Derek Caelin 🌱
One of the challenges of encouraging people to adopt heat pumps is *math*. I think this is part of the reason why there are a total of 253 #heatpumps in my town of 21,000 people.
Leaving aside the argument that we need to eliminate emissions yesterday, people are understandably very careful to invest in a new heating system. The current one is working! And yes, fuel prices are outrageous, but $500 next month is still less than tens of thousands, even considering rebates and incentives.
Derek Caelin 🌱
So you have to make the case that you, as a consumer, will save money *in the long run* and this is complicated by a ton of unknowns. How much will it cost to heat the house? You don't know, because you don't know:
- how insulated the house is
- how effective each heat pump will be in warming
- what energy prices are
- how much solar energy you generate
When someone asks, "how long will it take to make a difference?" it is really hard to answer that question!
Derek Caelin 🌱
In *our* case, we have solar power system that absorbes most of the heating costs, and our monthly bill to pay off the units is ~$100. I know that we're saving money, but it's difficult for me to figure out the break even point.
So, in some cases, you make the argument that heat pumps are simply more convenient. Whisper quiet. Heat AND cool in the same system. That argument, frankly, is what convinced my wife when we bought a house without central AC.
Derek Caelin 🌱
@jessamyn Thanks for sharing. You have a lovely looking house.
Jessamyn
@derek My winter electric bill has doubled, which is not bad considering (and it's all renewables thanks to my power company) and I only use the boiler when I'm expecting company. My office is now mostly pleasant instead of barely tolerable. Bedroom too. Some new things to learn about how heat pumps work compared to ancient/giant radiators and they will never replace the boiler system here completely but they take a big dent out of my boiler use and that's been great to see.
Jessamyn
@derek I just bought a house in late 2022 had one winter of the oil boiler and a summer of a stifling upstairs and was just DONE. There was a local plumber who was installing heat pumps in a lot of the neighborhood houses (my town has 4500 people) and I had him write me up an estimate. It was a *serious* capital outlay, but having unstuffy bedrooms and "bespoke" heating and cooling (i.e. per room, otherwise it's just upstairs/downstairs zones with the boiler) has been a game changer.
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