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Heat Pump vs. Furnace energy usage 2024-2025 results
I've posted this a few times now and wanted to update with 2024-2025 numbers.
My house was heated by a furnace for 110 days in 2020-2021, then replaced with a ducted heat pump. Here are the therms and kwhs used for that time period during the furnace period and the following years. A few notes:
- Historically, this Nov. - mid Feb period is about 2/3rds of the 11/1-10/31 period's heating degree days. It's also the coldest 2/3rds.
- In 2023, the gas water heater was replaced with electric resistance, which explains the therms reduction starting in the 11/1/2023-2/28/24 period. That adds roughly 1000 kwh to the electricity usage for the time period (57.5 therms x 60% efficiency x 100,000 btus/therm / 3412 btus/kwh = 1010 kwh).
- The main change for the 11/1/24-2/18/25 period was switching to a time of use rate. I expected to lose some efficiency in exchange for decreased costs, it seems to have worked out. The TOU rates save me more in the summer, so that's the main reason I will continue to use them.
- I've got regressions to determine fuel usage per heating degree day:
- Gas coefficient: .11 therms/heating degree day
- HP coefficient: 1.22 kwh/heating degree day
- Current $/therm gas rates (Feb bill):
- Supply rates: $.623
- Distribution: $1.0055
- Empower MD: $.1087
- Tax: $.039831
- Total: $1.77/therm
- Current $/kwh rates (Feb Bill) (On peak was 13% of usage)
- On Peak/Off peak:
- Supply: $.24324/kwh / $.08198/kwh
- Distribution: $.11714/kwh / $.03426/kwh
- Charges the same for both
- Empower MD: $.01028/kwh
- Franchise Tax: $.00062/kwh
- Local Tax: $.003356/kwh
- Envir Surcharge: $.00015/kwh
- Weighted Average for Feb bill: $.1604/kwh
- On Peak/Off peak:
Heating Degree Days 60 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Start | End | Total | Max | Average | kwh | therms |
11/1/20 | 2/18/21 | 2,092 | 32 | 19 | 1,417 | 295 |
11/1/21 | 2/18/22 | 2,129 | 38 | 19 | 3,304 | 58 |
11/1/22 | 2/18/23 | 1,826 | 47 | 17 | 3,231 | 66 |
11/1/23 | 2/18/24 | 1,929 | 40 | 18 | 3,978 | 4 |
11/1/24 | 2/18/25 | 2,284 | 45 | 21 | 4,739 | 5 |
Re: Residential Steam Boiler Replacement - EDR Questions
I looked here and found one that was very close:
Use the 4-tube Corto chart. Their version is 32 inches tall and 35 square feet. ISTR that the National Aero rads that were 30 inches tall had the same EDR as the 32-inch Cortos.
Re: Lennox furnace stuck in heat mode
"The Nest is all knowing"
I fixed one at my nephews house. He installed a Nest himself with no "C" wire and it was hooked to T & T on a cad cell control. It worked for a year and the battery died.
Why it didn't cook the transformer in the cad cell I have no idea.
I added a sep trans and relay and hooked up the C wire
I had to take the Nest off the wall to pull more wire but the R wire was hooked to Rc (he has no cooling) and i couldn't pull the wire off the sub base it wouldn't release so I cut it.
When I reconnected I put W & C and put the R on Rh and it worked it also worked when he had it on Rc so it must be "all knowing"
Re: Boiler Model & Year??
It may be an EG-55 or a PEG-55. I would guess series 1. (Weil Mclain does not state Series 1 on the first introduction of a boiler. Tthey only specify the series after the second version is introduced). And since the Series 2 manual indicates that the I=B=R Net Steam SqFt rating in this series 2 manual is 510, I can only assume that the first generation of that boiler was 508 Net SqFt Steam as stated on the rating plate (sticker)
From the Weil McLain EG and P-EG Manual.
Re: Drip to nowhere.
And the winner is....
It's a dead end!
No idea what it could have been hooked to but at least this mystery is solved.
Re: What boiler service tools do you carry with you?
What service tools do I carry? A good pair of knee pads.
If I new then what I know now, I would have worn them as if they were another pair of shoes. My knees would have thanked me for it.
A pad for your knees doesn't quite make the grade. All too often in the course of my work, I would move one or both knees off of the pad. Knee pads go where your knees go. Jokes be damned. 🙂
Intplm.
Re: What boiler service tools do you carry with you?
Opposite potential is what makes relays pull in . Without a opposite potential no work gets done . It is what pulls in relays and completes a circuit without which the work or job that needs to be done does not happen and say a call for heating /cooling /indirect tank or boiler does not operate . I guess it's my way to visualize things and figure out electrical issues . A real easy way to think about it is your r and w terminals on a t stat ,that w terminal is the same as the r terminal on your control without the c side of the transformer on the circ/burner circuit relay the relay would not pull in . Same goes for 110 volts without the neutral it dont work .
To myself there nothing to assume when doing a service call weather its a boiler,split system or roof top you have to show up have some tools a meter for sure and open mind and eyes and have a handle some basic electrical concepts and how things are suppose to work .
peace and good luck clammy
clammy
Re: What boiler service tools do you carry with you?
open eyes and a open mind for starters
6 n 1 screw drive
1/4 deep socket set
fluke multi meter
assorted hand tools
Flash light
finally a pair of eye glasses
a working knowledge of the sequence of operations for the equipment you are servicing and knowing the safety devices which may be at fault
A good grip on the workings of controls ,opposite potentials,time delays ,flow switches ,magnetic starters voltage and over current, phase monitoring controls and how not to let the smoke out of a new control .
Being truthful and not broad brushing existing issues which may not be ideal but are not the root cause of the existing issue .
Only work on equipment which you are qualified and comfortable working on and being smart enough to known when your in over your head.
Knowing how a system should properly operate and when it is time for regular maintenance or that said maintenance has been deferred which is the underlying issue
And also have a possibly older smarter tech which when having a rough time you can call on for some intelligence discussion with about your issue .
Never be afraid to admit that your at a lose .
Honestest is always the best policy
peace and good luck clammy
clammy
Re: Smoke smell in house with oil boiler
Everybody happy? (See photo) Too early to tell if the problem is solved. Seems OK at the moment!
Woops, update eight hours later: the odor has returned. That leaves only one possibility I know of: chimney liner. I'm going back to wood heat—a more tolerable type of smoke. Investment so far in the smoke problem: $$$ for cleaning, damper, and two air purifiers.
After talking with the technician, my next house is going to have propane heat plus a heat pump.
Hemlock