Can you heat your house with the AC running as a heat pump, or only with the furnace? Supposedly, "heat pump" heating is radically more energy efficient than burning gas or using resistive heat, but it doesn't work as well when the temperatures drop too low.
In this area, air-source heat pumps are apparently okay for all but the coldest 2-3 weeks of the winter. One of our new neighbours has one, which we can hear rattling away every day of the year. Thankfully, it's about 300ft away from our house.
The local vendors of such systems say they're a no-brainer for homes which don't have access to natural gas for heating. Otherwise, they're of similar operating cost (at present).
Cheers
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