Submitted by gallopingants t3_xttlmp in Washington
I'm relatively new to Washington and this will be my second winter here. Last winter my heating bill was an average of $450/mo. I have electric wall heaters but I'm not a fan of them given the electric bills. Is this common in Washington? Are there alternatives to electric wall heaters? I own a house so I have the ability to change/modify as necessary.
And many of the utilities around here are offering rebate programs right now.
Also a heat pump gets you air conditioning in the summer and air filtration.
Ductless mini split.
Easy to retrofit highly efficient heat pump.
Agree. Gives you AC and heat, inexpensive to operate. Mine are rated to -5 F, and did well last winter when it was 5 degrees F.
Very expensive. I was quoted 5K for just my bedroom-not including the new circuit needed.
I use a Chilipad water heated/cooled pad under my sheet. About six hundred dollars. Costs almost nothing to run.
Cmon man. Nobody’s heating their entire house with a water bed.
If you sleep eight hours, you have just heated yourself for eight hours. That's a third of the day, and likely about half of the time you are home. That's zone heating.
Mr Cool DIYs are under 2k if you are handy.
This seems to be the common consensus around here. That and the energy audit. I'll have to do some research and see what makes the most sense. The upfront cost is probably worth what I'll save in the long run. I imagine if it's AC capable as well that'll help the home's value if I ever sell.
Heat Pump. I had central forced air heat and was spending $500/month in the winter to heat my house. I can’t get gas. I spent $17k through Costco and got a $2k gift card. That included a new furnace.
If you don’t have central air you can still get a heat pump with cassettes set in certain rooms. The routing is easy.
A cheaper option would be to check the insulation in your attic.
I second checking insulation. It won’t matter what heat source you have if it’s all escaping through your roof.
Ditto the insulation and heat pump comments, plus I’ll add double-paned (or at least updated) windows to the pile. Re-doing our window from the 1952 originals to double-paned was a significant difference in how much we were spending and it made the house more comfortable at lower thermostat settings as well. Insulation came a few years later; heat pump was added this summer.
There are those dish heater things that Costco sells, too, and they are incredible for heating up a room and they didn’t spike the electric bill much, IIRC. Economically considerate space heaters might be your best bet until you’re able to get to the upgrades suggested here.
>A cheaper option would be to check the insulation in your attic.
True. But what matters even more than insulation is air leaks around doors, window & foundations. Getting a whole-house pressure test done will identify those leaks.
[deleted]
If you bill is that high chances are you have no to very little insulation in your home. If i were you i would first look into getting a home energy audit that would evaluate how well your home is insulated and sources of air leaks and efficiency of your heating. Dumping money on a new heat pump would be a waste of money before doing this. First got to understand the source of the problem before remedying the issue.
This is a fair point. I've noticed a few sources of potential air leaks that I've been working to seal up. I haven't checked the attic yet, though.
+1 to this. Renovated a bathroom in a house built in 1960-ish, and it had a window in the outside wall. Upon removing the window, I discovered it had zero insulation in that wall, and I assume that was true for the rest of the house as well. Needless to say, post-renovation it was the warmest room in the winter and coolest room in the summer.
This. I live on a top floor condo, and I think I've only turned on my baseboard heat three times since 2007.
Heat pump FWIW, my 3,000 sqf old poorly insulated house from the 1960s never see total bill (gas and electricity) go over $150/month. Electricity is normally around $35-$50 year round. Gas fluctuates with season of course, higher Dec-March. Climate up here in WA west of the Cascades is mild.
How many pumps do you have? My house isn't as big as yours but it does seem like I'd need multiple units for different parts of the house. Or does one unit effectively distribute the heat throughout the home?
Sorry, I have none. Heat with gas. But if that’s not an option, even has fire place, heat pump is the way to go for you. I have friends using gas fireplace combined with IR ‘cove heaters’ very successfully. They are essentially large infrared panels mounted high up on the wall, direction heat towards the human.
Whoops, I completely mis-read your post. Gas is not an option for me, so I think a heat pump is the way to go.
No worries, not you. I was a bit unclear. Yes, heat pump will give you an accelerator of 3-5 X compared to direct resistive heating.
Look into reversible heat pumps, definitely.
Electric wall heaters are the most expensive heating. Check out ductless systems that can split to more than one room, provides best and A/C. Mitsubishi makes a great product. Also, you should have an option with your power company to go to a monthly payment plan. We pay $132/mo and once a year they look at your budgeted amount for overage/under funded and make the adjustment. Keeps us from having those huge winter bills.
We have a wood stove. We get a cord of two of wood each winter. We use an oil space heater in our bedroom. Our bill runs around $180-$200. I’m home all the time, as I also work from home. I would jump on one of these suggestions because PSE said rates are going up.
Another fan of the heat pump here, especially if you already have a central furnace to circulate the air. Given what’s happening with the climate you will be grateful to have AC in the summer.
In 2023, you can get 8k back on heat pump install (and some more if additional electrical work is required, which is likely the case), if you make under some income threshold, thanks to the IRA bill.
In general, heat pump in mild climate should cut your heating bill by perhaps 50%. And it can do AC, too!
I'd also check out your attic. Most of WA is supposed to have R49 in the attic, my 1970s home had R .. 10? 20 in spots? Naked elsewhere? Adding R50-60 in blown in insulation was a multiple-weekend DIY job but totally doable. Makes the house incredibly much nicer to be in, even in mild September days.
Geothermal
Get a fireplace insert and burn wood. You can find free wood everywhere you just have to collect, chop and season it.
[removed]
Immediately: Turn the thermostat down to 60 or 62 for 8 hours at night, turn down another 6 hours if you leave during the day. Wear socks & slippers & house hoodie around the house & stay busy. Then 66 is warm enough. A heated mattress pad makes you toasty in a cool room. Next: Research hvac contractors & rebates & system choices. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to cut your bills this winter with a new heating system. It could be far more expensive long term to make a hasty decision with the wrong outfit
Get one of those Mitsubishi wall heaters
Geothermal here. We literally get our heat from the earth (and A/C too).
I'd rec9mend either and underground heat pump or a gas heatpump hybrid system.
In colder portions of our house, we use an electric oil heater. It’s mobile and it heats the surrounding area and doesn’t seem to be as expensive. That’s a quick fix and you are generally not trying to heat the entire house, just the areas that you are occupying. Couple that with an electric blanket to directly heat you while sleeping.
Heat pumps and gas furnace like others have said are more long term and expensive fixes but worth it over time. It sounds like though you may need to assess where you are losing heat and see if you can shore up insulation and cracks since that will be a problem for any fix.
Check your insulation and seals around windows and doors, too.
Once it gets cold feel if there’s any cold air coming in from outlets and switches on exterior walls. They make precut foam inserts that can help
Use less heat?
If your place was built / renovated in the med to late 70s, Washington was massively incentivizing all electric housing as the WPPS nuclear power plants were being built and needed customers to pay for electricity so the state and other bond holder didn't get stuck with huge bills. WPPS was never finished, tax payers ended up paying the bonds and electricity prices have continued to climb.
For more information on the state dictating to the market and destroying the middle class, see the Green policies Inslee has supported (and pay your +$0.50 gas tax increase come January while they outlaw gas appliances in new construction and gasoline powered cars).
mrnipper t1_iqrsawv wrote
A heat pump or gas furnace will generally be far more cost effective compared to electric heating using a resistor element like you have been using. If you don't already have gas as an option, a heat pump is most likely your best option.