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Lilslugga2002 t1_j3bpzyz wrote

Reply to comment by Traditional-Oven4092 in New home owner, National Grid Bill is extreme! by Fuey500

I don’t know why people keep saying this. The Mitsubishi HyperHeat H2i units offers 100% heating capacity at -5 degrees and 70% to 81% heating capacity at -13 degrees. I have three minisplits in my condo and never had a problem with them keeping up during the extreme cold. These replaced my electric resistance baseboards.

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heklakatla t1_j3bt9t6 wrote

Contemporary heat pumps are great, I agree. Perhaps /u/Traditional-Oven4092 was merely covering the 'power is out' scenario.

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Lilslugga2002 t1_j3bv7r5 wrote

True. Heat pumps have come a long way in the last ten years. I am also lucky to live in a town who participates in municipal aggregation. 9 cent per kWh supply rate until the November 2023 meter read. I really hope something changes between now and when the next three year contract is negotiated. Also I am debating on improving the insulation in my unit over the summer. Not much else I could do besides solar and I am not sure I could even do this. 🤔

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heklakatla t1_j3dsvtz wrote

Seal before you insulate... MassSave will come do it for you. They'll get all of those nooks & crannies where pipes and wires penetrate the wall. They even took care of the electrical boxes for the pull-lights in our closets!?!

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nattarbox t1_j3cav54 wrote

Same, ran mine all winter last year and they work fine below zero. Not even the cold weather models. Gets less efficient, but still better than baseboards.

A good HVAC installer will match the capacity to your house size so you’re covered at any temp.

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Traditional-Oven4092 t1_j3c3z53 wrote

What’s your electric bill look like in cold months? I live out in the woods and get 5-6 outages a year ranging from hours to a few days so a heat pump was out of the question.

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Lilslugga2002 t1_j3c7q6r wrote

Last year I used 3,898 kWh from 11/12/21 - 03/14/22, averaging $236 per month.

I only had two minisplits at the time and I was still using my electric resistance baseboards in my master bedroom and full bath. Every other space had coverage from a minisplit. I worked from home on my dining room table upstairs. Kept temperature at 70°F during the day, low 60s at night. Kept second bedroom low 60s unless I was in there for a long time, master bedroom was kept at 58°F all the time because all I did in there was sleep so I had lots of blankets. Full bath was kept at 60°F.

This year I got a third minisplit for my condo and put it in my master bedroom. I moved my work from home setup into my master bedroom, re-arranged room. Contractor said to not change temperature more than plus or minus 3 degrees. He said minisplits like to run all the time, more efficient that way. I basically kept all rooms at 70°F during day and 67°F at night. I haven't had a full winter doing this yet, but my most recent bill was $229. My entire place is way more comfortable.

For comparison, the year before I put in minisplits I used 4,792 kWh during that same timeframe and never set the electric resistance baseboards higher than 64°F.

And going back to when I moved in I used 6,799 kWh over that same period. This was before I did any improvements.

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kelvin_bot t1_j3c7r49 wrote

70°F is equivalent to 21°C, which is 294K.

^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)

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