Quote:
Originally Posted by CowTimes
Have to disagree from experience on the heat pump vs. oil. We have oil hydronic baseboards in our house, and put the mini splits in mainly for the A/C, which was lacking. But we use them almost exclusively in the winter for heat and leave the oil baseboards off, unless it gets really cold (around 10 degrees or lower). We save well over a hundred dollars a month (more in the coldest months) compared to oil, after factoring in the additional electric. We also find them more comfortable than the baseboards that turn on and off, as they keep the temperature much more constant.
The “hyper heat” heat pumps they have out now go down to about 20 or 25 degrees outside at 100% efficiency, and only start to drop from there (to about 75% at 15 below zero).
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I stand corrected. Heat pumps (variable speed mini splits) are better than I thought.
I did a calculation based on how many BTU's per watt my baseboard produces and how many the HeatPump should produce per watt and I came up with cost to run as being half.
My sister has a Heat Pump in MA (not a ductless mini split). She pays a fortune for fuel for a small Condo. Electric rates are much higher MA ($0.26 kWh).
But the claims for the Mini Splits cost to run are 1/3 cost of electric baseboard. But they said things like "up to 1/3". Problem is as temps go down they do get less efficient. So I rounded it to costing 1/2.
But according to this data from Maine (see link below), they are close to 1/4 over electric baseboard for an entire season. And oil is more expensive than I thought.
We used 200 gallons of oil a year in NH (new 2x6 construction very well insulated). That is heated through winter. But we didn't use it too much in Winter.
We have natural gas in MA and pay $645 for the entire year. Super insulated and 96% efficient system. That's kept at 70F all winter.
I paid $500.00 for 2 weeks of electric baseboard in our new place in NH. Very Small and poorly insulated.
This table is nice. The default electric rates are close to NH which is $0.17/kWh
So based on the above experience I really didn't expect to see ductless mini splits so cheap to operate vs almost anything. Even with above average electric rates in NH.
In MA, Electricity is so expensive that Natural Gas is cheaper than a Mini Split and about equal with a Oil Furnace.
https://www.efficiencymaine.com/at-h...st-comparison/
Thanks for the correction. Glad I went with the mini split.