Hi,
I live in the Boston area and am currently considering purchasing a house that has a combination of electric pump heat and propane heat. Most of the houses I've lived in and seen in the area use either gas or oil heat, so I wanted to get some opinions from the group regarding these other types of home heating systems.
To provide a little more detail, this house was originally built in the 80s with an electric heat pump. The owners installed a Rinnai based propane system about 5 years ago to reduce their heating costs. The Rinnai system is set up with propane tanks outside the house and 5 standing heating units around the house. Two of these units are downstairs, two are in bedrooms upstairs, and one is in the basement. Each of the heating units has its own thermostat. The house is large, about 3500 square feet. There is no gas line to this house
My principle questions are around:
- Can anyone comment on the electric heat pump? Boston gets fairly cold and I've heard that these systems don't work well in very cold weather.
- Can anyone comment on Rinnai direct-vent heating systems? I've never seen them around and wonder if there's a good reason for that. Are they efficient? Are they safe? Is it safe to have big propane tanks next to the house? What do I need to know here?
- Presumably, I could install an oil based furnace if I wanted. Any sense for how much something like that costs? Can oil based systems do forced hot air, using the duct system that the electric pump already has in place?
I've also asked for historic heating/electricity bills. It looks like propane bills are $2000/year and electricity is about $4000/year. This seems high to me, but obviously it's dependent on what the owner's heat needs have been.
Appreciate any thoughts or comments... My initial thought is to walk away from this, largely because I don't understand the systems and don't like uncertainty. But I thought I'd get opinions from the group to see if there are different thoughts.
Thanks, PB