Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
I wonder what the savings would be. If I'm averaging $60 a month for natural gas, I once roughly figured it was about 2.5 times cheaper per thermal unit, factor in 80%, factor in 500%, factor in some of my gas goes to stove and hot water heater...
So, about $20 per month average for electricity?
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The idea of saving with a heat pump in your case would need to be a hybrid approach. One idea would be to use the NG heater when the temperature is below 20F and the heat pump when it is above. Use each where they are most efficient. The crossover point would depend on the efficiency for each heating source and your cost for a therm of NG and the cost of a kWh. (What do you pay for those)
You can figure out how much NG you are using for cooking and hot water by looking at your bill in June, July, August when you aren't using your heat. (I do the same thing for electricity but I use April and September when I'm not using heat or A/C)
The other big factor is how warm do you keep your home. That has a huge effect on the cost of heating. Considering you turn off the heat completely at night when it is -20F outside and say heating a whole house is a waste I suspect you are doing just the bare minimum to keep the pipes from freezing.