Help! High Heating Bill
We have a 4-zone heat pump central heating system (SEER 14). Consuming approx. 360 kWH/day right now which works out to a 2000+ electric bill. We need someone who is knowledgeable to come in and 1) tweak the system – check out the ductwork, do cleaning if needed, etc. 2) check for leaks and 3)…
We have a 4-zone heat pump central heating system (SEER 14). Consuming approx. 360 kWH/day right now which works out to a 2000+ electric bill. We need someone who is knowledgeable to come in and 1) tweak the system – check out the ductwork, do cleaning if needed, etc. 2) check for leaks and 3) possibly make a recommendation to add a gas-fired furnace to our system if need be.
Any recommendations?
Any news or resolution. We’re planning on using heat pumps. What does your normal winter bill run? Any way i can contact you?
thanks
$2k… that’s brutal. I will guess that it’s running entirely on electrical backup.
While I tend to agree that heat pumps aren’t for our climate, quite a few of them can be very efficient down to -5 – a temperature we almost never see in NYC. 14 SEER isn’t terrible and the temperatures didn’t dip low enough to trip the backup system in a normally functioning system. What you don’t want to do is turn your thermostat down when you leave/sleep – every time you turn it back up the system will run on resistance heat (backup) until desirable temperature is reached.
I was “okay” with 900 because 1) it was a very cold month) and 2) when we lived in an apt half the size, bills approached 400..
What do you pay to heat your bstone in a cold month? Assuming temp is 68.
In the meantime, while you are getting a handle on all this, it is helpful to close doors to areas with a high heat loss and to insulate all the windows you can with shrink-wrap plastic and heavy blankets or curtains. Hopefully your attic and walls already have insulation.
When we were living in a floor-through, we cut the monthly heating bill from $300 to $200 by keeping one door shut all the time — it led to two rooms with a lot of uncovered windows. (The thermostat was elsewhere.)
And you were OK with a $900/mo electric bill?
Bob Marvin:
I doubt that you can get cheaper electricity than ConEd. Let say generator itself costs $2000. It has 2 year warranty and I do not think that it will much longer with 24×7 usage. It gives 1000/year or ~$80/month. And this is before any cost of fuel.
It may be would make more sense if you can utilize all heat of the generator. Let say it burns natural gas and 30% of the heat energy becomes electricity, 40% is taken away by cooling water and 30% goes with hot exhaust. If you can take the 40% and 25% out of the exhaust 30% you technically will have very efficient heating system. Assuming that all electricity in your house one way or another will become a heat energy anyway and without cost of generator you actually will save energy by producing your own electricity and heating house from the generator’s heat.
But again: this whole thing was a joke.
Can natural gas or diesel oil-fired generators actually produce electricity for less than what Con Ed charges? If so, and if it’s legal (and practicable) to use one, I’d love to do so. Does anyone know more about this?
the next step is to buy backup generator (can run on natural gas or diesel oil). This way you can produce electricity buy running generator and then use it to heat up house.
actually it migh be more efficient if you will be able to pickup all the heat from the generator.
You can try Peter Arbeeny at All HVAC. He is very knowledgeable. They advertise on this website.