What's The Best Heat Source in 2022? Top 5 Home Heating Methods - LP Electric NG Geothermal Fuel Oil
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- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
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In this video I explain the differences between the most common fuel types and break down the cost associated with electric resistance heat, propane or LP, home heating oil or fuel oil, electric heat pumps, and finally natural gas.
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Blessings from Minnesota,
Ben
100% wood heat from the same old woodstove for the last 40 years. No natural gas where I live, and no furnace in the house. Moving air with fans costs some electricity, but it is pretty amazing how well you can heat your house, moving warm air around with simple fan technology.
That’s awesome I wonder if it’s possible for the the whole country to do this?
Pacific energy super 57
If you can get this wood stove you will be astonished at the heat production.
@@mikec421 nope. In The country yes you can but city...
@@mikec421 Long as you live in the sticks. Cities would soon be filled with soot. You have to burn it correctly, or you just create a lot of smoke and bad air.
@@mikec421 Not practical in many places as it creates pollutants/smog.
The best and first thing is to have an truly insulated home.
And windows and weatherstripping. My guess is, the best residence to have for the money is a basement and a single story home above it. And of course, a large garage that will hold at least two big vehicles and a good sized workshop.
@@Garth2011 Right on Garth. Or should I just yell BINGO !!!!
A home, not a house. Family is everything.
@@sandasturner9529 This is most certainly true Sandas.
@@Garth2011 Great minds think alike fella. That is exactly what I have. Works out really well.
Hey Ben. I am a plumbing and heating technician in Northwest Montana. Very good / helpful video. I own a 1,300 st ft condo (2 bed 2 bath), open floor plan for the living area. I'm running 45k BTU NG fireplace off of a nest thermostat. Every other room has its own electric wall heater. I spend an average of $1000 a year on my total energy bill. 900KWH max and 40 Therm (gas unit) in February last year. Mind you that $1,000 includes my lights refrigerator all the electricity. I am a happy camper.
better be glad you aren't in Memphis TN .I have from 600, 500, 386, 373 , 342, cheapest in a year was 186 last month. not be going back up no matter what I use . smart meters . I think they charge what they want.
I've switched from fuel oil (that's kerosene in Ireland) to a heat pump. At the same time I installed a 6.5 kW solar array. Last year my heat pump used 4.7 MWhs which happens to be what my PV panels generated. Obviously they generate most in the summer so I have a battery and an EV to soak up that juice then, but was amused how the HP and PV panels lined up in terms of usage and generation.
My electric bill has gone up (€1,000), but I no longer pay for petrol (€2,500) or fuel oil (€2,500). I spent a lot on getting all this done so the payback period will be around a decade, but there are benefits beyond money. The heat pump (air to water) is so much quieter than my boiler was. The exhaust was near my back door so that being gone is great. It came with a 200l hot water tank which is always hot - not a normal thing in Irish homes. And the heating is more consistent - with the boiler it would fluctuate between too hot and too cold.
What about wind power generators
It's all about how well your house is insulated and the size of your house and family. The size of your foot print has a lot to do with consumption.Its the very same as how much you eat or drink. They key is moderation and balance in our lifestyles and good diet along with exercise
Your HW tank is part of the heat pump or a separate device?
The gross solar output is interesting, in Australia we have 7.8kW PV panels on a 6kW inverter - we generate around 8-9MW per annum (a more favourable location maxes out at around 10-11MWh - similar size array)).
Interesting to compare realworld installs (our energy consumption is mostly summer, matching our PV output well.
@@bigpardner they usually use what they call a combi boiler which provides hot water for both heating and general heating. Should be mentioned Europeans don't often use AC.
I owe my own forest of hardwood, my house is 1500 square feet not counting the cellar. I use an LPGas direct vent wall furnace as a back up heat source. We have an old 1924 wood burning cook stove that oddly enough is our main source of heat. It is an open floor plan the stove is central so although it is not “airtight” it is convenient to pop some wood in to as you are always walking past it. It has so much cast iron it’s a huge radiator. It was made to burn either coal or wood so it has good metallurgical properties for its age. My house is 10 years old foam & fiberglass insulated and pretty tight. I need to add that I also have a fisher mama bear (airtight) wood stove in the basement. I usually only find the need to fire it up and run it for six days each winter depending on the weather. The basement is poured concrete inside of insulated foam forms. The entire house is in an insulated envelope. So the firewood comes from our 40 acre woods. We burn about 10 or 11 face cords each year. We have an lp gas for kitchen range and wall furnace. We refill the propane tank 3 or 4 times during the heating season at a price of about 75 dollars each refill (we call for refill at 35% left in it). We heat pretty cheaply though I cut & split firewood each spring and fill the woodshed. There you have it.
Love it! I would like to eventually get one of those old wood cook stoves and use it much as you described. Burning wood is awesome! Is a "face cord" just taking the top layer off of then top of a cord of wood?
@@BenjaminSahlstrom Off of the front of the cord? LOGS ONLY HALF the length?
Wood burning is polluting putting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene and dioxins into our environment. Indoor air quality pollution is tripled. It is not recommended for elderly or children to breath the indoor air when burning wood. This should he the last resort given the pollution
@@b4804514 yeah right snowflake! Next you’ll be tellin’ us that is bad to eat old paint chips or that educating our children is somehow more beneficial that sending them in to the mines after their 8th birthday! So…. So, is learning about the world around us and progressing as a civilization supposed to be a good thing now?!? You sound like one of them progressive liberal democrats!! Boom! Mic drop beyotch!! Ha hahaha!
@@b4804514 itll pull in fresh air
One thing to consider is supplemental heating systems; these can be used multiple ways, 1) to alleviate loads during power outages, 2) to help with extreme weather. 3) assist under certain conditions. Some combinations are hard to beat. For example, having an electric heat pump with back up wood stove is a great combination. A natural gas or propane fireplace that can run without power is great. If you currently have natural gas or oil heat installing a mini-split heat pump to supplement the heating (and for cooling) is a good option. Some of the DIY heat pumps can be self installed saving expensive installation bills. If you are primarily dependent on electric for heat, stand alone Kerosene heaters are a great backup for power outages. They can put out a lot of heat, no electric needed and use very little fuel. Electric resistance heaters are great for when other furnaces fail. There are other systems that can also help. Solar hot air heaters can bring very cheap heating into the house when the sun shines. Other tips that can save a lot of money include having a large propane tank and only filling it in the Summer when prices are cheap. (need more propane, get two tanks...).
As an HVAC business owner, and 3 year HVAC college instructor, great job! I agree and respect how you properly addressed this question.
Love your videos. Switched from electric to natural gas two months after we moved in. Payed for itself in 4 years. Made sure we had a humidifier installed too.
This was a very informative video. I like how you broke down the average prices and made it easy to compare
I'm not sure how I stumbled across this video but it was very interesting and useful. Subscribed!
My set up is solar energy on the roof with net metering in combination with a heat pump. Still burn wood, but mostly for the exercise in my retirement. Location is Charlotte NC . Very useful info here. Thank you
I was just having a conversation about this the other day. This is a great breakdown of the costs and efficiencies associated. Pretty much what I've always believed the breakdown would be, other than heat pumps I thought would be more cost-effective.
Hello everybody, I have a 6 kw solar system on my roof of a 1000 sq feet apartment, notice the system was producing more than what I needed (2908 MKW saved on my favor) so I replace hot water tank for a 13 kw tankless, the kitchen range for a electric cooktop and shutoff the boiler and purchase temporary electric heaters for winter and this is going to be my second year so far so good I only pay basic charge for electric and gas, and gas as emergency only for winter time, I think that is the way to beat all this high fuel prices
Thanks Benjamin, a very comprehensive video explaining the cost differences for home heating. You left no stone unturned, good job!
Benjamin,
Nice job on fuel-only comparisons. Keep the videos coming.
Stay safe & healthy and prosper in 2022!
We pay $4 a gallon for propane! Switching to a heat pump in the spring.
Finally someone who took the time to break down all sources. I love the cold only when I have a reliable heat source. I converted everything in my home to natural gas even my portable 10000 watt champion generator and connected a transfer switch if we lose power
If your natural gas supplier's power goes out, won't the pressure in the feed line drop to zero, meaning no natural gas either?
@@s9josh778 thats why I have back up heat also. The generator runs on gas also, I have propane heaters and I have kerosene heaters also.Always think ahead Josh
@@gregoryivorymaryjerman7492 It's great to hear you don't have all your eggs in one basket. I am getting a couple diesel heaters ready to hang in windows for backup heat.
Hi Ben,
I find all your videos educational and entertaining.
Thanks for your time & effort in creating them; it is appreciated.
J
I've been subbed for a long time now. I love your videos! Please keep making great content! Thanks for all the different topics you cover and I look forward to more.
To make real cost comparisons you need to use the number of degree heating days for the period in question. It removes weather fluctuations as a factor. My utility used to put this figure on each statement.
Great video! I live in Minnesota. We’ve had several days of -15 degrees Fahrenheit and lower here. We just moved into a 1917 craftsman style home around 3500 sf. The upstairs and basement were currently electric baseboard heat and my main floor is forced air natural gas. My December electric bill was $373 and my natural gas bill is $263. I was shocked and went around turning everything to low heat. Freezing to death now but at least we are saving money! :)
I’m looking into mini splits for the house, but still can’t heat with those probably 3 1/2-4 months out of the year. I’m in the process of expanding forced air to the basement to help but still don’t have a clear way to bring it all the way upstairs. Anyway, it is what it is. Thanks a lot Biden!😡
Time for a recall election in which Democrats are told the new election is a month after the real one
3500 sqft is your problem
@@nunyabusiness3920 LET'S GO BARRON AND CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR LOCAL AUTISM CHAPTER
@@robertpaulis439 some people have big families
If we could just capture all the liberal hot air…..
I just wanted to say thank you so much for the videos you make. They help me so much in everything.
Other things to consider is safety, convenience, and space requirements. People rarely consider the time, machinery, and fuel involved with harvesting fire wood, storing it, and stoking a fire day and night. I am happy I chose to go with a mini split to heat the garage in the winter months than to deal with propane.
If you're going to start throwing in other variables you need to consider the ambiance and comfort of burning wood, not to mention having heat when the power goes out (for example if you have a 1/2 mile long driveway on a dead end road through the woods). Nothing beats sitting in front of a wood stove on a cold winter night!
@@randomvideosn0where There are safety concerns with burning wood, chimney fires, I considered a wood stove to heat my garage, just not sure it would be wise to have a open flame when working on a vehicle. I would agree about the ambiance about a wood stove and the kind of heat it throws. Pellet Stove may be an option...
@@randomvideosn0where Burning wood does help preserve the fossil fuel reserves, but it is not exactly green... CO2 emissions from combusting wood for heat can be 2.5 times higher than those of natural gas and 30 percent higher than those of coal per unit of generated energy. Considering the price or oil today, burning wood will certainly save you money, not as likely to save the planet... still politicians hand out tax credits for those who switch to wood for heat. There are a lot of people out there who think mini spits are the wave of the future for heating and cooling combined with renewable energy solar/wind/hydro, personally I think it is a pipe dream.
@@ericfraser7543 A mini split combined with solar, micro wind, and a wood stove is overall pretty good.
Wood stoves are not always a good option, for example in suburbs or urban setting where people will inhale the smoke. However I cut dead trees on my own land with an electric chainsaw, split them by hand, and burn them so the only net CO2 emissions are the production of the saw and small electricity used to cut. The burning emits CO2 but it was captured by the tree, and the tree died anyways so would have released CO2 decomposing. It is inevitable that people will burn wood in the US so switching from open hearth to catalytic stoves helps!
@@randomvideosn0where No it makes lots of sense to burn dead fall and save on a fuel bill, plus decaying wood probably emits greenhouse gasses, it can be sustainable just not on a large scale like all of the US... if you consider fossil fuel is essentially really old dead fall. its more of a convenience thing for me time is money too... solar and wind are both an investment to save an electric bill... realistic people say its about 7 years ROI... its like talking to a gambler, they only tell you about their winnings... those who live off grid will have higher transportation costs too... I think solar an wind would be better managed by the electric company rather than an individual.
I like that you started by telling us about your insulation. When I bought my home it had zero insulation, Since insulating my home I use 6 times less energy to heat my home than the 1st year without. The 4 months it took and $2,000 was well worth it to insulate. I had to blow in insulation (New Wool)thru 365 - 3" holes inside in plaster walls. Then rewire the second floor so I could insulate the attic and be done up there.
I use natural gas in a 96+ furnace. I have 2200 square feet to heat. I save 20% by placing panels inside my 5 south facing windows thus capturing the solar heat these panels radiate. These panels are easy to make out of hardboard / Masonite and aluminum foil painted flat black with high temp paint. I use foil tape at the seams before painting them. I measured the heat in the center of a panel when the outside temperature was 20 below. The panel surface temp was 130 degrees on a sunny day. My home is 5 bedrooms and is 87 years old but it only cost me $960.00 to heat my home and make hot water last year. I keep my heat at 72 degrees. Although I can't see out of any south facing window, I have 3 cameras that see south. So the $30.00 investment in these panels saves me $240.00.
My home is fully smart integrated so I save on electricity as well.
Thanks for the South Windows DIY Panel TIP😎
Yeah the foam can be great. I am glad this nice fella is way up north, if that house were in the south it would be rotted in no time! In the south on older houses you must use a internal screen that allows moisture to get out.(like a dimple mat) Northern climates can do at vapor barrier on the inside but southern humid homes have to install barriers to the outside of the wall aseembly.
Simple and to the point. Thanks.
I use a ground source heat pump. (pump and dump) I have a fireplace that heats and that qualified as a back up heat source so the utility charges me about half price. An automatic back up is now required but I'm grandfathered. For this rate they get to turn off my compressor when they get close to peaking and want to avoid buying more expensive electric from their provider. That will happen on days when its maybe 10 degrees and about 4 pm when people are getting home and demand goes up. Always back on by 9 pm. The same heat pump uses a desuperheater to heat my 130 gallons of domestic hot water whether the furnace is heating or cooling. The water heater rate is about 25% of the full price of 11. something and is on off peak. They heat normally from midnight to 7 am. Then the utility shuts them off.
LOVE THE FADE IN DOCUMENT ON FUEL OIL SECTION. NICE TOUCH! SUBTLE BUT IT CRACKED ME UP
Only last few years have variable speed heat pumps and fan coil units become available in the residential market. (Variable Frequency Drive HVAC systems are common on commercial buildings.)These units run at lower speeds to keep a constant temperature in the home rather than full on mode when the t-stat calls for heat, then full off when the set temp is reached. Electric motors are most efficient while running at about half speed. They draw the most current at startup. Combine a variable speed system with a solar array on the roof, net metering with the local PUD and you will have very low heating costs, depending on the area of the country. Here in the PNW, even with cloudy weather, winter heating costs with the above system will be less than $500 from Oct to March for my 2500 SQFT home.
DC ECM motors are are efficient at any speed but are much better than PSC motors at lower speeds. However PSC motors are most efficient at rated RPM and way less efficient at lower RPM's
Electric motors typically have peak efficiency at rated load. How is the cost of the solar installation factored into this equation?
I have a video on my channel on a Bryant Evolution 18 seer 3 Ton HP paired to a 2 stage NAT GAS Furnace. Best of both worlds and yes, currently as I am typing this, it's running 2nd stage (5 total stages for the variable HP) and it's on a 1500 SQ/FT house and it's 42 outside. It hasn't lit the furnace all day it's been bouncing back and forth between stage 1 and stage 2 HP. I installed it myself back in 2019. Been doing HVAC since 2017.
Kerosene is at $5.999 a gallon now. 5 years ago it was $2.47. From a gas station pump.
We have used a geothermal heat pump for 39 years, and it is very efficient. I guess I should add that since we live on a small lake and have a well with an open loop system.
Great job you did on your house and explaining the fuel costs. Thanks!
I guess I have always been lucky and had natural gas all the time.
I even converted my old Honda generator over to natural gas a few years ago and am very happy I did.
No need to buy expensive gasoline if you can even find it during an emergency.
All I had to do was check the oil every so often.
Thank You ,,, Remodeling & Up Dating my new to me 1970 Rambler in Sandstone MN ,, has elect baseboard now going with a Goodman 60,000 btu 90+ updraft natural gas in the basement ,,, 1600 sf
This video was very informative. I live in the foothills of the
coast range in western Oregon. My home is well insulated as
it was built in 1998.I replaced the 22-year-old heat pump with
a top-of-the-line Lennox variable speed compressor and blower unit.
My electric bill (there is no natural gas service on my road) went from
a high of 275.00/month to 120/month during the peak winter months.
My next upgrade will be a hybrid electric water heater to reduce the
electric bill even more in the years to come. Thanks for posting!
I agree -- with heat pumps, the water heater is usually resistance and thus really expensive. In addition to heat pump water heaters, which cool the room they're in (bad in the winter), consider a solar hot water heater or 'solar-assisted' heat pump water heater (which moves the heat exchanger out of the basement to outside) These three pay for themselves in 4-6 years.
Im a 72 year old engineer for AT&T. GREAT JOB Heres some that people need to know. GLASS LEAKS THE COLD AIR into ALL HOMES. Put a thermometer next to the glass . WOW You will see the air transfor leakage. I block my windows from the transfer of cold air. Good job doing this video
just stumbled on to your site. Outstanding. I lived my younger life in Fairbanks Alaska. coal, fuel oil , propane and wood is what I used my whole life.
Now that I retired and have a small farm in Arkansas I am studying biogas, woodgas and earths heat And of course Solar. Our fuel and propane is unaffordable here now. Craze expensive in the past 2 years. even natural gas has taken a Hugh jump in price. You are a very smart young man and I appreciate and applauded your work on these subjects. BRAVO !!!
I have here a not so big house, 60m² (650 square-foot) and we pay 30 Cent/kWh (=USD 0,34/kWh) here in Germany.
I use electrical energy for heating (18°C - 21°C in the rooms), water heating and electrical devices.
My house is insulated (12cm of styrofoam, with a good protection again air leakage) and we need 530€ per year for electrical energy.
50% of this energy is used in the winter for heating.
We heat the rooms with a mini-split-device, the heating of the water is happened directly with resistance heating, but this costs for the warm water are not high at all.
SUBBED!!! This is just the kind of info I need. I live in Alaska but, where I live the weather is similar to Northern Minnesota. I'm doing research to build my retirement home. It will be a two bedroom ranch style, about 890 sq.ft., the real challenge will be heating a large-ish 24'x48' shop. I think I'm going to be watching a lot of your videos in the near future.
We moved a lot when I was a kid and I experienced many methods of heating. In Allentown, we had radiators, they worked okay but definitely not kid friendly LOL. In Reading, we had oil with woodstove supplement. Also worked great and I loved chopping wood. In Beaumont, we had electric, I never thought about it, I was 11 but was never cold. It all depends on where you live and the cost of oil, electricity, coal and wood.
Nice succinct overview -- very helpful. And fantastic CZcams tip!
Thanks for the great video. I live in PA. We have a very modern heat pump that has never gone into emergency heat mode. Our old heat pump would use the back up coil system at 25 degrees and struggle below 18. Our new heat pump works well down to 15 degrees, that's the coldest temp we have seen since owning it. I started using the fan circulation mode and our home is WAY more consistent temp wise. My wife loves it. Take care!
I'm in central Pennsylvania. See my comment above. I don't agree that heat pumps are efficient at low temperatures. The lower the temperature the more the heat pump has to work, with a corresponding increase in the total amount of electricity used for its operation. As you said, in super cold temperatures a heat pump will kick into auxiliary mode resulting in an enormous electric bill. I would prefer to avoid those costs, so I'm looking into a coal stove as a backup.
@@LostBeagle, Carrier makes a high efficiency heat pump, that even at -5F will provide all of it's rated heat output. The model number is -38marbq30aa3 for the 30,000 Btu unit. These can be connected to a central air system, or a ductless indoor coil. They do have a variable speed compressor, thus at 47F it can run at 60 Hz, and at -5F it can run at 120 Hz, or twice as fast, and bring in much more heat than a typical heat pump.
Where I live, I installed a new 2014 14 SEER Goodman 4 ton heat pump for 1,850 square feet. Yes it is oversized for the cooling capacity, and huge! But the rating at 23F is only 28,000 Btu's per hour, or barely enough to heat my home. Still it has worked fine on the recent 23F cold snap we had (almost record breaking cold in Portland Oregon). I never connected my back up electric heater! It has run for 8 years and never ran the electric heater! I guess if the compressor fails, I will need to connect the 20 KW electric heater, or run my electric oven to warm the home.
I have a oven thermometer on my hot gas line, the insulated one between the outdoor unit and the indoor unit. It typically is at 120F 5 minutes into a heating cycle, and will reach 165F (setting off the alarm that my meat is done) after about 30 - 45 minutes on a 47F day. At 35F the temperature was about 135F and will slowly warm to 155F over about 1 hour of run time.
If you are not getting these temperatures, check your temperature split, with 65F going into your air handler, the output should be 30F to 35F warmer, on a very cold day at least 25F warmer. If your performance is less, then have the refrigerant level checked, leaks found, and fixed.
Your system should provide you with 100,000 Btu's of heat while only using 7 KW to 10 KW of electricity, so much lower cost than running a gas furnace with today's prices!
I use standard heat pumps for my house most of the time. I also use a wood burning stove during cold weather, 30s and lower. We enjoy the hot heat generated off the wood stove on cold winters. We live in SC so are winters are typically fairly mild compared to the northern states .
We are fortunate to have our own wood source and have heated with wood for decades. It is such a comfortable heat. The benefits include being outdoors, the physical activity of felling, bucking, splitting, stacking, and hauling all that wood into the house every year. We do all this as a team - husband is 91 and I am 79. We know that some day we will have to switch to a different heat source. Considered a mini split, but the cost is greater than $7,000.00. Except for just a very few days we don't need air conditioning in the summer. So looking into just heat sources. Your video was helpful to understand the cost of the different kinds.
Wood pellets might be a great alternative.
doesn't scale. There are many locations that are very populated and if you happen to be in one of those places with a high concentration of people, if everyone burned wood or pellets, the air quality would damage the brains of your children (and yourself). Plus, it might encourage people to chop down more and more trees and trees are the lungs of the planet.
@@morpher44 very true. I just assumed that if they've been heating a wood for years they must be in an area that doesn't have restrictions
Buy the mini split here in fl they run for1-2 k
@@morpher44 very true. At this point, most wood pellets are made from sawdust and wood chips but it would definitely be too bad if more trees had to be cut down just for wood pellets
Great video! Good info! Here in the Kansas City area the first hvac upgrade we went from Heat pump/gas back up to gas heat, because 1, the heat pump never made the house comfortable, so we ran on "emergency mode" all the time and 2, the compressor finally died. Went to conv. a/c with gas furnace. 80%. After a missing flue cap let rain run into the furnace, and never happy with the cooling capacity we replaced it all last summer with a larger 95% furnace and 2 stage condensing unit. Electric vs Nat Gas here still makes gas a better choice. I have that very same heater, maybe a year or 2 newer (or older) in the back bedroom (over unheated garage) to take the morning chill off. While it is not terribly efficient, that resistive heat with a reflective back is turning every watt into heat for the 5 or 10 minutes I need it
.
Natural Gas - I use it for heating the house, the hot water heater is gas and my stove and oven are natural gas for cooking. AC lights and small appliances. Switching to Led lights which last a very long time
Here's why I will always choose natural gas over a heat pump. Power outages.
Down here in Texas last winter folks lost power for a week, some much longer, during the Feb 2021 storm. I have power stations/solar generators and a portable dual-fuel generator as backups. My natural gas furnace is hooked up to a single-circuit transfer switch from EZ Generator.
A 1/4 HP furnace only needs about 400W of power to run the blowers. My 1/2 HP furnace is larger and takes 800W (3200 sq ft home). With my 5120Wh Bluetti power station, I can run my furnace over 21 hours on a single charge. I can recharge with solar panels or my propane generator.
There's no way I could run a heat pump that long. It's as power hungry as an air conditioner -- needs thousands of watts to run. Would burn right through my backup power. That seems to always be omitted from the head-to-head comparisons from folks pushing everyone to get heat pumps (not this video review though, which was very objective. Great review, Benjamin!).
You just can't beat the low electrical power requirements of a fuel-burning heat source during a power outage. Until that changes, which I don't think it can due to physics, I'm sticking to natural gas as long as I can get gas lines to my house.
Why not heat pump for when you have power, and Natgas generator for when you don’t? I’d bet money you’d win out with that strategy year after year in running cost, plus, your food in fridges and freezers and all would never go bad. Lights on all winter.
When we have had power outages in Michigan the gas furnace will not run as the unit cannot ignite and the blower motor will also not circulate air. We can use the wood burner insert in the fireplace which will heat the entire house minus the basement. If it comes time to replace the air conditioning unit I will go with an air source heat pump and keep the gas furnace as a backup. There would be no need to worry about moving the air from the pump/furnace and I have wood as a backup.
@@robertdavidson3090 You can run a gas furnace during a power outage, but you have to install a transfer switch that hooks into the furnace circuit. Once you do that, then you can use a portable generator or power station (battery) to run your furnace by plugging into the transfer switch. It's what I do when the power goes out, but it does require some modifications to pull off.
If you have a gas furnace, then it doesn't take much electricity to ignite the flames and run the blowers. With a heat pump you have to power both the outside and inside units, and it takes an incredible amount of energy. For both cases you need a transfer switch, and with the heat pump probably 240V connection for the outside unit.
Nice you have the wood stove backup. Down here in Texas you don't see too many wood stoves. Folks are typically more worried about heat waves and hurricanes, although after the Feb 2021 winter storm when the grid nearly collapsed and folks were burning their furniture in fireplaces to keep from freezing to death, that is starting to change.
@@myid9876543 Good question. Natural gas in Texas is actually dirt cheap. Our gas bills down here are actually much less than our electric. Our summer AC bills down here are what kill us. If we were to use heat pumps winter electric bills might be as high as summer.
Now all this was pre Feb 2021 Texas freeze where wholesale energy prices went through the roof and power companies were left with huge bills. Now there's some scheme to charge customers the difference for the next few decades or something like that to recoup costs. We'll see how the bills come out this year.
I actually would like a whole home generator but our yard is too small :(
You are in Texas, i hope they fix the electric grid politics
I have a 1500 sf bungalow and have propane witch is expensive!!! so i switched to a Comfortbilt pellet stove and now i heat the house for about $6.00 a day!! Very easy to operate and cheap to run also clean burning!!! so this was a no brainer for the cost and savings!! Just throw in a bag a day and clean it every 4-7 days so easy it's amazing. This is Canadian price to boot LOL :-) Temps here today -26 stove in basement and upstairs 70-72degrees perfect :-) also have a battery back up with a charger inverter and a 100AH lithium battery and when the power goes out it automatically switches to battery back up for about up to 15Hrs and you can also hook up a solar panel in conjunction to the battery to offset the electricity that the stove uses!! :-) Estimate $800.00-$900.00 for the season like i said way better than propane and most other heating systems Cheers :-)
1971 ranch in north west NJ. Coal furnace heats 1400 sf unfinished basement which radiates up from the floor to heat 1400 sf at 73 degrees upstairs for 860 dollars.
Great video !
Thanks for summarizing it all for us !
I use LP on 2,000 sq ft farmhouse build in 1915 (remodeled in 1980’s). Last year, 20/21 I’ve used around 800 gallons of LP just to keep it warm couple of days every week. Otherwise thermostat was set to 55*F. This is air circulating system.
For the next winter I’m planing to use radiant heat (at least on 1 floor) with a LP boiler and augment it with solar thermal.
Meanwhile it’s -5*F outside (feels like -18*F) in northern Illinois.
I think you will find it much less expensive to heat the house using a high efficiency heat pump, than the LP system for the winter of 2022/23, because fuel prices keep climbing! And with $6 per gallon fuel oil or diesel prices, that will become the most costly to heat a home. Also most fuel oil furnaces are not over about 75% efficient.
Ground source heat pumps are just to expensive to install, unless you have very low electric costs, and high prices for the alternative fuel, such as propane or fuel oil.
In my area, Portland Oregon, where the low of 23F only happens about 15 days per 3 years (most years stay above 23F), the air source heat pump works wonderful, and I never hooked up my electric resistance back up heater.
My cost to get 100,000 Btus' from my 14 SEER heat pump is about 8 KW or about $0.80. So $800 for the winter if I actually needed 100,000,000 Btu's? But I do not need that much heating.
Look for 30 tube evacuated tube solar thermal heaters. I would suggest 2 of them to warm your boiler water to a acceptable level in your area. Maybe 4 of them. You might also consider standing them upright, next to the building on the south side. This is because in the summer, it would be easy to put a blanket over about 1/2 of them, so they do not overheat, and at 90 degrees, they will pick up more winter sun than if mounted at 25 degrees on a rooftop. At 90 degrees, it is much less likely to overheat in the summer, while providing just domestic hot water to the home.
With the recent cost of LP gas going up, at $4.10 per gallon, that is about $5 per 100,000 Btu's of heat. A air source heat pump is only about 5-8 KW of electric, at $0.16 per KW would be $1 to $1.60 to provide 100,000 Btu's of heat. Yes it will not work at 5F. But above 15F there is plenty of heat to collect from that outdoor air!
You might consider a 18,000 Btu ductless heat pump, mounted on the wall of a room that is about 500 - 700 square feet. This will provide a majority of the heat that you need during the months March to early December. With solar panels, you might cut down LP burn rate to under 100 gallons all spring - late fall. Filling a 1,000 gallon tank in the middle of summer is a much lower cost per gallon than filling it in the winter! With the heat pump set at 60F and the LP system set at 50F, to prevent plumbing damage, you should be fine. The solar might keep things warmer than 60F if you get 4 panels (X 30 tubes each).
I bought a 18,000 Btu ductless unit for my neighbor, it cost only about $1,200 on Amazon. I installed it where his 240 volt heat pump was located, (that heat pump quit many years ago) so didn't need to run any high voltage wiring, and it took us about 5 hours to install it. It is completely silent, only as noisy as a refrigerator!
Thank you very interesting. I have geo-thermo heating/air-conditioning. I needed six wells to take care of my house. The wells did not take much room about the size of a small garage. When the temp gets down to near zero the system runs non stop. I do have 6 inch thick walls with traditional insulation. It is a good system but natural gas feels more comfortable.
Damn, six wells. U must be living in a mansion. When i was planning on buying a system to replace about 20000 kwh yearly heating usage from direct electricity i would have needed only 2 wells. Deeper u drill the more efficient it becomes becouse it is warmer the deeper u go. That was for 20kw output pump. In the end i opted for burning wood chips costing about 400 chipped and 200-400 for the wood yearly.
As an hvacr contractor in West Virginia,I’d agree with this Information.
Excellent comparisons! Thanks for the video.
In my situation I feel blessed for our property to be situated in an oak forest. Even though I have a heat pump along with 2 mini-splits, I primarily (nearly 90%+ of the time) heat my home with a wood burning stove. I've switched out my 40 gal electric water tank for a tankless water system using propane. For 2 people- a 30lb propane tank lasts us 45+ days for bathing and washing dishes. The other thing we have done is installed an off grid solar system that primarily runs our refrigerators, other small appliances and lights in the home. About the only thing we use grid electricity is for the larger items like the clothes dryer and well pump. Our monthly utility bills are very low. For me, I have the time and resources to cut/split/stack/age wood and that is the cheapest by far for our home heating...
Knew a family that would heat both levels with electric fireplace (one each level). Turns out, the first $60 of Electricity (in Ontario anyways) is your delivery costs, and then usage. Despite having a gas furnace, they cut off the gas (no delivery or surtaxes anymore on gas) and found it cheaper monthly on average. So lights and heat all in was about $350 winter months, ($120 the rest) which for bungalow in Ontario Canada is pretty good.
Thank you for a lot of good and valuable information. We have an electric heat pump as our main source of heat, but we also have a fake fireplace with LP gas logs as a back up source when the power gores off. We live in Ohio where we do have winter weather, but not like a lot of other states.
Retired Commercial Refrigeration Tech. Well presented. Well spoken. Tons of info. For future videos consider doing one on environmental exhaust output each fuel makes.
Love the video. Someone who actually has all these types and has real world experience in the business is great. Where i live I think heat pump and NG are going to be nearly the same cost to heat. But watching your video made me think having NG as the AUX heat might be a good idea.
Same in my part of the U.S. Electric is only 9.5 cents/kw. I've ran both in a previous home with both systems and electric and gas water heaters too, and..............absolutely no difference in cost.
My house is 160 years old and freezing. The basement adds a lot to the cold due to dampness and air leaks. I'm considering spray foaming the basement to keep it dryer and lessen the air leaks. Baby steps to make changes, I love my home ❤
oh yes insulation is the best way to start.Very high rate of return.
Use spray foam where the sole plate meets the foundation.
Insulate the perimeter joists first.
These two things made a big difference in my house.
Research types of insulation and call pest control companies. Was told by one (that was helping me determine if I had mice in my attic) that they are attracted to spray foam insulation.
@@Jmamelia Termites are attracted to exterior foam insulation as they like to eat into it to form a little base that keeps them warm. Especially exterior slab insulation which is typically in the ground around the house.
Very I formative. You did a good job of explaining the different options. Thanks
Hey Benjamin GREAT video thanks for this information. Really well done.
While the change in management isn't helping matters, fossil fuel prices are cyclical with them being even more expensive than now from 2005 to around 2014. There's a lag between the high prices that spur development and increase supply, once supply increases demand goes down due to the high price, causing glut, then depressing prices and new development.
It's great to have different sources of heat available - build in resilience.
I'm a fan of the idea of a good wood stove/insert and a large stash of wood too.
Remember always that the fossil fuel industry and the commodity markets will jump on literally any excuse to jack prices, and they are always slow to drop back, if they ever do, to the same levels as before. Changes in management are a big excuse...
I burn wood when it gets really cold. Otherwise I use natural gas and electric. But Even with wood burning my monthly bill has doubled from last year, even though the average temperature is warmer than last year. "Change in management" is a lot nicer than what most people are thinking and wanting to say come time to pay the energy bill!
@@shaundevrisky349 inflation is evil and printing money is theft.
High fuel prices are worldwide right now, not just the US. The EU gets a lot of fuel from Russia. It's too simplistic and inaccurate to put that all on US management. The pandemic, when wholesale fuel prices went negative, threw the world for a loop, and the world has still not fully recovered.
@@marcusgrande3875 Pandemic my
A
S
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Europe has high energy prices because they have been pushing to transfer to wind and solar to try and go woke "green", and the consumers are the ones paying the price for this B.S.
Solar and wind cannot keep up with the electric demand, nor can it compete with cheaper natural gas, propane, and fuel.
Higher fuel prices in the U.S.A. ARE from the current administrations actions, regardless of what the liberal/communist media is telling you. EVERYTHING market related comes down to supply and demand. The first thing Joseph Stalin Biden did upon stealing his office was cut domestic oil and natural gas production by denying drilling leases, curbing production and shutting down pipelines. The result is a short supply and high demand which equals high prices.
What also isn't helping is the fact that Stalin has raised inflation to 40 year highs by printing trillions of dollars that the U.S. Treasury cannot back with gold or anything else of value. Another simple equation: the more money you print, the less it is worth. This translates into higher commodity prices.
If this actually has to be explained to you, then you need to either re-take economics 101 or attend some anti-delusional therapy classes.
all electric, with solar thermal and solar P.V. and closed loop GEO, also wood stove and tankless electric. 12kW solar system with bills around $50 in the winter and nothing in the summer. Also have 2 E.V.'s that I charge at home. Flat plate thermal collectors with drain back tank. Also tried the vacuum tube solar thermal with pressurized antifreeze, (less maintenance).
How much was your install cost? I was seeing quotes of $25,000
1200 square foot house with a basement. Last year I invested in a wood burning furnace with a blower to replace my wood stove that heated one half of the house. Put in some duct and it works amazing. Best purchase I've made. I can spend $500 for two years worth of wood, of course I have to pay for the gas, and the saw, and the chains to cut it up, and it does take time to work it up and bring it in. But... To me there is no heat like wood heat. Nothing feels quite right after growing up with wood heat. Great video!
Excellent presentation. Clear, concise, intelligent, and easy to understand.
Very Interesting. My house was also built in the 1800's, 1868. It is about 1200 sq ft area. I had it insulated by a local firm that specializes in old homes and they did a super job! What a difference. Any way The up stairs is only used maybe 20% of the time and is usually shut off, so I am not heating nearly the whole 1200 sq ft. I use a very efficient thermostatically controlled Harmon pellet stove. It is placed in the living room in a corner so it blows the heated air out to the other rooms naturally. I supplement with some in wall electric heaters hard wired in each room. They are digitally controlled Cadet heaters . They are 1600 watt, 240 volt and 5200 btu heaters. They can sense the room temp and only put out enough to keep the temp stable. They seem to be very efficient and do not use a lot of electricity. If the outside temp goes above about 45 I just use the electric. When it is colder the pellet stove easily heats the house. If it gets very cold I may have to turn on one of the electric heaters for a bit. The closest I can figure is that It cost me about $800 to heat my home for a 6 month season. I live in southern Indiana. Really, a super insulating job is the key. Plus, I manage my heat sources .
What kind of insulation did you use?
@@Jmamelia blown in Cellulose insulation
We installed a Samsung heat pump this summer and it heats well so far in Maine. Plus it’s an air conditioner in summer
I really enjoy your enthusiasm, time and input into your videos! I have been an HVAC Tech since 1975. I currently heat my 3500 square ft house with the original Lennox Heat pump equipment installed in 1983. I may self have have changed the compressor in 1995. That new compressor continues to do the work in 2022! My House is 2x 4 stud frame house with an addition that contains some 2x 6 framing in the lower level. By using the one run approach ( The one run approach is something I came up with to beat the electric Company. I cool or heat my house to a higher or cooler than normal setting. Say for example in cooling I set my thermostat to come on at 4am and cool to 68 degrees until 8 am. Then the system stays off until 4 am the following day. Now, depending on the heat load and summer conditions, I have to adjust my run time settings. I do the about face in the winter heating season. Now as the temperatures get more extreme, of course you have to run your heat pump more. So when my house gets down to the balance point, that occurs at about 5 degrees or so, I dump a bag of Hard oak pellets in my pellet stove and light it off. That pellet stove will heat the whole house to 65 degrees no problem at 5 or less. I have been able to keep my utility bills average at 648.6 kWh over 13 months.
What a great comment. You really know your stuff and you have a great understand of this kind of machines.
I like your "One Run" system. Once the system is running, it is performing better than it would in the first 15 minutes of a new cycle in cooling or heating. I found in heating it takes about 10 minutes to reach the peak hot gas temperature, and reach the peak heating performance with hot gas at about 150F to 165F on a 47F outside air temperature day. I typically run my heat pump 3 pm - 5 pm. Then my electric rate goes from 12 cents per KW to 35 cents between 5 pm and 9 pm weekdays, then falls to 8 cents overnight (and weekends) until 7 am, when it goes back to 12 cents. So the really cold nights, I might run it another hour between 9 and 10 pm. Then normally off while I sleep.
Your 1983 Lennox unit is probably about 10 - 12 SEER, that was about the best they had back then. Now a R-410 unit will run 14 - 16 SEER without going to the variable speed compressors (that get 21 SEER). I would suggest a 16 SEER unit to replace the Lennox unit some day, and that can save about 40% on your electric bill. Better to do it sooner, I have been doing this since 1983, and am not getting any younger!
My 1972 tract home came with a 18,000 Btu GE unit on a 40 amp breaker. I replaced it (in 1997) with a 30,000 Btu 10 SEER Carrier unit with a 20 MOCA - so 20 amp breaker. My current home is double the square footage, 48,000 Btu heat pump with 30 amp fuses and only draws about 16 amps! 14 SEER installed in 2014.
Nice break down of the options. Personally after an emergency when my natural gas heater ran wide open for a weekend(kids do the darnedest things) 90 degrees all weekend 2000 dollar bill that month it only cost 800 for an in house wood/coal burning furnace that I tied into existing ductwork granted cutting and splitting and storing wood is very labor intensive but it has worked well for 15 years
Subscribed and " Liked " today Nice clear voice and smooth delivery, I am going to tour your library of past videos today. I hope there are some about your HVAC occupation. In Louisville Ky
We live in central MN. Our house is about 7 years old, 1800 sq ft, literally tons (18T to be exact) of insulation, 12" thick walls, 22' thick ceiling, triple pane windows, Passive solar, we use an off peak brick heater, and wood for our main sources of heat (and of course the sun). We do have 2 air source heat pumps, we have never needed them for heat, but we could as they are rated to produce heat even with ambient temps get to -19ºF. We use them in the summer for AC though. Our goal was not to use any fossil fuels in the heating or cooling of the house. We have a solar array which, over the course of the year, produces more energy than we need for all house functions, plus our electric utility pays us for our excess generation. Bottom line is we pay nothing for heating our house, in MN, in the winter! You made an excellent video, Ben. Cheers!
We have a 2,000 sq. Ft. ranch home (not including the finished basement) in central Wisconsin. When propane prices about doubled in the fall of 2021 we decided to get geothermal installed. Installation was completed in late December of 2021. I installed an energy use monitoring system (Emporia) on January 1, 2022. According to that, we used 6,071 KWh to heat and cool our home in 2022. We pay $0.13 per kWh for a total of $789.23 for 12 months, and just $692.74 for heating months. We keep our thermostat at 72. Even after the tax credit we spent more than a regular furnace, but it’s good piece of mind.
Fairly informative but we're missing some key points. I was in HVACR for over 50 years, technician, installation manager, service manager, HVACR instructor, factory rep for Carrier. What gets missed a lot in these discussions is that the building and heat emitters are part of the system. If the home and/or emitters (baseboard, ductwork, etc) are junk that needs to be addressed first. If the home is under construction or planning then we need to be ground source, variable speed ductless or NG/LP mod con ( modulating condensing) boilers period. Standard oil or gas systems are complete garbage except the System 2000. The US still uses AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency which is a fancy way of saying standard exhaust efficiency test) to calculate eff%, it is seriously flawed, it does not take into consideration actual steady state and stand by running conditions. For example a oil or gas boiler with the yellow efficiency tag on it that says 87% is a lie, that system could actually be 60% or less. Then comes the "are you going to save any money?" test. If you need a new system because yours is old and dead then go with the best available. If you are just changing to save money, well, what's your payback?? If you are going to spend $12000 to save $500 a year for example it's going to take 24 years to break even and then you'll start saving, maybe, by then your system will be obsolete and dead anyway. Many times it's better to look at the structure and emitters and improve that but beware of scams, like windows, new windows could cost over $10000, so again how many years to break even? And don't ever go from double pane to triple pane thinking you are going to save, the U value between the two is minimal and you won't gain much. Clean your baseboards, radiators, insulate and seal your house, foam where you can, have an energy audit done. If you have exposed ceiling beams in the attic that's your biggest loss right now and it's cheap to fix, beams are transmitters, the heat or cold in the attic goes right through them and that's why you need insulation over them and again foam is the best. I brought my attic up to R50 or more and it's noticeable, my heating system and cooling system do not run as much and cutting the hours they run saves more energy.
Excellent thoughts!
System 2000 with a steel heat exchanger is the biggest pos ever made and is bat far the most disposable piece of garbage to ever be called a boiler.
I was an HVAC/R man for many years as well. Tech, install and duct design. We chose to go with a dual fuel system by placing an H/P coil over a propane furnace with a variable speed fan for backup when it gets too cold for heat pump efficiency. We also use an old wood cookstove that not only heats the main area, but placed the system return air grill nearby so it would spread the radiant heat throughout the house. The actual system runs very little other than the fan to recirculate air.
System 2000 are not the best boilers, one broken bolt those steel things are condemned. Biasi, Buderus, are far superior, less maintenance, fewer things go wrong.
Great video. We are in a major renovation project right now. We use a new Mitsubishi mini split that’s good to -11. It works very well. Unfortunately in our basement space we still need to use resistance electric baseboard, but that will be addressed by next winter. I did imbed pex tubing in our basement slab and we’re figuring out how best to heat the water to get that online. A heat pump water heater looks like the contender.
So thanks for the video. I will add this: DO NOT PUT HOME HEATING FUEL IN YOUR MODERN ROAD GOING DIESEL TRUCK OR CAR (unless you’re burning ultra low sulfur diesel fuel in your home heating system). Modern vehicles operate on ultra low sulfur diesel only and you will be in a world of hurt if you try it.
In closing. Insulate insulate insulate.
I subscribed some time ago, your videos are very educational.
Honestly, heat is cheap in the US! Compared to Europe.
Where I live (Germany), heating oil is currently still used, but that is a declining type of heating because it is very expensive.
Natural gas from Russia by pipline is very popular, but prices are rising.
The US would also like to sell us gas, but transport by ship is expensive.
Gas from tanks is only used if there are no pipes for natural gas. Maybe that's a market for the US.
Some have the right to cut wood and thus contribute, but it is a lot of work.
Then it is better to have sawdust delivered from the sawmill and burn it in a special facility. Well priced and convenient if you can get a contract on delivery.
It was often criticized that there is little AC in Germany. The temperatures often reach only 25 ° C = 77 ° F in summer. Maybe a week 30 ° C = 86 ° F. In winter we have down to -10 ° C = 14 ° F.
Now the government is pushing heat pumps, AC for heating. This is mandatory for new buildings.
I only saw heating with electricity through resistors in the cemetery chapel. This is often not used and then only for one day. But then only so much that you can sit there without freezing.
Wood heats you twice - once cutting it, twice burning it.
I love this!
🤣😂
You warm up cleaning up the mess that it makes in the house .
@@timlawson817 mine doesn’t make a mess (: there is ways to keep it clean and orderly
It gets freezing cold here in the winter and super hot in summer. We use Mitsubishi minisplits and monthly bill is $40 to $90 per month. Most months is around $40 to $50 unless it gets super cold in the teens or lower. House is 1800 square feet. This bill includes using all electric appliances. We have no gas appliances.
I live in Ontario, Canada and I heat with passive solar, R-30 in the walls, R-40 in the cieling and a woodstove that heats my water that also heats the floor. Curtains are great to let the heat in during the day and keep it in at night. I live off grid with solar panels and batteries so electric is out but in the future I will put in a propane backup to keep the house from freezing when I go south during the winter. I love your video though, thanks for the information!
I live in North Carolina where winters are usually mild. We have a short period of temps below 30 but for the most part, 30 and above. An early 1960s ranch house, approximately 1,600 sf, with a dual fuel system, natural gas + 2 stage air heat pump with cutover temp of 30. I couldn't be happier. System is 15 years old now and when it is time to replace, I intend to stay with the same configuration.
Minisplits for last7 years.
At the beach we are lucky to get 5 years.
Just replaced 2 18000btu units from HD for
$3600. So the salt air might of off set a good portion of the savings from electrical.
There are hardened exterior units or regular split systems so hopefully in the future they will make hardened mini split systems as well that can be used beachfront.
Make sure you check for discounted electrical rates for heating which are available in some areas.
To get the total picture you would also need to include installation and maintenance costs, but this is a good start.
If you generate your own electricity?
Just ran out of propane this cold MT winter. Now using natural thermal heat from the first floor with a couple of oil filled electric radiators to keep pipes from freezing. A southern exposure and lots of glass heats up the upstairs on sunny days and at night I turn a small propane heater while sleeping. During the day we have fire places on the first and second floors and this is all I need until the propane company can get here. Natural thermal and sun light are my favorites, just don't forget the long johns, house temperatures can dip into the 50's on cold nights but is livable.
Thanks for your article it helps me make up my mind.
Hi Ben, Im using forced air natural gas primarily, but augment that with a wood stove. The house is 120 years old with little insualtion. Fascinating that Propane has become the second highest cost over fuel oil. Wow ! Propane is just as abundant as natural gas. I retired from a gas company and few producers bother to strip the propane out of natural gas.
It turns out we were lied to about how clean natural gas is. Not only is fracking not wanted, but there are methane leaks down pipelines or at refineries, etc. and the methane is a HUGE problem (as is being reported relative to the Russian pipeline sabotage).
Clean this, clean that , bottom line is if anyone is worried about climate change the only issue is numbers, ie population …. Too many people. Has everyone forgot about ZPG…, zero population growth…..? China has what 1.3 billion people…. ? That alone will pollute the entire world. That’s if everyone doesn’t die from a virus first.
@@jimalcott760 If we had energy solutions that would scale w/o damaging the planet, then the population shouldn't matter.
Current Prices in Vermont:
Electric =19.5 cents per kilowatt
Propane = $3.55 gallon
Fuel oil =. $2.49 gallon
Nat Gas = 50% of propane + -
Dry Wood = $300 cord ( 228 Cu ft)
I use heat pumps and fire wood...
In a 2500 sq. ft. house. Through December Wood cost = $75
Heat Pump use cost = $336 + -
Total $411.
Last year I spent $1500 on wood alone, so my new heat pump mini splits are really efficient compared to the wood even at a high KW rate!
Thanks for sharing your rates! Fuel oil is actually fairly reasonable in your area but electricity and propane are way more than around here!
@@BenjaminSahlstrom The fuel oil is a special rate right now... I don’t know what it was previously and I have no clue how long this rate will be available. It’s the advertised price today!
Are you saying that natural gas plus delivery charge from energy supplier still 50 percent cheaper than propene ?
@@andreycham4797 that’s what the ad appeared to be stating but I cannot be sure... I actually don’t know anyone in this area who uses NG
SUBSCRIBED on New Years Eve 2022!🥳
We are in Houston, TX so we use the A/C about 350 days a year. For the other 15, we might turn the gas fireplace on unless it gets really bad for more than a day or so. All of our money is spent on keeping cool. Very interesting video though! Thanks for making it.
I use natural gas where I live and it doubled over last year. It's hard being a single income home owner and seeing a bill double from one year to the next. I'm buying a wood stove in the spring and going to get prepared for next year. It doesn't have to provide 100% of the heat, but helping keep this gas bill down is definitely needed considering I don't see the markets coming down anytime soon.
yes our last gas heat bill in ohio was 300 thats half my rent in one bill our house was built in 1921 not insulated good
That’s exactly what we’re thinking of doing. Oil is almost $5 a gallon, 100 gallons delivered would run me about $600. It would’ve cost me half that last year😢😢. I’m just grateful that my furnace is new and runs well.
@@luislandofficial, You need a ductless heat pump! To get 100,000 Btu's from your oil furnace takes burning about 1 gallon of fuel. A heat pump is only 5-8 KW of electricity. Even a electric heater plugged into a 120 volt outlet is 23 KW per 100,000 Btu's and less than the cost of a gallon of fuel oil! Still the heat pump will win with only about $1 per 100,000 Btu's of heat!
I bought and installed a ductless 18,000 Btu heat pump for my neighbor. Cost was only about $1,200 on Amazon, including the copper tubing between the two units. It connects to his broken and removed 240 volt heat pump outlet. It took us about 4 hours to install it.
Even with natural gas heat, about 1.2 therms per 100,000 Btu's, the cost is more than $1 that a heat pump will use!
We use ground source heat pumps (closed loop) to provide all our heating, cooling and domestic hot water needs. The COPs can be over 5! The systems are quiet, comfortable, low maintenance and we anticipate longevity, as components are not subject to extreme temps or outdoors in the elements.
Location?
How long will that take to pay it back vs a traditional system?
@@willbass2869 Cincinnati OH
@@FJB2020 I’ve heard 3-5 years if you’re switching from fuel oil or propane. 5 to 8 years from natural gas. We’ve had our systems 5 years. There’s also the federal tax credit (renewable energy) that helps too. 26% right now I believe.
@@dougevans74 I guess there is a wide spread on payback, becasue some people that have those systems report very high electricity usage... Thanks for your feedback.
I LOVE that heater Ben! We had one just like it years ago!
Thank you. Very clear explanation and very helpful.
Electricity here in TN is about 14cents/kwh. Great comparison video. We have heat pump only here, Jan and Feb get pretty expensive (resistive heat gets used then), but not bad the rest of the year. No solar here yet, but I would like to put some on the house just to help some. ... We have found the cheapest upgrade to a house is more insulation and the more the better year round.
I would look into ground heat loop but small lot keeps me from it. We did have our air source heat pump replaced a couple of years ago and that has helped due to increased efficiency.
I would punch my mom for 14 cent electric! In New Hampshire it's 24-29¢.. painful
The problem with most contractors is they pick out a smaller heat pump than your heating load needs! In 2014 I installed a 48,000 Btu 14 SEER heat pump for my 1,850 square foot home in Portland Oregon. It is rare, but we had 23F cold snap last month, and the heat worked just fine. Sure it ran much longer hours that week. I never connected my back up 20 KW furnace to the system. I might some day, but hate the thought of back up electric heaters. I will use my electric oven if I need back up heat due to compressor failure.
At 47F outside, I get about 55,000 Btu of heat. At 35F it is down to only 40,000 Btu. At 23F it is 28,000 Btu's. That is the size I used to determine the heat I needed. For cooling only, I might have picked a 30,000 Btu unit, but that would only provide about 18,000 Btu's of heat on that 23F night, so I would have needed to run my back up electric furnace.
8 winters, and no back up heater so far!
Ground source heat pumps are extremely efficient but also outrageously expensive because you need plenty of land, wells drilled, or a massive pond. I'm installing a water to water ground source heat pump in my house but I was really close to just go with mini splits. Those are cheap, super efficient for their cost and super easy to install.
My dad uses ground source heat pumps with a "pump and dump" setup where the water is pumped from his well and then the used water goes into a pond on his property. It works well but depending on where you are located they may or may not allow that type of system.
I'm having a water to water ground source heat pump put in. It heats the water that runs thru the pex I installed in the basement concrete floor. Then forced air for entire house. House is 4300 sq ft with basement. I have 6 250' closed loop runs that were straight drilled 20' deep. House is closed cell spray foamed from top to bottom including basement walls.
Mini-splits are NOT cheap and do not have true defrost cycles that incorporate resistance heat to warm the delivered air while the system is in defrost mode if they even have a defrost mode. At least currently, they are only intended for moderate winter climates.
@@BenjaminSahlstrom hey, german guy here! Actually I am looking to get exactly this kind of water-to-water heat pump allowed. As a side note: mostly all newly created houses in Germany are constructed with electric heat pumps nowadays, since those are funded by our government. Also all fossil fuel type heating systems are going to be forbidden in the upcoming future.
@@alanmorrison3598 what is "moderate"?
Where is it better to use the mini splits? Missouri, N. Georgia, Central Texas?
Fantastic video! Thanks for the knowledge
Great comment about the insulation. I believe it makes sense to address that first and minimize energy leaks. Good windows as well.
I really appreciate this video,,, I'd love it if you would make a video on how a wood burning furnace works and the pros and cons of it. BTW I've been a subscriber to your channel for a few years now and have really gotten some great information for the electrical wiring aspects of my remodel. I turned a friend of mine onto your channel when he was building a small MIL unit with absolutely no experience. He wired the place up and the main box based on your videos and passed with flying colors!
I have 1 and love my wood burning furnace. 1st check with your insurance company, they tend to frown upon them. Accessibility to wood and getting it into the house. Chainsaw, gas, wood splitter, do you have a chimney? Does the chimney need a liner. Lots of things to look at and initial set up. Can't just sit around it takes work even after your all set up. And do you have a chimney sweep in your area. I've been cleaning professionally for almost 30 years and installed a few.
@@kevingray4921 I'm in the planning stage of my dream home,,, I live up in NW Washington and am just trying to figure out what would work best. I know I want heat loops in the floor but haven't decided on the best way to heat them or the entire house.
Honest and accurate explanation and side by side comparison. Well done.
Thanks Benjamin, Although West Coast, no snow, winter temps get down to 28f but that generally not more than 40 days -Nov. thru Mid. Feb but a lot of moisture in the air. No NG, so delivered Propane or Electricity which as you stated the highest cost of heating. But with Propane cost since the Pandemic prices have leaped to over $4.00 per gallon to where not much difference in using electricity vs. propane. At 72 and home 90% of the time this old joints & bones ache a lot more when the inside of our home is colder, so I pay for less pain to Mr. Power Company. I just subscribed & Bells ringing to get more of your Tips. Wonderful
Buck Stove wood heat all winter since two years ago. God has blessed us with finding the stove, installing the stove, amd getting free wood.
In Toronto, most people have natural gas for heat and hot water. My house is 900 sq ft and was built in 1901. My natural gas bill ranges from $40 in the summer to maybe $120/month in the winter. It wasn't always that low, but we have had milder weather recently and a couple years ago got one of those energy efficient combo boiler/hot water wall mount units. They are awesome.
Energy is so incredibly cheap in the US and Canada ....... and then people also complain
This is a good comparison of fuel cost but to determine "best" should consider other factors too, such as lifetime maintenance cost, environmental impact/carbon emissions, risk of leaks, ability to heat by zone, etc. You mention insulation briefly in this video; would be cool to do a whole video about that since it also makes a huge difference in total cost.
Indeed, and I would include climate for your location. Heat pumps are much less efficient in cold weather so make less sense in norther states. In Texas they make much more sense than, say, Alaska.
Insulation is, indeed, a whole stand-alone topic, and makes the biggest cost consideration, in my opinion. In winter, the goal is to keep the heat energy indoors. I grew up with a wood stove, corn stove, propane stove, a kerosene heater and rarely electric heaters. Lol. Wood was number one, propane was secondary. In any decent storm, we lost power. The "best" certainly does consider many factors. ❤️
@@PlutonianPenguin if your backup heat source is natural gas, the a heat pump still makes sense up to zone 5. Zone 5-6 is probably the tipping point, but with gas being cheaper than running the heat pump it's not a deal breaker. Imo
@@pinkysregenerativevarietyf9345 i agree. When you lose power often, a woodstove is the only heat source that let's you stay in your house. I can stay warm and heat, reheat, or cook on my woodstove and keep my pipes from freezing.
I use natural gas forced hot air as my primary heat. When we are off work we burn wood cut by me for free. And since we are empty nesters most of the time. We use a Mini Split in the master bedroom to space heat that room. I’m in southern Pa. 7 cents per KWH. Electric bill is normally 70.00 a month and my gas bill is normally around the same. House is 2 story built in 01 and is 2700 sq feet. Also we use gas for hot water,cooking and drying clothes. Awesome video
Update.
Fuel oil - 5.50$ gal
Propane 3.89 gal
Natural gas 1.05 per therm
Electric 9.4 cents per kw
Starting to get crazy.