My son is about to purchase his first house in Danville PA. After a disappointing year of looking at existing homes, mostly in the 20 - 60 year old range he found a new construction duplex, even though there is very little new construction in the area.
He is first year medical resident and will likely be in this home for the next 4 more years only. It is a 1600 sf two level home with a heat pump for heating and cooling. I personally don't like a heat pump in cold weather and I'm encouraging him to consider a cold weather back up such as an oil furnace in addition to the heat pump.
My Question IS: If he is only going to be in the home for 4 years, would it be worth the additional cost to have a backup heating unit instead of cranking up the electric heat in cold weather or would it be a loss of money after four years. We've never seen any homes in the area with backup heat and the old homes all have electric baseboard heat and no central AC. So it just may not make economical sense in this case.
I'd appreciate any advise you could provide. Thank you
He is first year medical resident and will likely be in this home for the next 4 more years only. It is a 1600 sf two level home with a heat pump for heating and cooling. I personally don't like a heat pump in cold weather and I'm encouraging him to consider a cold weather back up such as an oil furnace in addition to the heat pump.
My Question IS: If he is only going to be in the home for 4 years, would it be worth the additional cost to have a backup heating unit instead of cranking up the electric heat in cold weather or would it be a loss of money after four years. We've never seen any homes in the area with backup heat and the old homes all have electric baseboard heat and no central AC. So it just may not make economical sense in this case.
I'd appreciate any advise you could provide. Thank you
