Heating is primarily gas, and gas is cheap here. We replaced our furnace 8 years ago with a new high efficiency model. We didn't replace the AC as it was still sort of working and didn't want the additional cost if we didn't need it. That being said, it was dying a slow death the entire time. The entire time we had the house it would have difficulty maintaining the set temperature on very hot days. We had it looked at by techs who recharged the system, but to no avail. But technically, it was cooling the house, so we deferred the expense.
Time has caught up with us now. But at least we'll have a fully functional system, so that'll be nice.
I looked into heatpumps, but one sized for our house would cost about $10k. The Government rebate on heatpumps expired in February. That rebate would have knocked off $5 from the price, bringing it more in line with an AC unit. Winnipeg isn't really the ideal location for a heatpump, either. They work efficiently down to about -10C, any lower than that, and they start becoming less efficient than just heating with gas. They're great for locales like the East Coast or Southern Ontario, but here in the prairies, they're little better than glorified air conditioners.
