Oil vs. Electricity vs.Gas

Currently I'm looking to buy a home and need some advice from people who don't have a conflict of interest. What I mean by that is there's a conflict between my girlfriend's father and I. Daddy doesn't like the location of the home I've seriously considered buying, it's in the country vs. his development.

Anyhow, The home has CAC unit that doubles as a heat pump. Now I know that this is an ongoing debate but just need some opinions. The home is an 1100sq.ft. 3br with brand new windows roof etc etc. Totally renovated and updated.

Now I just got off the phone with the realtor and i requested that he get the last few months heating bills because this will be the first time I would have to live with electric heat/my first home purchase. There is no one living in the home and besides some lights being flicked on for showings and the hot water heater running the bill averages around $170 a month. This is with the home set at 61 degrees.

Now there is a few things that noticed when viewing the home that I think could make some difference such as the basement door every time I go down there is blown open, easy fix. And other small things. Right now I'm used to living in a big home oil furnace/wood stove. Now the heat is turned down to roughly 50 degrees and I chop a lot of wood needless to say. I guess what I'm getting to is that I will be saving money/my time by moving to this home. Oh yeah, Daddy has been nit picking everything in this home as I value his opinion I know deep down he doesn't want us to get it.

 

Regardless of what you choose, I'd strongly recommend programmable thermostats. They can make a huge difference in your heating costs if you set them up correctly.

You'll have to look into what's available in your area and what the costs for each type of system are. As far as I'm concerned, it's a tough debate to definitively say one is better than the other because different systems have different pros and cons, efficiency, etc. I have propane for my stove and dryer, oil for the hot water and heat (tankless) and no electric heat. I like the hot water heat, if you can find old cast iron radiators, I still think they're one of the best ways to heat a home. My old townhome had natural gas and I didn't not the forced hot air heat. It was miserably dry and if the system isn't properly balanced, one side of the house ends up freezing cold and the other side is boiling hot.

 

The heat pump will kill you below about 25 or so degrees....I dont think its that frequent in York

My living more north is:

NG>Geothermal>Pellet>wood>Heat Pump>Electric>Oil>Propane

I have geothermal and a pellet stove. Do you plan to try and power the heat pump if the power is out for an extended period?

 

Lol

Geothermal > Wood > everything else

 

I still use my Pellet stove quite a bit...It works out cheaper and isnt much extra work. It depends on your electricity rate. For my setup the geothermal uses a 375ft well so it has to draw that water up, then extract the heat. Its still cheap, maybe even slightly cheaper than NG.

The problem is, during a power outage I would need a monster generator to handle the surge of the unit and the well so I opted for a pellet stove supplement.

 

I get free wood

Does your pellet stove hopper work with no power ?

 

Nothing can compete on cost with free wood and a healthy back ;-)

The hopper and fan for the stove need power. If the power is cut, some smoke will come though the hopper to the house. I had a generator switch wired this summer and plan on tying an inverter and 12v to the switch box to use the stove when a generator would be off.

If the OP gets a heat pump, for most cases it will be fine, but can always be supplemented with a pellet / wood stove for the coldest of days.

 

I appreciate the replies, and yes there is a few months in the year that I can see below 25degrees. I'm still considering a wood stove for the basement as that is where the chimney inlet is located. I have enough money saved that even after the purchase of the home I should be fine to look into a stove come fall. I'm not really that concerned as I've talked to quite a few people on there experiences. I'm really not sure but someone told me that electric heat and a heat pump are not the same thing so....maybe I'm asking all the wrong questions??

 

Also this winter in PA has been very mild and I was just wondering how much worse can the heating bill reach when/if we get slammed next winter?

 

Electric heat typically refers to baseboards. Its 100%efficent but your size house might be $400 /mo. A heat pump should by under $250 a month. If it gets too cold and the heat pump uses emergency heat (basically the electric restistance) you meter will be spinning rapidly. Id have no problems with a heat pump around york as long as I had a backup for when the temp is really low. It also may be hard getting heat out of that basement

 

Cool that's what I was thinking but thanks for the clarification. thanks for the input!

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