"Heating with Icecubes" update

Sometime last month I'd posted that I was heating my house with icecubes, so now's time for an update.


Finally got the heat pump replaced ten days ago, and maaaan it's been great.  We had a few temperature dips down into the mid-40's, and the new 3 ton unit just puts the house at the desired temperature.  After years of living with an old, cheap, worn out 2 1/2 ton unit, it was like moving into the 21st century.  Which in a way it was, considering that the old unit dated to 1997.  The best part is having the compressor (the outside unit) relocated somewhere other than under my bedroom window.  Specifically, out in back of the bathroom, where it's not under the roof's drip-edge, and where the extra noise can be considered a feature-not-a-bug.


Now about costs.  Pretty big bucks.  But there's a 30% tax credit, capped at $1500) for high-efficiency heat pumps installed this year (details here), so I'll be getting about $1500 of the initial outlay back in about a year.  And, based on past performance, it looks like my electric bill will be about $100 lower during each of the six $hard months of the year (where $hard = sorta cold or really hot).  So even if the old pump had kept going (which it didn't), this new unit should completely pay for itself in about five years.


But really, the whole idea of heating with ice (well, pumping heat out of cold rain water and making ice as a by-product) worked pretty well, up until the fan motor died.