Yep, a different world here on the left coast. Coal trains run though here, but no one burns it locally. Gas and heating oil is artificially higher here because of a 'conveniently timed' refinery explosion in California. Gas went from $1.89 to $2.89 in February here. Phuckers. Propane is always cheap here for some reason. LP for $1.50 a gallon delivered was in an ad last week in a junk mail flyer. I though it seemed cheap, but digging through my trash here for the flyer, yah, its is $1.599 a gallon (so my bad, its really $1.60 a gallon I guess). Wood chips are grown here and a byproduct of the timber industry. Not so many pellet stoves here either, so pellets are always $180-200 a ton retail, year in and year out. I have posted some photos of the giant wood pellet piles up along the Columbia River in pellet threads on this site. No shortage here, buy as many bags or as many tons as you want. RR car loads, freighter loads, or truckloads. I do not understand the NE pellet shortage. All it takes is a shipment by rail. The cost to ship by rail to New England from here is about $100 a ton. So it would be $280 a even if you bought pellets at retail. I am sure you could buy it here by the freight car load for $150 a ton or less. Something smells fishy, like the refinery fires in California. Artificially drive up energy prices and price gouge. NG runs here from a giant pipeline down the Columbia River Gorge from Canada. That feeds Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, BC. They want to extend the pipeline and open new export terminals on the Oregon coast to fill LNG tankers to ship overseas, but the greenies are trying to stop that. Firewood, well, that grows on trees here. My electricity is 8 cents a KwHr, and there is a 2 cent transmission/distribution/tax rate on top of that. Electricity generated here is basically 30% hydro, 30% NG, 30% coal, and 10% alternative (mostly wind). They tore down the Trojan nuclear power plant here over a decade ago.
Yah, I know. Its been that way for a long time as well. Basically its the $100 a ton shipping from BC/OR/WA that adds to the cost. They also grow and ship far more pellets from the South than we do, but exports to Europe drives up the prices from there. Asia is starting to buy more pellets from here, but its a slower ramp up than the EU (they burn mostly coal in Asia). Also all we have here are 'premium' Doug fir, true fir and hemlock pellets. No hardwood pellets around here. Fir pellets burn hotter and have far less ash. Lemesee here. Craigslist pellets search in Portland. Yah $180 a ton for Pacific Pellets on sale, last 3 tons available for the season. Others are 'gouging' here for $220 a ton. "Well, there is a 'shortage' in New England!" BS layered on top of BS. There is simply no shortage here (of pellets, or BS).
just an heads up. TCS pellets say a ton of pellets equals 2.33 barrel of oil. that's a hundred gallon so for me pellets at over 229 a ton more expensive then my backup of oil so hoarders do your math...
Back on heat pumps, the newest fad is low temperature heat pumps. As in they make 100% of their rated output down to 0 degrees F without electric elements. Sure they will not be as efficient at the low ambient temps but they will heat your home cheaper than resistance heat plus offer extreme efficiency when it warms up outside. That cold weather operation is extremely important for this technology to be used in the colder parts of the country without needing "backup" like electric elements or gas burners. The most efficient heatpump system now is the minisplit ductless heatpumps where there is an outside unit and an inside unit on a wall that acts as an air handler. No duct losses and the heatpump uses inverter tech so they have outrageous COP values. Here in the Puget sound region we have the same prices as StihlHead. You can buy log loads though for 100$ per cord which is more than free but much cheaper than CSD firewood that is always cut too long, short, or green, or muddy.
high beam is right we are starting to use them here but friends that have them complain they don't work in winter where below 0 is common and 20 below is not uncommon but hey I have skied Killington in June too but new Zealand was better
My daughter and SIL are having 2 heat pumps installed in their place Portland, Me... they're all excited about it. It was part of an Energy Maine thing. They have an old steam heating system so it's going to be interesting to see how well these new HP do next winter for heat and this summer (cooling).
A pair of copper tubes. Small, like 1/2" tubes. The whole dang thing runs on a 20 amp circuit too so you can reuse one of your regular baseboard 20 amp circuits to run the whole thing. I happen to think the wall units in the home are ugly but then again, I used to think that blaze kings were ugly until I was blown away by high performance.
In the PNW our power company, Puget sound energy, will give me a 1200$ rebate too even if self installed. It's pretty cool if you can get over the looks. They make a couple of different versions of the inside unit, one that even uses short ducts to hide the thing in the attic or crawlspace. Since it is not ducted it will heat like your woodstove if you only have one unit so you will have a warm "stove" room and the rest of the house cooler which works just fine for us with the woodstove. I have almost decided on the biggest of the Mitsubishi hyperheat models. I have no freaking idea why the manufacturers don't use this same technology to heat our water for domestic or for radiant heat applications. Would make a great boiler replacement.
high beam they do here they have a hot water heater that has a condenser on it like a fridge. say a 50 gallon one heat hot water family of 4 for 12 dollars a month
Yes, the current heat pump water heaters are available here too but nowhere near as efficient as a minisplit heat pump and they are not split systems. You need to have both condenser/evaporator on or near the tank which for many of us means in the living space. Imagine instead a split unit where the water heating is done inside and the noise and heat exchanging is done outside.
ah I see, here most hot water are in basement, almost all houses have, the noise is same as fridge which most people have in house and work better cause basements stay above 55 degrees as below grade, cost with rebate is about 500 looks like regular hot water tank 1 foot box on top the condenser
The mini splits work until minus 12 F. They are comparable to oil at $1.50 a gallon. Big problem is some insurance co. don't recognize them as primary heat. Must have a back up for extream cold temps. They are currently the most efficient way to heat or cool a home. I have a big forced air furnace and a separate oil fired hot water system. Both are in good working condition, my problem is that we want to recover the space they take up with all that bulky ducts and the oil tank. My boys want to put in a large bathroom and laundry that is wheelchair accessible. My pellet stove will heat this house, but it doesn't count for a central heating system. So it looks like we will be putting a condensing propane system. 98 % efficient. I will likely only be using it for domestic hot water. I have to have a system that will work if we are away. Not for me, but to satisfy insurances etc. See "energymaine.com"
I just installed a Nyletherm heat pump water heater to heat my indirect. Maybe i start a thread on it.
Haha! Domestic hot water. For showers and dishes and washing machines. And in womanspeak a heat pump takes air or water and splits it into three parts: warm air/water, cool air/water, and ussually condensate (just like an air conditioner drips).
