Are Heat Pumps Cheaper To Run? Don’t Believe Octopus!

[rangerrebew]

Are Heat Pumps Cheaper To Run? Don’t Believe Octopus!
APRIL 27, 2023
 
By Paul Homewood

 

Don’t believe the lies from Octopus Energy:
 

https://octopus.energy/blog/heat-pump-running-cost/

Let’s see how they have tricked you.

Their electricity consumption for a heat pump is based on an efficiency rating of 333%. In other words, you will get 333 KWh of heat from 100 KWh of electricity.

But this is a wildly optimistic figure, unless you have ultra high levels of insulation and live in the mildest part of the country.

According to The Eco-Experts website, who themselves are devoted to pushing heat pump technology, the best you can expect is 300% efficiency, and many people will get much worse. And as they say, this means you will actually end up paying more in running costs for a heat pump, not less.

Using Octopus’ prices, with 300% efficiency, we get:

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/04/27/are-heat-pumps-cheaper-to-run-dont-believe-octopus/

[Kamaji]

Generally?  No.  From personal experience.

[Elderberry]

Do they also calculate the energy usage of the heat pump to cool the house in the late spring, summer, and early fall?

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Do they also calculate the energy usage of the heat pump to cool the house in the late spring, summer, and early fall?

We have a heat pump and we love it. Mitsubishi brands are near the top of the line. What I like though is it's the same unit you cool your house with. There are a few night out of the year it is too cold to use it. You don't want your pipes to freeze.

[roamer_1]

They work fine (and cheap) for cooling up in here... But you'd better have an alternative when it is below zero.

[libertybele]

They work fine (and cheap) for cooling up in here... But you'd better have an alternative when it is below zero.

We have a heat pump and it cools just fine.  We keep our thermostat set at 78. Once in a great while in the winter if temps drop down to around 70 in the house we'll use it to heat the house to around 73.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

They work fine (and cheap) for cooling up in here... But you'd better have an alternative when it is below zero.

We had a night in feb where it got down to negative 15. We turned on our baseboard units as well.

[Fishrrman]

bele wrote:
"Once in a great while in the winter if temps drop down to around 70 in the house we'll use it to heat"...

Huh?
I don't get it.
Why would someone want to "heat" a house that's at 70 degrees?

Weird wrote:
"We have a heat pump and we love it... There are a few night out of the year it is too cold to use it. You don't want your pipes to freeze."

Well, what supplementary heat do you use when the temperature outside drops too low for the heat pump to work?
Hmmm... electric baseboard?  Doesn't that get expensive quickly?

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

bele wrote:
"Once in a great while in the winter if temps drop down to around 70 in the house we'll use it to heat"...

Huh?
I don't get it.
Why would someone want to "heat" a house that's at 70 degrees?

Weird wrote:
"We have a heat pump and we love it... There are a few night out of the year it is too cold to use it. You don't want your pipes to freeze."

Well, what supplementary heat do you use when the temperature outside drops too low for the heat pump to work?
Hmmm... electric baseboard?  Doesn't that get expensive quickly?

This past winter it happened once only, when the temps were -15 F.

[Cyber Liberty]

They're very common in the deserts of AZ.  It doesn't get cold with the annual low in the low 30s.  They work well when its 122.

[Sighlass]

Ours works fine to cool the house, it is heating you have to watch out for... to heat after it gets close to freezing it kicks in "emergency heating" which means it runs some electric cords that eat the dog out of electricity and still does not keep up with heating the house.

Thus why we just use our wood heater instead of using the expensive electric coil heating of the heat pump.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Ours works fine to cool the house, it is heating you have to watch out for... to heat after it gets close to freezing it kicks in "emergency heating" which means it runs some electric cords that eat the dog out of electricity and still does not keep up with heating the house.

Thus why we just use our wood heater instead of using the expensive electric coil heating of the heat pump.

I should mention we also have a pellet stove. Frankly if I could use that stove to heat the whole house, I would.

[Bigun]

They're very common in the deserts of AZ.  It doesn't get cold with the annual low in the low 30s.  They work well when its 122.

They work not at all when the temperature outside is below freezing. (Very difficult to pump heat when there is none.)

[roamer_1]

Ours works fine to cool the house, it is heating you have to watch out for... to heat after it gets close to freezing it kicks in "emergency heating" which means it runs some electric cords that eat the dog out of electricity and still does not keep up with heating the house.

Thus why we just use our wood heater instead of using the expensive electric coil heating of the heat pump.

To be fair, my kid is building a house right now, and he is going to be using a heat pump. His is a true HP/Electric furnace - Not merely a helper element, but a serious furnace that it kicks over to when the HP ain't keeping up anymore.

Now, I would not want to rely on an electric furnace in the winter up in here... which is likely the second most expensive mode of heat possible (the first being electric baseboard), but while he will be paying through the nose for the few weeks of subzero temps, the efficiency otherwise from the heat pump should more than offset the cost. We will see. His house and mine are only off by 25 ft2, so my wood/nat gas setup (with portable air conditioner) vs. his hp/electric should be pretty comparable.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

They work not at all when the temperature outside is below freezing. (Very difficult to pump heat when there is none.)

Sorry but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Heat pumps are reverse air conditioners. Mitsubishi units work below zero.

[Bigun]

Sorry but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Heat pumps are reverse air conditioners. Mitsubishi units work below zero.

I know exactly what a heat pump is and how they work.  I stand by what I said 100%. A geothermal heat pump is FAR superior to a simple heat pump but is FAR more expensive to install.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

To be fair, my kid is building a house right now, and he is going to be using a heat pump. His is a true HP/Electric furnace - Not merely a helper element, but a serious furnace that it kicks over to when the HP ain't keeping up anymore.

Now, I would not want to rely on an electric furnace in the winter up in here... which is likely the second most expensive mode of heat possible (the first being electric baseboard), but while he will be paying through the nose for the few weeks of subzero temps, the efficiency otherwise from the heat pump should more than offset the cost. We will see. His house and mine are only off by 25 ft2, so my wood/nat gas setup (with portable air conditioner) vs. his hp/electric should be pretty comparable.

One advantage of heat pumps over baseboard is no ozone smell.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I know exactly what a heat pump is and how they work.  I stand by what I said 100%.

We used ours here all winter. In New Hampshire.

[roamer_1]

Sorry but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Heat pumps are reverse air conditioners. Mitsubishi units work below zero.

Yes, but with reducing efficiency the colder it goes. The last one I was around rated 25% efficiency at -15 or so IIRC. Which is nearly negligible performance... Not that it mattered, because my friend used wood to heat in the winter.

[Bigun]

We used ours here all winter. In New Hampshire.

And you likely paid dearly to do that UNLESS you have a geothermal unit.
There are a couple of heat pumps types on the market. Most of the inexpensive ones will have a Resistance type heat strip built in for when it gets cold outside.

https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/heating-and-cooling/heat-pump.htm