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.

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

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.

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.

Yep, heat pumps are amazing technology. It's a shame that so many people don't understand their benefits and overemphasize their weaknesses. That's part of the reason why people end up over-relying on space heaters and actually do more harm than good.

Yeah, the turn off more quickly because the thermostat is basing it's cycles based on the oil temperature...but the oil temperature isn't what keeps humans warm. The warmer air is what warms people. The oil heaters warm the surrounding air more slowly...making comparisons by measuring consumption over a set period of time flawed. If you measure the actual input into the air by measuring consumption from a temperature to another temperature (68 to 70, for example)...the consumption will be basically the same. They're both ~100% efficient. That's what the physics dictate.

Oil-filled electric heaters are still electric heaters. They will use the same amount of energy to generate a BTU of heat.

2500 sq/ft home, all electric (with heatpump) and an electric car. Thermostat set to 69-70. $275 bill this month.

I've put a lot of $$ and effort into airsealing, insulation, thermal optimization...so the total isn't too high compared to some others, but this is still the highest bill I've had in ~5 years.