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carbon56f t1_j6ibgbi wrote

Reply to comment by TaquitoConnoisseur23 in is anyone else’s BGE bill crazy high??? by Proper-Cheesecake602

if OP had been running a heat pump his bill would have been even crazier since he's trying to run his T stat at 72F. I agree heat pumps are a great thing and the disadvantages are overblown, however; one thing that I don't think we talk about enough when it comes to heat pumps is lowering expectations. You can have your heat pump set to 72F, when its in the teens outside and expect it to keep up. OP would have ended up using mainly strip heat, resulting in an enormous bill.

Part of adopting heat pumps is going to be to communicate to people that you need to keep your heat set low, and wear warm clothes inside in the winter. Far too people have this expectation to wear shorts and T shirts inside, while their heat is cranked up in the winter.

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TaquitoConnoisseur23 t1_j6ilmtv wrote

It depends on what you consider an "enormous bill". A heatpump doesn't need to "keep up" to lower your bill. Every BTU that a heatpump produces is going to be cheaper than a BTU produced by resistance strips. Modern heat pumps have a COP >1 at temperatures well below what is seen here in MD...so they should be left running even after they no longer provide all of your needed heat.

With my thermostat set to 70, I only used 2 hours and 17 minutes of strip heat during last month's cold snap. I used less than 4 hours of heat strip all of last winter. That's not going to blow up my bill.

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carbon56f t1_j6inic2 wrote

your heat pump experience does not seem to be anything close to the norm from what I've seen. In fact it seems downright unbelievable.

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TaquitoConnoisseur23 t1_j6ip83d wrote

It's perfectly normal for those who understand the technology and have it installed/configured appropriately. For some additional background, this is not a state-of-the-art unit. It's a 3 ton, 2 stage Trane XL16i that was installed in 2006. This is a mid-tier system by today's standards. 2500 sq/ft home.

My Ecobee thermostat keeps track of the usage in each state. In December 2022, stage 1 usage was 292 hours. Stage 2 saw 66 hours. Aux usage was 2 hours and 17 minutes.

I also have an electric car...and my usage on my last bill was 1850kwh.

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carbon56f t1_j6iprxj wrote

okay given the extra details I absolutely do not believe your claims. Heat pumps are the future, but there is no way you're running a heat pump at 70F in teens weather and only using strips for 2 hours over the course of several days. And definitely not from a unit from 2006.

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TaquitoConnoisseur23 t1_j6iter7 wrote

I mean...believe what you want, but all your doing is demonstrating that you don't understand how to most efficiently utilize the technology. I track all of this pretty closely.

https://imgur.com/a/9o5vjNi

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carbon56f t1_j6j87ts wrote

its frustrating cause these kind of unrealistic claims probably do more damage in the long run. This kind of similar to Tesla not being honest with winter range.

Also way to leave out that you have a second source of heat before you have to rely on strips. A VERY atypical heat pump installation.

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TaquitoConnoisseur23 t1_j6jhxi5 wrote

They're not unrealistic claims...it's simply my experience with a very run-of-the-mill heat pump that I have optimized. This isn't some corporation being dishonest or using best-case scenario laboratory results. My heatpump results are real-world results.

Come on, man...as I already said, it's a two-stage heatpump. Heat 1 is the first stage of the heatpump. Heat 2 is the second stage of the heatpump. It's not an atypical heat pump installation in any way, shape, or form.

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