The Prairie Spy

Alan “Lindy” Linda

My background is HVAC. Doing, and teaching.  I get calls from folks puzzled about what they should do with their heating situations.

I say puzzled because, while payback on money you invest in very expensive heating equipment can somewhat be calculated, what is not so readily predictable is the money that will be taken from you to repair this very complex “saving” machinery. This is IMPORTANT!  If you ignore this part of the “savings” equation, you do so at your bank account’s risk. KISS is my approach. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

First, let’s compare fuel costs. LP (propane) is varying quite a bit, depending upon whether you summer fill, own your own tank, lease, etc. (I figure this at pennies per gallon cost. I use pennies; it breaks down more understandably.) Let’s do the price at $1.80 per gallon, or 180 pennies. (This is about what I just paid.) You get 92,500 Btus per gallon. 92,500 divided by 180 gives you 513 Btus for your penny. If you have a reasonably modern gas furnace, it’s probably 90-plus efficient.  513 at 90 percent efficiency gives you a final 462 Btus for your penny. Easie peasie!

Number 2 fuel oil is around $4.00 a gallon. It has 140,000 Btus in a gallon. Number 2 at 400 pennies per gallon is 140,000 divided by 400 gives 350 Btus per penny. At a normal 80 percent,  you end up at 280 Btus for your penny. Out in the country, propane wins, big time! More easie peasie!

Natural gas is still the king. The meter might, for an approximate example, read the month’s (beginning to end) consumption at 25 (of some measurement, like 7329 minus 7304). Okay, here goes: Natural gas is sold in different ways–cubic foot, either CCF–hundred cubic foot– or MCF–thousand cubic foot, at the meter. It may be charged in one of those units, or by the Therm, which is 100,000 Btus. Now, take the figure of 25, which is billed on your statement as 2500. But, you ask, 2500 what? (cubic feet) To discover that, take the 2500 times 1000 (1,000 Btus in a cubic feet, you see) , giving 2,500,000 Btus. Divide that by a bill of 2725(dollars to pennies)  and you get 917 Btus for one penny.(If your calculation comes off by decimal points, you chose the wrong–MCF or CCF or Therms– measurement. See what I mean? ARRRGGGHHH! NOT easie peasie.

You have to almost figure your bill out backwards. The knowledge to do this? Whew.

Trying to figure out some natural gas bills is almost impossible. NY Mills is simple. In larger cities, their bills would take an MBA to figure out.  Pipeline transport charge, rate case recovery fee, gas franchise fee, gas supply charge, basic service charge, capital investment charge, advantage of ignorance multiplier (I just made that one up) –and three or four more fixed line charges! Really, really impossible to figure out! It’s almost like they don’t want people to know. ( Hmmmm.)

Those of us outside town have to wrestle a very slippery bit of arithmetic to find a winner. First, my opinion: KISS. Avoid too many moving parts and electronic controls. Gas furnace. Oil furnace. Air conditioning. Simple. And lowest cost going in.  I’m not in the business of selling HVAC stuff to make a living. That  means that I do not have a horse in this race, not even an inexpensive one. Any heating solution involving an air source heat pump must also be accompanied by wiring your house for off peak usage. If not, forget this. Even with off-peak, and even the lesser cost of adding the HP option to the air conditioner you need, long term payback becomes iffy.

I know: You need a new AC; heck, just a few bucks more, we’ll fix you up with the heat pump option. Resist it. KISS.

Should you choose to wrestle this arithmetic, and choose off-peak electricity (I’ll use REA figures, which by the time you add in fees and tax and stuff, is about 10 pennies per kilowatt (Or more, depending upon some pretty fuzzy multipliers that they have control of.), or 3413 Btus, so if you’re using straight resistance heating on off-peak, like electric baseboard (good because no moving parts) or an electric plenum heater (not quite so good because control issues can cause headaches), you get 3413 divided by 10, or 341 Btus per penny.

Remember, for off peak, you have a significant up-front electrical wiring investment to recover, in the thousands of dollars, and you still need a back-up unit. (There is yet another situation whereby you do not need a backup unit. It’s called storage. Up front costs, off peak and wiring and all, are high.  Finally, you get those favorable off-peak rates because they can shut you off when it’s very cold. (Or hot.)  I really hate them shutting me off when it’s very hot! You can bring in your back-up unit when it’s cold, but there isn’t one for hot.)

So why are heat pumps so popular? Because, further south, the more temperate weather lets HPs actually perform admirably. But here? Uh, uh.

What do I use? Since I did all my wiring for off-peak by myself,  I got  by for less than a thousand dollars by installing my own 200-amp main, a 100-amp sub to off-peak; another to on-peak; and another meter base. I use a single-stage air-source heat pump, set to not come on below thirty degrees. Anyone who tells you you can run these down to zero or below is neglecting to tell you that you’re not getting much out of them when it’s that cold. Or that cold conditions hurts machinery.

So. No one is telling you about a hundred nasty complications that can and does happen to complex equipment. (Example: Due to a faulty fitting, I lost all 18 pounds of refrigerant in my air source heat pump. R22 is now 30 bucks a pound. And how long does it take to recover nearly $600 that this cost? Wow! Plus–I’m able to do this myself. You are not. And. Think about the several, several thousands to buy into heat pumps and off peak installations, and the recovery time! Ugggg!)

You’re confused? I guess, welcome to the club.

P.S.: An alternative? Insulate, insulate, insulate. No moving parts. Simple.