91–95 of 95 posts
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Is net metering available anywhere at all? Where I am it's long gone, and I hear in some areas they charge you to use your excess energy.
Net metering is still very much available in MA. https://www.mass.gov/guides/net-metering-guide
So, do electric companies allow it?
> I do not fault the particular pump that we bought or our installers who were careful and professional. Apparently, however, we lack good rules of thumb to predict how a pump will perform in a particular installation. A 278% estimation turning out as 150% real world performance, certainly was not done very carefully.
I have a 12,000 sqft building in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. Really well insulated and heated entirely with heat pumps. I have a large solar array to offset the costs. I ending up paying around $1.50 this year for all the electricity. If I factor in my SRECs sales it drops to around $.75. Last august the Governor signed new legislation that increased the the price utilities pay for the KWhs I produce so I…
Heat pump technology has been advancing rapidly particularly in cold weather performance. I don't know if that was entirely accurate 5 years ago. But it was certainly MORE accurate then particularly for NW Massachusetts.
And we certainly do have a lack of good installers right now, unfortunately.
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>and could even work when the power goes out. AFAIK gas furnaces still need electricity for the fans to work. When you have no electricity you at best have a glorified fireplace. It's probably going to be a worse than a regular fireplace because it's not designed to output heat to its surroundings.
The fan of a furnace takes little power. It can be run off of a small generator, which ~every homeowner in New England has. A heat pump cannot run off a small generator.
This is absolutely not true. I actually don't know anyone who lives in an urban area in New England that has a generator. And I know some who live in fairly rural Maine that don't have one.
Generators are not ubiquitous, or even common, in New England.
I have a 12,000 sqft building in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. Really well insulated and heated entirely with heat pumps. I have a large solar array to offset the costs. I ending up paying around $1.50 this year for all the electricity. If I factor in my SRECs sales it drops to around $.75. Last august the Governor signed new legislation that increased the the price utilities pay for the KWhs I produce so I…
> The biggest problem I have is that 5 years ago all the HVAC installers claimed one couldn't use a heat pump in our area. Now we need many more installers than are available. Heat pump technology has been advancing rapidly particularly in cold weather performance. I don't know if that was entirely accurate 5 years ago. But it was certainly MORE accurate then particularly for NW Massachusetts. And we certainly do hav…
Daikin makes an Altherma line that is excellent an was removed from the US market a few years ago. Not becuase it doesn't work but becuase the US believe it doesn't work. I often toy with the idea of buying one in Canada. I need a Harry Tuttle of heating engineers.