With a heat pump if you go away in the winter and you turn your heat down so it is not running all day, it sucks when you come back if it is pretty cold outside. It takes forever to warm it back up. Any the heat never feels very warm coming out of the vent. I hate it. For some reason I feel we are sucking down the heating oil fast this year though with how cold it has been. It seems like it has been fairly colder than it it has been this winter so far.
The wife and I lucked out with the Pittsburgh weather this Christmas visiting her family. The weather was not brutal as in years past during this trip. It got real cold after we left though. They were getting more snow last night.