Until recently I’d mostly heard of cold weather heat pumps being recommended for northern climates, but I’m realizing there could be a lot of benefit to them in any climate that requires heating. 

One thing I find interesting is that my single stage heat pump is appropriately sized for my heating need given that it ran almost continuously without activating heat strips when it was the design temp outside (15F, climate zone 3A), but at that temp it was only providing half the rated capacity per manufacturer performance data. A cold weather heat pump that could provide the full rated capacity down to lower temps could be 2 tons and actually offer more heat than my 3 ton heat pump that only really offers 1.5 tons of heat when it’s 15F outside. 

Replacing my 2 year old heat pump while it’s still working may not make sense given that I already have a dehumidifier to supplement poor humidity control, and my heating/cooling bills have been ok, but for anyone shopping for a heat pump it could be worth looking into a cold weather version even if “cold” for you is 15F vs -15F. 

A cold weather heat pump could allow someone to use a smaller heat pump that would be less likely to short cycle when cooling and potentially offer better humidity control as a result, along with requiring a smaller electrical circuit. An inverter based variable speed heat pump also has the benefit of not needing an additional soft start in order to run well via generator, since they basically already have a soft start by design.