Has anyone every bought a heat pump from OG&E? How did it work out? Is it more expensive than if you bought a unit from a heat and air company? Would you do it again?

I'll keep this short -

But I had a 1998 10 seer rheem/ruud heat pump with a natural gas backup (instead of the typical electrical backup) for a number of years and i liked having the ability to switch between the heating modes as i chose. I also loved heat pump heat because its so much cooler than natural gas heat (comes out vent at 90-110 vs 130-150) because I hated that spike in temp before the heater would cut off because it becomes so warm its uncomfortable. And heat pumps do save you money on heating bills.

But there is a downside, we had alot of service calls that ate up all we saved while i was learning about how heat pumps work, the breakers they have, and we had some problems with 2 different programmable aftermarket thermostats and had to go back to the manual one that came with the unit (this was a self imposed problem). With out spending alot of time on it - heat pumps go to their emergency back up heat modes (the more expensive) if you raise the temp in the house more than a few degrees at a time or depending on the outside air temp is hovering in the 30's because they cant pull as much heat from outside air. So we spent alot of time trying to fight the system to stay in the cheaper heating mode.

It was a great system in the milder or colder winters, but the moderate ones (like this last one) it was a big pain in the rear because it couldnt decide what mode it wanted to operate in. With our new house I had to choose whether to have a regular hvac setup with natural gas or heatpump with traditional (electric) backup and i decided to go with a regular setup just because the size of the house.

Cliff notes - you'll save money once you learn the quirks of the system.

Heat pumps are EXCELLENT for all electric homes. For an extra $500 to $1000 installed cost vs. regular electric heat the will pay for themselves in energy savings in 2 winters. Oddly 75% of all electric homes still use plain electric heat!!

For homes that have gas service I question the value of using a heat pump. With gas prices as cheap as they are I can't see the point in a heat pump. ONG builds most of the cost into the $28/mo base meter charge, the gas isn't that expensive. The added $500 -$1000 for a heat pump will never pay off unless there are huge rebates involved or gas prices skyrocket. If you do go with one of these systems makes sure the thermostat is an advanced model that can control heatpump furnace lockout tempatures. Advanced theremostats can lock out the furnace in mild weather (40+ degrees), let either run in moderate weather (20-40), and lock out he heat pump during cold (below 20) weather. Tempatures are adjustable to fit system/house/energy costs.

To address the "hot blast" given by a gas furnace, DONT OVERSIZE. For some reason HVAC contractors love oversizing equpment, especially furnaces. Seriously, most furances are 2-3 times the size needed. Most decently insulated Oklahoma homes can be heated with a 50,000 BTU furnaces, a large/poorly insulated homes might need 60-75K. On homes with electric heat is installed you won't see more than 20KW (68,000BTU) installed, yet the same home with a gas furnace will typically have a 100K or larger gas furnace installed.

I've thought about adding a heat pump and I have gas. Then again I have propane which is significantly higher than Natural Gas.

For propane it might make sense to do a duel fuel system. Weight the cost of propane vs. regular electric heat. There are calculators online to determine if its worth it or not.

Does anyone know if it's possible to get natural gas delivered like propane is? or is Natural Gas only available as a constant delivery commodity?

Does anyone know if it's possible to get natural gas delivered like propane is? or is Natural Gas only available as a constant delivery commodity?

I don't believe it is. It has something to do with the volume they can carry and the compression.