Heat: Fuel Oil vs Propane vs Electric

[dmccarty]

I have seen strong research by EPRI and DOE that says turning a heat pump off and on during a day actually increases the total electric consumption. If temperatures drop more than a few degrees, the HP will call for expensive electric resistive backup and the total consumption will rise drastically. They recommend just turning it down a few degrees - if you must - but never shutting it off. They actually say running it constantly at the lowest comfortable temperature is the best way to save. Apparently the HP has to be off for more than a full day to have any hope of actually saving.

The heat strips do not turn on when we do this. No way would it be cheaper to run the heat pump all day. Because that is exactly what that danged thing will do, run all day long vs twice. When we turn it on in the morning in might run for an hour or so. Running two hours a day is cheaper than running 24 hours. Our average power bill is $120 a month. During the summer, the bill can jump to $180-190. I expect our heating bill would be over $200 a month. The wifey does not like cold temps so we let the temps get to 82ish in the summer but we keep the temp a max of 72-75 with the heat pump. Last months power bill was $140-150 some of which was heating but I also was using the stove more than usual. I have never seen the heat strip lights turn on and the heated air from the registers is not real hot either.

Later,
Dan

 

[timster2]

Don't know where you would store your oil inside or buried outside. On the news last nite was a story of a homeowner who came home to a smell of oil in the basement. Seems that the buried tank sprang a leak and soaked the soil and finally ran into the basement wall and soaked its way through. She contacted her insurance carrier and found out that the leak was not covered under her homeowners policy. Now she will be out thousands to remove the leaking tank and contaminated soil. Oil leaks can be costly.

 

[Carl_NH]

Don't know where you would store your oil inside or buried outside. On the news last nite was a story of a homeowner who came home to a smell of oil in the basement. Seems that the buried tank sprang a leak and soaked the soil and finally ran into the basement wall and soaked its way through. She contacted her insurance carrier and found out that the leak was not covered under her homeowners policy. Now she will be out thousands to remove the leaking tank and contaminated soil. Oil leaks can be costly.

Thats why I installed a double wall Roth tank in an exterior insulated area and it has a Rollie heating and suction probe to prevent gelling. The Roth tanks have a $1M liability coverage included in case of a leak.

 

[jejeosborne]

The heat strips do not turn on when we do this. No way would it be cheaper to run the heat pump all day. Because that is exactly what that danged thing will do, run all day long vs twice. When we turn it on in the morning in might run for an hour or so. Running two hours a day is cheaper than running 24 hours. Our average power bill is $120 a month. During the summer, the bill can jump to $180-190. I expect our heating bill would be over $200 a month. The wifey does not like cold temps so we let the temps get to 82ish in the summer but we keep the temp a max of 72-75 with the heat pump. Last months power bill was $140-150 some of which was heating but I also was using the stove more than usual. I have never seen the heat strip lights turn on and the heated air from the registers is not real hot either.

Later,
Dan

I am sure each system is different. Most will kick in emergency heat if the set temperature vs actual temperature has a certain spread, say 5 degrees. One could defeat this by stair stepping the set temperature in a couple of steps.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

This is my first year of geothermal (groundsource) after 16 yrs of oil. definitely has been cheaper than burning oil. I'll have some hard numbers at the end of the heating season.

 

[westcliffe01]

Its a difficult comparison. Diesel is at near record high pricing right now and was pretty high a year ago. The question is what is going to happen to electricity pricing. The writing is already on the wall for new coal fired power stations and the government is going to try to shut down existing coal fired stations through the EPA. Supply/demand will push prices up to make the economics of renewable work out, which in turn will drive up the cost of solar panels and wind turbines. For a while, while Greece and Spain were spending their loaned Euros we saw the price of solar panels increase in $/watt due to supply restrictions, despite China having come on line for the first time with solar panel production.

The population is still increasing, so demand for electricity is not going to decline. If permits do get issued to build a bunch of natural gas fired power stations, that would be good for the price of electricity, but bad for the longevity of the source of NG. Another decade or 2 and we will be back to the same point again.

 

[MasseyWV]

Diesel is at near record high pricing right now and was pretty high a year ago.

And it's only going to get worse.

 

[sdkubota]

I am sure each system is different. Most will kick in emergency heat if the set temperature vs actual temperature has a certain spread, say 5 degrees. One could defeat this by stair stepping the set temperature in a couple of steps.

My heat pump has an adjustable control system. I can set the amount of time the heat pump runs before any resistance heat kicks in from 10 mins to 60 mins. Once the resistance heat kicks in the meter spins like it is taking off. I believe there are 3 - 60A 240v resistance heat banks in my air handler. Needless to say I have my heat pump set to run for 45 minutes before any help is given.

 

[dmccarty]

My heat pump has an adjustable control system. I can set the amount of time the heat pump runs before any resistance heat kicks in from 10 mins to 60 mins. Once the resistance heat kicks in the meter spins like it is taking off. I believe there are 3 - 60A 240v resistance heat banks in my air handler. Needless to say I have my heat pump set to run for 45 minutes before any help is given.

It is odd that our heat strips do not turn on. In our old city house, if I turned up the heat like I am doing now, the heat strips would come on. You could feel the heat and the light on the thermostat would turn on. This does not happen in the "new" house. Maybe our system is setup similar to yours. :confused3:

Later,
Dan

 

[tcartwri]

Diesel and heating oil are definitely going to keep ramping up.