[fintstone]

In places without extreme temperatures (heat/cold), a high efficiency heat pump results in lower energy bills. Most folks in moderate climates use heat strips in the air handler for aux/emergency heat. A highly efficient heat pump rarely uses that.

If in your own home, there is a $2K Fed tax rebate for installing an efficient heat pump.

From my experience, heat pumps tend not to last as long as an AC/Furnace system as they pretty much run all the time. I just had a high-end one installed (Trane) in my vacation home and it has a pretty good 12-year warranty. If setup correctly, they can be used to better reduce humidity (variable speed). The variable speed ones seem to provide better overall comfort as they generally do not have a 2-3 degree gap before coming on. They pretty much just keep it right on.

In a rental, most folks do not provide anything beyond a mid-range, moderately priced unit (not variable) ...as they don't pay the electric bills. Even so, a heat pump is usually still the way to go.