converting oil furnace to heatpump?

[fangusflea]

Hello!
I am wondering how difficult it is to convert an oil furnace to a heat pump?
Super expensive?
I am moving up to New Brunswick in Canada, and the house we are looking at is heated with oil. It is around 83 years old, and the oil bills last year (averaged out over the year) were around 235$ a month! I have been living in New Mexico, so that seems a bit steep to me! Are heat pumps better? We don't really want to be dependent on oil. Love to do some sort of enviromentally friendly heating, but i think it would be too costly.
Any ideas?

[Ed Imeduc]

Just had another post like yours here.
Go to http://www.warmair.net you can compare fuel cost there.Cost wise you could put a heatpump coil on top of the oil furnace and pipe to the outside unit. They all work that way just like and AC unit. They do a lot of heat pumps on gas furnace down here. Heat pumps are about all we sell any more . In Missouri

ED ;)

[hvac4u]

i am with ed, check operating cost difference first

easy job to do this if necessary, biggest consideration is much higher apmerage to indoor unit than before. probably was 15 amp 115 volt, may need 220 volts 60 amp. home's electrical service will have to be sufficient, if it is 83 as well, it is not !! :eek: