Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigtime
My micro-gen provider monitors all their clients and switches when it makes sense. I'm with Alberta Cooperative Energy (ACE). With all my increased electrical usage they didn't even switch me over last summer.
Speaking of that, with the heat pump fully up and running I got my first full month electrical bill for January. Prior to these renos we'd use a little over 400kWh per month. January 2024 came in at a whopping 2254kWh. We are definitely going to be getting a lot more solar panels this year.  |
Are you sure the heat pump is sized correctly?
If it is oversized it will cycle and not run efficiently which can waste a lot of energy.
Also, you want to be sure that you are keeping your thermostat set at one temperature. If your wife (for example) adjust the T-stat based in how she is feeling hour-to-hour it will kill the efficiency.
Oversized heat pumps are the major cause of inefficiency.
The best gas furnace will be 96% efficient under factory testing (probably 90% real world), so you are wasting 10% right out of the gate. Keep that in mind with your calculations.
Electric heat is solid state, so you are getting 100% of the power you put in. A well-sized, properly functioning heat pump can run at 300% efficiency. I doubt you would see that level of efficiency in real world conditions, but they can be significantly more efficient than even regular electric heat.