[HN Gopher] Home Heating Cost Comparison
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Home Heating Cost Comparison
 
Author : indigodaddy
Score  : 15 points
Date   : 2022-08-27 21:55 UTC (1 hours ago)
 
web link (www.efficiencymaine.com)
w3m dump (www.efficiencymaine.com)
 
| cosmotic wrote:
| The electricity costs are pretty high in these estimates, by 3x
| or so.
 
  | bombcar wrote:
  | You can adjust them for your region.
 
  | leeter wrote:
  | They appear to be localized to Maine. I'm pretty sure mine is
  | cheaper for natural gas.
 
  | lotsofpulp wrote:
  | 3x is probably only for Pacific Northwest. I would be curious
  | to know where else electricity is $0.08 per kWh.
 
| VectorLock wrote:
| Wouldn't have expected Wood to be the most cost effective option.
 
| troon-lover wrote:
 
| BooneJS wrote:
| I'm in Wisconsin, and we peak in 90's Fahrenheit with humidity in
| the summer and will have a week in February where we'll never get
| above 0F. I know geothermal works up here; we had it in a
| previous house but we paid (in 2012) $9600 just to have the 4 150
| ft wells dug. What would air-source heat pumps look like up here?
| I've seen very few new homes in my area with them.
 
  | leeter wrote:
  | The cost is mostly in the installer based on the anecdotes of a
  | well known technology youtuber in illinois. They are scared of
  | installing heat pumps and carrying them allegedly. You may be
  | able to buy compatible hardware on your own and get an
  | installer. But aside from that one week you can get ASHPs that
  | go down to 5F without losing efficiency. You can even get
  | multi-head units that can move heat from where you might not
  | need it (near a fireplace or stove) to where you do (bedrooms)
  | ditto in reverse for cooling. But I'd suggest doing some
  | research.
 
    | BooneJS wrote:
    | Thanks. We're considering building our ideal home to live
    | part-time and eventually retire to, and we'd like it to be
    | free of natural gas. Obviously heating w/ natural gas is the
    | norm up here, but induction cooktop, solar water heater, and
    | a heat pump can replace that. The heat pump coupling is the
    | high order bit I need to research. Ground is the pricy but
    | default option.
 
      | leeter wrote:
      | Check your prices, that's more likely to be a bigger
      | determiner than other things. For me it wouldn't make sense
      | just because natural gas is so much cheaper right now. That
      | is however subject to change. That said if I was installing
      | AC I'd probably still do it just because Natural gas prices
      | have been a touch volatile lately.
 
  | bombcar wrote:
  | The problem is that it can't do it through the whole season, so
  | you're playing for a whole second system that you barely use
  | for that week-month.
  | 
  | You may have to install your own because the installers won't
  | know what to do with one.
 
  | rr808 wrote:
  | > What would air-source heat pumps look like up here?
  | 
  | Air heat pumps dont work in 0F, you need an alternative. My
  | heat pump has resistive heating coils for when it gets cold.
  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_source_heat_pump#Efficienc...
 
    | leeter wrote:
    | Current models work down to -10F without going linear.
    | They'll still technically work beneath that but are basically
    | the same as resistive electric at that point.
 
    | windexh8er wrote:
    | This isn't true. I live in MN and have a mini-split heat pump
    | and a whole home air source heat pump that runs dual duty
    | with my natural gas furnace. I currently run the cut off to
    | switch at 20F. However both units will heat down to -20F. The
    | mini-split struggles at that temp but the large unit still
    | kicks out enough heat for the entire home.
    | 
    | I also replaced two natural gas water heaters with one 80
    | gallon air source heat pump water heater. It can run fully
    | heat pump but also has coils. A "high demand" mode can run
    | both simultaneously, but 95% of the year I run it in
    | "efficiency" mode which is purely heat pump operation. It
    | costs about $80-90/annually so far.
 
  | dundarious wrote:
  | Vermont, and perhaps Maine as well, have initiatives to
  | transition housing to high-efficiency heat pumps that are still
  | efficient enough to be better than just resistive heating even
  | in negative F temperatures. Obviously they will not be
  | efficient in something like -40F, but I believe nowadays they
  | break even in -20F, but don't quote me on that exact
  | temperature. And even accepting that you'll get <-20F a few
  | days a year, it is likely still a net-energy win, and I would
  | suspect, suitable for use even without a fixed backup system.
  | I'd imagine if it's good enough for Vermont, it would be good
  | enough for Wisconsin. The state has websites listing suitable
  | models that might be a good starting point for you.
 
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(page generated 2022-08-27 23:00 UTC)