Elec. heat v. Gas heat

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My Furnace is either Propane or Electric. ONLY time I use the Propane is if I am not connected to ShorePower.

From everything i have read I would never own a HeatPump AC unit for heat.

You need to read other things:B HP's are GREAT down to 35 degrees. Please list which model furnace you own. RV furnaces do not have an electric option. Unless you have a special hybrid model or an add on 120 electric kit. OR you have a Aqua Hot type (Oasis is one LP/120) hydronic heating brand. Doug

My Furnace is either Propane or Electric. ONLY time I use the Propane is if I am not connected to ShorePower.

From everything i have read I would never own a HeatPump AC unit for heat.

https://www.airxcel.com/rv/coleman-mach/service-support/faqs#

When your thermostat is in the “Electric Heat” mode, if the set temperature is five or more degrees above what it shows as the room temperature; the thermostat will consider this too much of a load for an electric heat source and bring in the furnace to assist. The furnace will continue to run in this case, until the thermostat is satisfied. When the room temperature starts to drop again, the thermostat will try to proceed as normal, with just the electric heat (unless the difference between set point and room temperature reaches five degrees again).
PLEASE NOTE: Some of our thermostats will not run your electric heat and gas heat simultaneously. They will shut down the electric heat in order to bring in the gas heat.
Multiple consecutive calls for the furnace in the “Electric Heat” mode, can cause the thermostat to lock out the electric heat function for approximately two hours, triggering the furnace only when it needs heat. For more information on the Lockout function of the thermostat,

Coleman HP the tstat setting controls HP versus Furnace. This is stated in the Coleman owners/operation manual. IF you try to set the HP Heat MORE than 5 degrees warmer than the interior temp, the furnace/Aux Heat source comes on and the HP is in standby until the interior temp is within that 5 degrees. Then the furnace shuts off and the HP comes on until set temp is reached. The HP can then keep the temp that is set. Doug

We have two heat pumps with heat strips and two gas furnaces.
We enter the coach and it is cold. Turn on heat pumps. The gas furnaces kick in until it gets close to heat setting and the heat pumps then take over.If during the night it gets below about 40 degrees, I think or the heat pumps stop putting out enough heat the gas furnaces take over again.
If we desire we can select gas heat and it stays on gas or we can select zone one, the rear unit to be electric heat pump and zone 2 or front to be gas or vice versa. Our front unit is going to be replaced. it has bad valve. I have seen in a cold rain a lot of ice on the outside of the front heat pump, when left on electric. So I'm not sure about parameters on how they interact.

Heat pump roof top units will only work to about +40 f otherwise thet freeze up as they do not have a defrost cycle. Most thermostats then switch to furnace heating then back to heat pump when the day warms.
If cost is a factor, calculate resistance heating at 5160btu/ kwh, 80 % of 91502/gal btu for propane, heat pump @ 8200btu/ kwh roughly depending on unit.
Given that in our market that propane fills are $3.50/ gallon and elec. is ,15/kw, then its equal with propane furnace heat output, no savings.
Market price for power, propane and temps. you are in are your search. It may be in some places better to heat with propane. Other places electric . heat pumps are generally best when they work.
Know the costs and how your system works.

LaTriker wrote:
The a/c is a 2019 15,000 btu Colman Mark with a heat pump.

When set to electric heat, it will not switch to gas heat at a certain outside temp. It will no longer exchange heat at about 40F as there is no longer heat for it to draw in. It will change over to gas heat when the inside temperature is 5 degrees less than the set (on the thermostat) temp, if you have propane in the tank.

The a/c is a 2019 15,000 btu Colman Mark with a heat pump.

My AC has the heat strips, but I have never turned it on. 1500 watts in the center of ceiling, or plug a space heater into that circuit, and put that 1500 watts near the floor, and where I am.

I can tell you how mine works. The gas vs. electric heat is controlled by the thermostat. When you turn on electric heat, the thermostat may or may not also turn on the gas furnace depending on the spread between the room temp and set temp, plus some other algorithmic behavior built into the thermostat. Heat pump vs. heat strip is controlled by a non-adjustable thermostat in the roof unit. Above the set temp the heat pump runs, below the set temp the heat strip runs. I personally don't like this automatic behavior based on what somebody else decided I want, and have added switches to the thermostat and roof unit so I can force it to do what I want it to do.