Anyone have actual results on money saved with their new heat pump? (2014, apartment complex)

[Michaelrj9]

I am somewhat new to the area and figuring out the utility bills in my house I bought.

I have a dinosaur heat pump from the mid 1980's.
I wanted to see if someone from the area recently replaced their heat pump and seen any lower cost in electricity.

The house is older (1970's) 2350SF brick on a crawl. Newer windows.

In the heating months we keep the thermostat at 65 degrees 24-7. In the cooling months it is set at 75 degrees 24-7.


These are figures for electricity only for the house.

March 2014 144.00
April 2014 120.00
May 2014 137.00
June 2014 200.00
July 2014 186.00
August 2014 240.00
September 2014 125.00
October 2014 96.00
November 2014 131.00
Dec 2014 179.00
Jan 2014 220.00



I wanted to see if I could get some estimates on potential savings I should see.

Thanks

[r x f]

The hard part in calculating savings is figuring out how much you actually spend on heating/cooling.

You can look at your electric bill and see the typical double hump in fall/spring where heat/AC use is minimal. In the October, you used a minimum of $96 for electricity. If you assume your monthly non-heating/cooling bill is reasonably constant (not a great assumption, not a terrible one) and assume you used very little heating/cooling in October (let’s say $15), then you spend $80 every month for lights/TV/water heater/dishwasher/etc and the rest is for heating/cooling. Thus, you used $993 to heat and cool your house. You only included 11 months, so I guessed $175 for Feb bill. These assumptions say you spend 50% of your electric bill on heating/cooling over the year.

Next, you need to know the SEER of your current unit. From this source, we’ll say your current unit is 8.5 SEER. You can find the model number on the unit and find the exact number. Current minimum SEER you can buy is 14 and you can buy up to 20 SEER or so. There is also HSPF, which is the heating equivalent of SEER and doesn’t always correlate 1:1 with SEER, but I’m not getting into the weeds too deep here.

Going from a 8.5 to 14 SEER unit will save you ~39% in energy costs. (8.5-14)/14=39%.

$993 will turn into $606, a savings of $387 a year. Not exactly earth shattering, but that doesn’t sell new AC units!

[Reactionary]

What r x f said.

I replaced an old heat pump with a new one a couple of years ago. I don't keep records but I do keep the savings (which are near r x f's estimate). I estimated then that the breakeven point (savings vs purchase cost) was almost at the future replacement date, so buying something that pays for itself is a good thing.

How's your insulation? That stuff (if needed) pays for itself in a year or two of utility savings.

65F? Brrr.

[Nlambert]

I have some info on mine. (Sorry the formatting is getting skewed)

In 2013 we had a Heil 10 SEER 3 Ton Heat Pump that was on its last leg. It was the bottom of the barrel contractor grade unit that was installed when the house was built.

Feb 2014 I replaced it with a Carrier Performance 15 SEER 3.5 Ton HP. We were quite surprised with the savings. We went up a 1/2 ton because we added ducting and vents to the garage as well to stabilize temps out there.

2013 2014 Savings
Feb $(451.18) $(369.82) 22%
Mar $(332.38) $(281.68) 18%
Apr $(211.99) $(181.19) 17%
May $(167.06) $(150.50) 11%
Jun $(271.28) $(224.20) 21%
Jul $(265.61) $(228.97) 16%
Aug $(250.80) $(212.54) 18%
Sep $(268.14) $(237.29) 13%
Oct $(203.96) $(177.36) 15%
Nov $(189.32) $(159.09) 19%
Dec $(243.73) $(196.56) 24%
Jan $(480.80) $(257.94) 54%


Bear in mind this is the utility bill so there will be some error, but our usage habits haven't changed so should be very similar to the previous year. We were having issues with the water heater running constantly due to the cold garage so we wrapped it in insulation. Plus heating the garage has helped. It barely runs anymore.

[denofhc]

I had to replace both heat pumps over the last several years (they were installed when the house was built in 1997). Just last week the 2 ton Maytag needed major repair work. Seems really soon. Came with 12 year guarantee. To use the guarantee would have cost me twice as much! Beware. Don't buy Maytag.

[Nlambert]

We heard the same things when we were looking to replace our unit. My cousin works for an HVAC company down south and warned us against them. I tried to talk my wife's best friend out of a Maytag unit last week but they ignored me. Now the entire house vibrates when it kicks on and the HVAC company is on their third trip today to try and figure out how to fix it. Maytag units are made by Nordyne, who is more widely known to install cheaper units in mobile homes. The quality just isn't there. They hook you with the "warranty" which says if ANYTHING fails in the 1st year they replace the entire unit for free. Then you get a 12 year parts warranty which is 2 years longer than most other brands. Dell does something similar with computers. You don't get a great product. They expect to win you over with their support when the product fails. My personal opinion is that I'd rather pay more for the unit that doesn't require me to use the support.

I don't know what kind of energy savings they will see since switching from the worn out Rheem (also problematic) if any.

[MissMillyDee]

Good posts. Thanks for the information.

[NoleFanHSV]

I'm slightly dissapointed that our unit is only rated at SEER 13 on a brand new house. Energy star requires a SEER of 14. The heat pump is rated down to 10 degrees. With all this cold whether, the next one will be rated farther down and more efficient.

[Nlambert]

Yep 13 SEER is code.... it's the bottom of the barrel in regards to what you can buy. Contractor's buy these because they are "cheap" to buy in bulk. They do the job for a while, just inefficiently. What brand do you have NoleFan? If they bought a 13 Seer, I'm going to assume either Goodman/Amana, Lennox, or Rheem/Ruud. "Possibly" a Bryant or Payne (inexpensive versions of Carrier) but I'd be surprised.

Goodman/Amana is known for quality issues as are Rheem/Ruud.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

Yep 13 SEER is code.... it's the bottom of the barrel in regards to what you can buy. Contractor's buy these because they are "cheap" to buy in bulk. They do the job for a while, just inefficiently. What brand do you have NoleFan? If they bought a 13 Seer, I'm going to assume either Goodman/Amana, Lennox, or Rheem/Ruud. "Possibly" a Bryant or Payne (inexpensive versions of Carrier) but I'd be surprised.

Goodman/Amana is known for quality issues as are Rheem/Ruud.

Its a Carrier.. Its got an 8 year warranty, so I guess I'll replace it when it comes time. Then again, we had a carrier in the apartment complex we lived in, and we lived there 9 years without any AC problems. My parents unit down in Florida is about 15 years old, still going, and I think its SEER 10.

Our home was a spec home, but I think if I went with one of the popular builders, I'd make sure I could put in the most efficient system that I could afford. Obviously, I wouldn't save that much money going with a 14 or 15, but I have seen some SEER 17s out there and that probably would be about the break even point I think. Then again, I wonder if I could replace just the heat pump without the air handler in a few years to get something more efficient?