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Why would a builder install an electric heat pump in a townhouse when there is natural gas available in the community? I thought a natural gas furnace would be cheaper to run and more comfortable. Assuming the listing is correct, should people avoid buying this house? Thoughts?
The house was built in 1985, and is located in Farmington Woods in Avon. Most other units in the complex have gas furnaces. I am only virtual shopping at this point, and do not want to contact the real estate agent.
Why would a builder install an electric heat pump in a townhouse when there is natural gas available in the community? I thought a natural gas furnace would be cheaper to run and more comfortable. Assuming the listing is correct, should people avoid buying this house? Thoughts?
The house was built in 1985, and is located in Farmington Woods in Avon. Most other units in the complex have gas furnaces. I am only virtual shopping at this point, and do not want to contact the real estate agent.
I use one to heat and cool my entire house for free with electricity from my solar panels using no fossil fuels. They are way more efficient than burning fossil fuels. Most gas furnaces/boilers have efficiencies in the 90 percent range.
An Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) will typically produce around 3kW thermal energy for every 1kW of electrical energy consumed, giving an effective “efficiency” of 300%. It is thermodynamically impossible to have an efficiency of more than 100%, as this implies that more energy is being produced than is being put in. For this reason the performance is expressed as a Coefficient of Performance (COP) rather than an efficiency. The above example would be expressed as having a COP of 3. The reason that it appears that more energy is being produced than is consumed, is because the only “valuable” energy input is electricity used to drive the compressor and circulating pumps. The remainder of the energy simply transferred from a heat source that would otherwise not be used (such as the ambient air, ground or a river) so is not considered as an energy input.
But, as with other forms of “renewable” energy, where the source of fuel is virtually limitless and free, it is the total cost of generation rather than the efficiency that really matters.
For comparison, other forms of heat generation have the following efficiencies:
Condensing gas/oil boiler: 90-96% efficiency
Conventional gas/oil boiler: 70-80% efficiency
Direct electric heating: 35-45% efficiency (including losses in generation and distribution).
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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I found what I think is that unit on the MLS. I don't work up there, but was curious. I believe it was a mistake as all other units on the street say gas heat.
I found what I think is that unit on the MLS. I don't work up there, but was curious. I believe it was a mistake as all other units on the street say gas heat.
The unit is 2 Stonington, Avon, CT. It has a condenser outside, as it would for A/C.
I use one to heat and cool my entire house for free with electricity from my solar panels using no fossil fuels.......
Congratulations on being off the electrical grid. Do you live in Branford as your profile says? How much land do you use for solar panels? Or are they all on the roof?
I thought Connecticut weather was too cloudy to produce enough electricity to power the whole house. I would have thought a ground source heat pump might be better.
Congratulations on being off the electrical grid. Do you live in Branford as your profile says? How much land do you use for solar panels? Or are they all on the roof?
I thought Connecticut weather was too cloudy to produce enough electricity to power the whole house. I would have thought a ground source heat pump might be better.
I read a while back that heat pumps are now being made that would work in our region. I'm in an apartment and wouldn't be able to afford to go off the grid in the first place, so I'm out.
A woman who comes to visit my neighbor lives in Farmington Woods and she's always complaining about hardly being able to afford the heat. Maybe she just whines about everything but she's always coming here (gas heat) to get warm. That's all I know about that!
I found what I think is that unit on the MLS. I don't work up there, but was curious. I believe it was a mistake as all other units on the street say gas heat.
Good catch. After looking at the Assesor's Office street card, if also say forced air natural gas for 2 Stonington in Farmington Woods. It must have been a mistake.
...... A woman who comes to visit my neighbor lives in Farmington Woods and she's always complaining about hardly being able to afford the heat. Maybe she just whines about everything but she's always coming here (gas heat) to get warm. That's all I know about that!
Some units have gas heat on the main floor, but in the finished basement, they have electric baseboards. Perhaps it would have cost to much to add ducting for heat in the basement. Or the concrete floors are cold under the flooring.
Heat pumps should be used only if natural gas is not available.
And they work best south of the Mason Dixon line. When temps get very low, in kicks electric coils--very expensive to run.
If natural gas is available, make the contractor use a gas furnace/conventional split a/c system.
If you have new construction with a really tight thermal envelope, you can use a heat pump in southern New England. The new ones work as heat pumps to 0F and use resistive heat below that. On a 1985 townhouse, a new replacement heat pump for the HVAC system is probably more efficient than a gas furnace on the shoulder seasons.
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