Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Newsday article about high electric bills w/ heat pumps

Comments

  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    Looks interesting but can't get rid of the Newsday ad blocking the story.
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    Try Adblock Plus.

    Not the first time I've heard of this. Heat pumps become more expensive to run as the outdoor temperature drops. And, of course, the utilities don't tell this to customers...............
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • JakeCK
    JakeCK Member Posts: 1,356
    Why are other rate payers subsidizing people with heat pumps? This is asinine. Air source heat pumps are horrible for colder climates. Ground source aka geothermal are a different story tho.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,168
    Steamhead said:

    Try Adblock Plus.

    Not the first time I've heard of this. Heat pumps become more expensive to run as the outdoor temperature drops. And, of course, the utilities don't tell this to customers...............

    A lot of the salespeople -- I won't call them tradesmen -- neglect to mention it either. Or politicians... (oh, I repeat myself...)
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    kcopp
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,718
    Not the first horror story I've heard. Tried to sell an oil-fired boiler to a neighbor, but he went with LP-gas boiler. The propane prices actually made the cost to heat his home increase from that of the 40-year-old boiler that it replaced. He chose a WM CG boiler with a draft hood. The guy across the street from him filled me in a year after I did not get the job.

    That neighbor swapped out the 50+year old boiler for an EK oil-fired and cut over 25% on the total annual gallons. Weil Mclain makes a good gas boiler, don't they?

    ...But you can't please all the people all the time! PT Barnum

    Yours truly,
    Mr.Ed

    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,168
    Don't shoot the messenger, there, @EdTheHeaterMan . It's not so much the Weil-McClain (although odds are its oversized) as it is what he's feeding it... it's really rare for LP to save money.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,022
    A 200 year old drafty home and a misapplied HP product...what could go wrong:)
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
    EdTheHeaterManCanuckerlkstdl
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 5,804
    I read that article a few days ago. He obviously didn't come here for advice first like he should have. 

  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,718
    @Jamie Hall I wasn't so much busting on the WM boiler but the fact that the Homeowner used the lowest price "NEW HEATER" he could get ... and by magic his costs would automatically drop. When you have been doing this for (at the time) 25 years, one's experience with promoting the best possible outcome for a customer is often met with apprehension from a consumer. I guess he thought I only wanted to sell him the higher price "NEW HEATER".

    I'd rather my competitor be the one who takes the blame for that mistakes.
    The Dissatisfaction with the lower price project far outlasts the Joy of that lower price!
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,168
    You are so right, @EdTheHeaterMan !
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 5,695
    1. Customer never called utility to switch to “electric heating” rate
    2. customer somehow thought his old monthly budget payment would continue despite now heating with electricity 
    3. the article never did state his oil costs vs his heat pump costs for the year
    4. “oil is warmer” lol well ok
    5. customer paid through the nose for heat pump system

    We all have our biases but honestly come on guys, this story is kind of dumb
    NJ Steam Homeowner. See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el
    lkstdl
  • TAG
    TAG Member Posts: 755
    With about 8 switches over the past 30 years .... never had big savings in the switch to propane from oil. Propane eliminates the maintenance/cleaning cost each year ... propane always seems to work out to around .10 electric. So if your heat pump COP can get you under the .10 kw ... you run the HP. Making the math easy .......Oil at $2.25g vs propane at $1.75g is about the match prior to playing with efficiencies. Propane can spike and bite you if your timing is unlucky. One can win in a given year .... I remember some cheap propane years in the mid 00's and horrible ones around 2012. Oil was more back in the later 90's.

    Nothing touches natural gas. In a big house the HP sizing gets huge -- add drafts and they don't feels as comfortable.
    HydroNiCK