom that's not ducted which is why we also have the mini-split. I never hear either unit.

[spikej]

There must be a more aesthetically pleasing option...

[rgmerk]

How often/long does your power go out?

Americans on this site always mention grid failures as a concern about electric heating/cars/whatever.

While I won’t claim that power failures never happen where I live, because they do…but they’re very very rare and short enough not to care. The only exceptions are major natural disasters like hurricanes.

Americans, why do you have such a terrible electricity distribution grid?

[snuxoll]

Power outages aren’t an argument against heat pumps anyway. Without power my central fan can’t run and thus my forced air natural gas furnace is dead in the water.

Anyway, where I live in Boise most utility outages are due to physical damage - whether that be animals, auto accidents, extreme weather (not “it got cold”, but wind gusts toppled a tree that brought down a utility pole), and fiber seeking backhoes. Even had the gas get shut off at my old house because an auto accident hit some equipment a street down causing a gas leak.

[micro_cam]

It’s not bad where I am now in rural Montana but where I grew up near Seattle the power was off for a week plus most winters.

Lots of above ground power lines in heavily forested suburban sprawl means lots of branches in lines every wind storm and they (private) electric co has to visually check all of them before they can turn power back on.

Despite being much more rural the power coop that serves me now seems to never have an outage that lasts more then a few hours. Probally mostly because they have much less pine to check.

[UncleEntity]

> The only exceptions are major natural disasters like hurricanes.

Which is the same as with us Americans.

My last apartment had a handful of power outages and all except one was due to weather. The exception was a transformer that exploded — which seems common as I’ve seen at least three just randomly go boom.

When you get major weather events, where they are pulling in personnel from all over the nation, is when people get concerned about electric heating because it might take a while to get to them.

[eisa01]

Does American utilities not pay any compensation for power outages?

My local utility pays 50 EUR starting 12 hours after the start of an outage, and 4 EUR/hr after that. So a 2 day outage would pay out 200 EUR, and it all happens automatically.

There's no exceptions to this (only if you are at fault...), and this gets subtracted from their regulated revenues such that it hits the bottom line.

Naturally, most low voltage distribution lines are buried under ground

[twothamendment]

I'm American, I think it isn't that bad, people are just like to whine and complain. America is also huge, so there is likely someone with a different experience and reason to complain.

My well pump is electric and I haven't been out of power long enough to be concerned about getting water.

[jjtheblunt]

We don’t. Power very very rarely fails, but when it has recently it’s been big infrastructures with flawed designs like the freezes in Texas, from what I’ve seen.

[zip1234]

The spread out housing means doing things like overhead power wires to save cost and reach further away places. Easily disrupted by fallen trees.

[midoridensha]

America doesn't have regular power outages; they're very infrequent and exceptional. However, when they do happen, they can be really big events, such as the big failure in the Northeast about a decade ago, and the infamous problem more recently in Texas during the winter. There's also local outages from natural disasters or extreme weather. Usually, very localized outages from storms (like falling trees) don't affect that many people and are repaired quickly. Outages from hurricanes, however, are bigger and take much longer to fix. What happened in Texas was just really bad planning and legislation, and only affected Texas.

[inamberclad]

It seems to depend on the area. In the SF Bay Area, wide scale power outages are rare. In Houston, most of my coworkers had small generators to keep their fridges and air conditioners running after a hurricane knocks out power.

[MobiusHorizons]

Most of our distribution network is above ground, so areas with higher wind and older infrastructure are more prone to outages. When I used to live in Ukraine, power outages were rarely due to distribution infrastructure (which was underground in most of the city I lived in) and much more likely to be related to generating capacity. We would go through periods of rationing where there would be frequent outages that would last a few hours, but rarely long enough for food to go bad.

[qudat]

Like others mentioned, it depends on your region. I happen to live in a town surrounded by trees and the powerlines are above ground.

It’s very common for branches to break and knock out power lines in the summer during windy storms.

This usually means no power for 1-3 day stretches and only happens 1-3 times per year. So worst case it’s no power for 9 days total every year.

The problem is it usually hits in the hottest days of the year so people really complain — myself included.

WFH also makes matters more complicated.

[leashless]

Horrible weather.

Very very spread out population.

And huge spikes and troughs of infrastructure investment over decades.

[LazyMans]

If it doesn't have one already, look at installing a compressor blanket. This reduces compressor noise significantly. High end models generally have these already, but you can buy purpose built blankets for something like $70.

No, wrapping a compressor in a blanket doesn't make it overheat. Compressors are cooled by the refrigerant running through them, not through heat lost through the casing.

[zip1234]

Isn't propane expensive? Distributing it alone is costly as it has to be trucked to someone's house.

[zdragnar]

Pretty much every rural community will have one if not multiple propane providers. It generally is more expensive than natural gas, but the difference isn't astronomical. Heating with fuel oil is, by comparison, much more expensive.

[micro_cam]

Propane is a bit more expensive then traditional electric heat depending on the year.

It used to be much cheaper so a lot of old houses that aren't near a natural gas line were built with propane heat. You might save $200-1000 a year by switching to a heatpump but that means 10+ years to offset a ~$10000 install cost for a large unit professionally installed with a new 220 circuit run for it etc so most people just keep paying for propane or maybe use small electric space heaters.

And if you are somewhere you need to worry about pipes freezing in power outage a while you are away or temps bellow the heatpumps minimum -15f range a propane stove is a nice option. Relatively cheap to install and they can be setup to run on a thermostat with no grid power.

If i was building a new house i'd go heatpump + a propane stove for back up heat and a dual fuel induction/propane range.