Hi, I live in a 70 y/o EOG rowhouse with southern & western exposure located in Baltimore, MD. The house has electric baseboard heating and window air conditioners. Utilities were recently deregulated and I believe I need to install a more efficient heating unit. Might as well install central air at the same time.
I understand there are new high efficiency units that can save a bundle in utility costs but they need to installed by a crew that's trained to install them otherwise the are less effcient than the other systems.
Recommendations for HVAC companies are also needed.
Any recommendations for highly effcient replacement windows at a resonalble cost? (will chck consumers union website)
Since you currently have electric baseboard heat and therefore I take it no existing ductwork, I would highly recommend a ductless heat pump (a multi-zone model most likely). A ductless heat pump can be installed very easily and without any disruption to your living space
-- no cutting of walls and floors, no loss of interior or closet space, no re-drywalling, no repainting and no construction dust.
A high efficiency ductless heat pump can cut your space heating costs by 70 per cent and your cooling costs in half. It will improve the outward appearance and security of your home; i.e., no unsightly window air conditioners that can leave you venerable to break-ins. They're also incredibly quiet.
I've been speaking with someone in another newsgroup who lives in Montréal, a city much colder than your own. He tells me that even at
-1F, his ductless heat pump can still heat his entire home and at half the cost of resistance heat.
He has a Fujitsu model 24RL. You can obtain more information on this product here:
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I have oil-fired hot water baseboard heating and a year and a half ago I installed a small Friedrich ductless heat pump (it's a rebranded Fujitsu). It has cut my heating costs by more than half.
This is a picture of the inside air handler, which is located in my living room:
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You can view the Friedrich line here:
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The Mitsubishi "Mr. Slim" is another popular choice and you can learn more about their offerings here:
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I had read BGE will be increasing their residential utility rates by a whopping 72 per cent! With that in mind, I would recommend a heat pump with a high SEER and HSPF rating -- preferably a SEER in the range of 16 to 20 and a HSPF of at least 8.0 and, better yet, 9 or 10. You'll pay a little more upfront, but a heat pump with a high HSPF produces far more heat in sub-freezing weather and at a much lower operating cost.
Hi Paul, thanks for the useful information. I'll check out each link. BGE rates going up - I suspect the "delivery charge" will be going up too. Nobody has ever saved money using deregulated gas or electric. What a major rip off.
There are 100,000 BTUs per therm of natural gas, or the equivalent of
29.3 kWh of electric heat.
A mid efficiency furnace operating at 80 per cent efficiency will provide you with 23.4 kWh of heat per therm (the other 5.9 kWh being lost up the chimney). A high efficiency furnace with a 90 per cent efficiency rating would give you 26.4 kWh/therm and at the very top end of the scale you might achieve upwards of 28 kWh/therm.
It looks like BGE is currently charging residential customers $1.30 per therm (commodity and delivery prices combined). At 80 per cent conversion efficiency, each kWh of gas heat costs you roughly 5.5 cents and at 90 per cent efficiency, that cost falls to 4.9 cents per kWh(e).
I believe BGE's winter electric rate now stands at 12.73 cents per kWh. A high efficiency heat pump with a seasonal COP of between 2.5 and 3.0 (not an unreasonable number given your relatively moderate winters), would produce heat in the range of 4.2 to 5.1 cents per kWh(e).
One of the Fujitsu ductless heat pumps has a HSPF of 11.0, which puts its seasonal COP at just over 3.2. That effectively reduces the cost of electric heat to just 3.9 cents per kWh(e), or some twenty per cent below that of a high efficiency gas furnace operating at 90 per cent efficiency.
One of the nice things about a ductless heat pump is that you can simply leave your electric baseboard heaters in place, so there's no need to rip them out, re-plaster your walls and repaint your rooms. This also provides you with backup emergency heat should your heat pump require servicing.
You're welcome. Domestic natural gas production peaked back in 1973. I believe current U.S. demand is somewhere around 22 trillion cubic feet per year, twenty per cent of which is imported from outside sources. As domestic production continues to fall and as demand continues to rise, this ever-widening gap will be made up through additional imports. That puts the U.S. in an unenviable position both economically and politically speaking, and in terms of its national security. See where I'm going here?
Your best course of action is to aggressively reduce your home's energy demands through generous insulation and careful air sealing. That should be your number one priority. Once you've done everything you can on that front, investigate your heating options and choose the one likely to offer the lowest long-term operating costs and the greatest security of supply. I don't know much about BGE's fuel mix but I seem to recall it's heavily weighted towards nuclear and coal, both domestic sources.
As it stands now, a high efficiency heat pump can provide heat at less than one-third the cost of your current heating system and even below that of a high efficiency gas furnace. Over the long term, I tend to believe it's one of your best choices.
He has to enter that ( kwh ) for himself....varies considerably depending on your location...pretty sure IM at $.058/ kwh last I checked--"cheap hydro"...
Anyways, run the program twice, first using baseboard heat then run through it a second time using heat pump....
Actual value entered for propane isnt important, ( unless someone is using, or considereing converting to it)...but suggest just use same cost / gal value both times...
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IIRC my brother is getting nailed at 3 ~bux /gallon--Seattle,Wa area.--understandably, I've disabled the gas portion of his furnace just recently...
Still need to log further info, but appears after a couple weeks worth of "intelligent adaptive recovery" and what with his night temps being ~ 25 and with 45 daytime told me yesterday he might occasionally fall short by a couple degrees tops at the morning recovery period--so guessing at least someone actually did an accurate heat load analysis upon initial install.
Like I say, outdoors reset stat is to be permanently installed soon--which brings out the big guns only on as-needed basis.
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FWIW, still think the Taystat 103 is a sucky system--esp where total lockout occurs--but still is absolutely needed where you have HP coils downstream in the airflow from the gas HX.
Not rocket science, still will probly eventually put up a link to the schemtic with crossed out connections etc.
Meanwhile, Joseph and Pat can also more than likely assist if you happen to find yourself with a customer that's wanting to ramp down on gas usage, perhaps with the attendant addition / installation of of larger capacity heat pump system.
IIRC, your in the corn belt--then if so pay close attention to a/c mode...dehumidifican problems and short cycling definately can be a problem where yuo have oversized a heat pump for to deal primarily with the heating load.
Apparently, cost structure was more favorable towards propane near to a decade ago--when the sys was initially installed....main benefit to having the heat pump being the luxury of having cooling...
Still makes no sense--if the gas is cheaper then just kill the HP on heating altogheter.
Diferent situation in the machine shop here though, I have tools that actually produce a significant heat load--nice during winter but becomes a burden during summertime.
LP and Nat used to be cheap fuels. But as time goes by, they continue to rise dramatically while the electric costs have had slight increases.
With new product designs and affiances, today a heat pump can often save you a significantly large amount of money in operational costs.
I have designed a spreadsheet to show my clients how much they can save (or spend) with varying heat sources. They don't understand it, till they see the actual numbers.
Many people are switching to corn burners. But with the evolution of ethanol being used for automotive purposes, the costs of corn is increasing. So this only raises their heating bills. Making the heat pump look better once again.
One thing is constant, and that is, that things are always changing. Something that is effective today may not be tomorrow.
I woud kil the crossposteing but im too drunkat present....besides, the topic at least fits.
Ya want cheep then go geothermal, closed or even open loop--here we have well-water-a- plenty-
Cmes outa the ground at ~51 deg F--I just pump and dump.....over onto the freeway right-of-way it goes.
Then if it sells, great....so long as it saves long-term.
Yes, esp here where electric rates have remained fairly stable.
Well the one thing that is constant--if you burning any hydrocarbon fuel then it depletes fossil reserves, as well as contributing to escalation of co co2 into the atmosphere.
Suggest then plant some trees--it's the only thing available to Joe Sixpak that effectively re-sequesters the carbon by-products back into the soil.
Paul, BGE energy production comes from nuclear and coal and just enough natural gas so the can use the cost of natural gas for ALL of the cost to produce energy. All energy produces do this and it's legal.
Insulating and HP seems to be the way to go. Tomorrow I'll print out the descriptions of the heat pumps. It is appealing to leave the baseboard electric heaters in place and add the heat pump.
As you probably know, LP is derived from either oil or natural gas and its price thus closely follows these other two fuels. And since the U.S. is a net importer of oil and gas and since the gap between supply and demand continues to grow wider day by day, its price is likely to become increasingly volatile over time, with the long-term trend pointing upward. Also worth noting you'll be competing (should I say fighting?) with the rest of the world for these resources as they become increasingly more scarce.
Electricity prices are likely to remain more stable over the long term, as a good portion is generated by way of coal and nuclear (both domestic resources) and therefore not subject to the same external market forces. Plus electricity can capitalize on a growing portfolio of renewable resources such as wind, small hydro, geothermal, solar, etc., that generally have very low operating costs and, thankfully, much more modest environmental impact. This will further add to the diversity in supply and perhaps help dampen price pressures on other competing fuels.
I don't want to suggest everyone race out to their local home improvement store and buy armfuls of electric baseboard heaters; that would be insane. However, when it comes time to evaluate your heating options, I hope a geothermal or air source heat pump will be added to the list.
As previously noted, a high efficiency heat pump can produce three times more heat, per kWh, than an electric baseboard heater, even in cold, northern climates. I can buy a ductless heat pump today with a
21 SEER rating and a HSPF of 11.0 -- that's double the efficiency of many heat pumps now in service. And the good news is that the Japanese are working hard to advance that bar even higher, which begs the question: where's America's leadership in this area?
Looking at it another way, if I were to switch from electric baseboard heat to a high efficiency heat pump, electricity prices could double or triple and I would still pay less per month than what I do now. That's precisely the long-term price protection a high efficiency heat pump can offer me today.
As always, do whatever you can to lower your heating and cooling requirements through generous insulation and careful air sealing. Then, and only then, take a look at some of the alternative heating systems that have the potential to dramatically lower your monthly energy costs.
At this stage you've already taken the big hit in terms of your rate adjustment. Unfortunately, this is what happens when regulators lock prices at artificially low levels for, what was it? Ten years?
When you don't pay the true cost, consumers will use far more electricity than they would otherwise and will logically forego investments in energy conservation and more efficient end-use technologies such as heat pumps. And who can blame them? It's the perfectly rational thing to do.
But now the ride has come to an end and consumers are faced with the new reality. Hopefully most have prepared for this day, but for those who haven't, the pain has only begun.
Please keep us informed of your progress and, by all means, let me know if I can help you in any way.
As an addendum to my previous note, I came across this on the Bloomberg,com website earlier today:
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Tony Blair, speaking of the U.K.'s own declining North Sea oil and gas reserves and the subsequent future of nuclear power in that country spelled it out in rather blunt terms.... ``We are going to move from self sufficiency in gas to importing 90 percent of it'.
North Sea production peaked in 1999 and has been steadily falling ever since.
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