Gas Heater vs. Electric Heat pump (Kansas City, Lee's Summit: house, to buy, income) - Missouri (MO) - City-Data Forum

viva kc · 01-07-2010, 05:36 PM

I'm curious what people's heating or electric bills were for the december. I have a electric heat pump and paid about $140 electric bill for 2300 sqft. How 'bout you? I'm scared what our January bill will be!

Patriciack · 02-13-2010, 08:22 PM

I have an all electric house, heat pump, programmable thermostat, triple pane windows, and more than required insullation. My bill for Dec. was $427.59. Of that time, we were out of town for a week and left the thermostat at 55. Just yesterday the bill for January arrived. $728.24!!!!!!!!!!!! I literally threw up!! I don't know how people can do this. House is 3,600 sq ft so may be larger than average, but not the largest ever and really, come on now!

Samantha S · 02-13-2010, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patriciack

I have an all electric house, heat pump, programmable thermostat, triple pane windows, and more than required insullation. My bill for Dec. was $427.59. Of that time, we were out of town for a week and left the thermostat at 55. Just yesterday the bill for January arrived. $728.24!!!!!!!!!!!! I literally threw up!! I don't know how people can do this. House is 3,600 sq ft so may be larger than average, but not the largest ever and really, come on now!

Wow! That's amazing. We have gas heat, gas water heaters, all else electric. We have supplemented the heat with a couple of space heaters and electric blankets at night. Our bills for December and January for gas and all of our electric combined were about 8 cents a square foot. That would be an average bill of about $288 for a house your size. And we were home most of the time and keep the programmable thermostat at least at 70 most of the time.

Sumthin' ain't right ... are your neighbor's bills also this high? Where the heck do you live???

cp1969 · 02-14-2010, 06:43 PM

I have heat pumps and the December bill was over 40% higher than my previous all-time high but usage was only about 15% increased. I have the feeling maybe KCPL got a huge rate hike or something.

Patriciack, are you sure that's not two months' worth of bills?

Patriciack · 02-28-2010, 12:46 PM

Here's what I've found out since. I live in Lee's Summit, so there's a surcharge of some kind over and above what Kansas City pays. Not just a flat rate, but a higher rate per unit of electricity.

Yes, the $427.59 bill was an estimate, but the one before was a real reading and the $728.24 one was a real reading. So in any event two months was $1,155.83.

HOPEFULLY (fingers crossed), this is the problem: I recently had KCP&L install a programmable thermostat. Seemingly I had it set wrong. When the temps get down to approaching freezing, I was supposed to set it on "Emergency Heat" which pulls from the heat pump first and then the electricity. I hadn't done this and it was pulling all from the electric to heat. I sure hope this was the problem - if so, it's a simple fix - and the next bill will be reasonable and I can just chalk it up to lesson learned. If not - I don't know what I'll do.

Thanks for your replies.

flyinmonkey · 08-29-2010, 05:32 PM

I am looking to update the heating unit in my home in KCMO (and add A/C). Sounds like a traditional gas furnace would be the most affordable way to go as opposed to an electric heat pump. Geothermal would be great but I doubt that I would ever recap the initial costs. Anyone have an opinion?

cp1969 · 08-29-2010, 07:27 PM

I looked into geothermal heat pumps when I built my house. It looked like the payoff was just about equal to the expected life of the equipment, so I went with air-to-air.

Keep in mind that you can opt for a gas heat pump. You don't have to go all-electric. I would have gone that route had I had natural gas available.

Cmartin14 · 01-17-2011, 06:31 AM

I don't know about MO, but here in Kansas KCP&L was given a rate hike. The commission chose to direct KCP&L to raise rates an average of 17% for people with heat pumps, and only .6% for those without heat pumps. What kind of discrimination is this, especially when we pay more up front for the heat pump to "save money"? This is an "ex post facto" decision that penalizes those with whom KCP&L had a rate agreement to entice homeowners to buy the heat pump in the first place. This needs to be challenged and rolled back. (My budget billing monthly rate increased 50%. Sure makes retirement on a fixed income fun!)

Cmartin14 · 01-17-2011, 06:37 AM

I should add that I also have a gas furnace which is used to HEAT the house - not the heat pump.

riggsy · 10-18-2011, 08:26 PM

in regards to mge raising their rates for heat pumps(realizing people are trying to save money and penalize them for it ).the gas company seems to do what ever they want with no regulations changing there "policies" and raising their rates with no recourse or other alternatives for the consumer's supplier of natural gas. is this not a monopoly? not to mention the rude behavior of the employees. i am set on finding another way to heat my house. i would rather go chop my own wood than hand over any more money to mge!