I just purchased my house a few months ago. The house has both a 2 zone natural gas burner with baseboards for heat and 6 Mitsubishi Mr. Slim units that I can use for either A/C or heat. I am not sure which would be more efficient and less costly to use for heating my house this winter.
I started out using the Mr. Slims, but when it got colder I decided to shut them all down and use the gas burner. I just got my first bill since then and it was much higher than I was expecting. So I am now second guessing my decision. Any insight that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: Thank you for your comment Tester101. That partially answers my question. An HVAC professional that inspected my system told me that it would ALWAYS be better to use the Mr. Slims, and I found that hard to believe. So I was wondering if others would say the same on here.
Best Answer
You'd need to do some math. Namely the cost of the energy source * the amount of energy needed for each method. The amount of energy needed will depend on the efficiency of each heating method.
It's not an easy calculation by any means, but it's definitely not answerable without those details.
In general, Heat Pumps tend to be one of the more efficient option these days.