We had central air in the house in South Carolina - a big honkin' heat pump with an air handler in the attic. It did a great job of heating/cooling the house but really made the meter spin in the winter when the Aux heat strips came on (think giant kitchen toaster, here). It also made a whole lot of whoooshing noise when the fan came on.
Here in Mass., we have 4 Mitsubishi Mini-Splits for the entire house and we love them. Very efficient (like under $50/month to cool the place) absolutely silent and they heat the place, as Stan says, down to zero, although our Viesman hot-water furnace usually takes over under 40* out. The Viesman heats with natural gas and is equally cheap to run and while it was a tad more expensive than, say, a Bosch or other unit, it is tiny and the overall cost of ownership is equal to or less than competing units over their lives. Thankfully, both the Mini-splits and Viesman survived the spike (some Good News there).