6 ms·
Heat pumps are something like 5-6x as efficient as resistive electric heaters. So no surprise that your bill would be lower. Of course, heating an entire house
by gsk22 2y ago
Heat pumps are something like 5-6x as efficient as resistive electric heaters. So no surprise that your bill would be lower.
Of course, heating an entire house with (non-heat-pump) electric heat in a cold climate is kind of crazy. Natural gas is way way cheaper. But I've seen it in old houses here in the Upper Midwest, so it's not _too_ out of the ordinary.
- bpodgursky 2y agoHeat pumps are so affordable now, that just feels like a poor decision-making rather than an economic hardship. You could finance a heat pump and the savings would pay itself off in a year.
- inferiorhuman 2y agoYeah it's called apartment living. I hit nearly $350 in Oakland a couple years (and many PG&E rate hikes) ago in a 600 sq ft apartment. Even if I wanted to pay for a heat pump installation it's doubtful the landlord would've been on board. Last time I did the math, even with a 60% efficient furnace natural gas was cheaper than an electric heat pump. PG&E's electric rates are simply that much more expensive than their natural gas rates. Currently that's up to $0.49/kWh on the most popular rate plan vs $2.49/therm. Keep in mind that the fifth and sixth electric rate hikes of 2024 were just approved today by Newsom's regulatory body and don't factor into the price I quoted.
- bpodgursky 2y agoLol what. I'm paying $.10/kWh. https://booneelectric.coop/my-account/rates/ https://booneelectric.coop/my-account/rates/
- inferiorhuman 2y agohttps://www.pge.com/content/dam/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/residential-electric-rate-plan-pricing.pdf https://www.pge.com/content/dam/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/...
- bpodgursky 2y agoUnreal
- Symbiote 2y agoI pay about $60 a month to heat a well-insulated apartment in Copenhagen, similar size. The average for an 80m² apartment is $1100/year. After the 1970s fuel crises, Denmark invested in district heating and that seems to have paid off.
- dns_snek 2y agoThat completely depends on local electricity costs and climate. We get about 4 months of freezing temperatures and when I did some back of the napkin math, a heat pump installation would be cheaper than gas over its lifetime, but it was only by about 10-20%, at a much higher upfront cost. I'm not an expert so I could've made a mistake somewhere, but my calculations said that the system would have to survive for 10-15 years before it would pull ahead of a new gas boiler.
- grapesodaaaaa 2y agoI was also going to point that out. Resistive electric heating costs could easily reach that much, but it’s a horribly inefficient way to heat your house.