Comment on Heat pumps can't take the cold? Nordics debunk the myth
Kelsenellenelvial@lemmy.ca 11 months agoI suppose if electric heat is the primary option then sure. Around here though natural gas is pretty much ubiquitous and the cost per joule is a heck of a lot lower than electricity. About $6/GJ for natural gas, compared to about $42/GJ for electricity. Would need a pretty efficient heat pump to see the cost savings in my area.
Drewlb@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There are heat pumps now that use gas to do the supplemental heat. Those are the best possible option. They are equally efficient to a gas furnace when supplementing, and even cheaper when not.
Kelsenellenelvial@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I’m sure there’s applications where that’s true, but then you’re essentially talking about having a gas furnace plus a heat pump, so you’re installation cost is close to the sum of both systems. Energy rates vary by region, but around here electricity is about 7 times the cost of gas, so a heat pump running at a coefficient of performance around 3 would still cost twice as much to run as a natural gas furnace, it would be cheaper to just turn off the heat pump altogether and only use that “supplementary” heat.
Drewlb@lemmy.world 11 months ago
When I was looking at new heat pumps the hybrid ones were between 500 & 1000 more than the equivalent electric ones.
It’s not a sperate unit, it just has a gas heater in place of the electric supplemental coils.