How Much Does it Cost to Heat a Home in Zone 4 With a Heat Pump?

[NateW]

We're looking at houses and are seeing many that are all electric and heat with a heat pump. This is in building climate zone 4 (the mid atlantic states) and house size is about 2500 square feet). I've only had one house with a heat pump long ago (mid 1980s) and all I remember is I did not like the luke warm air. I would imagine they are better now. Also, I read an article by Bob Villa (from This Old House, I think) and he said heat pumps work well in climate zones 1 through 3, but homes in zones 4 on up should be heated with a furnace or heat pump with a natural gas or propane back up heat source.

I know many factors affect cost of operation: house size and style, climate, building insulation, building air exchange rate, etc.

If your house has a heat pump (with electric resistance back-up/supplemental heat), how much does your electric bill increase during the heating season, what is your electricity cost per kilowatt-hour (if known), and what climate zone are you in? Also, are you happy with the quantity and quality of the heat?

Here is a link to the climate zone map: https://basc.pnnl.gov/images/iecc-climate-zone-map

Thanks.

 

[RunningBum]

I started off with propane only heat. When I decided to add A/C I made it a heat pump and run that above 35 degrees, and propane below that. I rarely see an electric bill over $150, but of course in the dead of winter I'm mostly using propane.

Maybe this helps. I almost never use the A/C so my summer bills, especially May/June, are lowest, around $80-90. As it gets colder it edges up to $110, $120, then usually tops off around $140, sometimes higher.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Timely, one of my geek out YouTube channels:

I have a heat pump.... just use in heating mode 0-10 hours a year (usually when my GF complains about being cold or if I want to make sure it still works in reverse) - I embrace the "cold" when I get it here in FL.


FLSunFIRE

 

[braumeister]

I'm in the very northern part of zone 4, with a heat pump for nearly 3,000 sq. ft.

I can't separate out the heating/air conditioning part, but our total electricity usage over the last six years is just over 33 kWH per day. I've tracked it every month so I know this is accurate.

As you say, so many other factors are involved, especially electricity rates, but this should give you an idea. We're more than satisfied with the performance.

 

[NateW]

I started off with propane only heat. When I decided to add A/C I made it a heat pump and run that above 35 degrees, and propane below that. I rarely see an electric bill over $150, but of course in the dead of winter I'm mostly using propane.

Maybe this helps. I almost never use the A/C so my summer bills, especially May/June, are lowest, around $80-90. As it gets colder it edges up to $110, $120, then usually tops off around $140, sometimes higher.

Thanks RunningBum, yes it helps.

Propane is the other heat source we see in the listings fairly often. These are more rural or light residential locations.

I'm accustomed to natural gas heat and surprisingly, many of the newer neighborhoods we see listings in, even a mile or two from decent size cities, don't have it.

 

[NateW]

Timely, one of my geek out YouTube channels:

I have a heat pump.... just use in heating mode 0-10 hours a year (usually when my GF complains about being cold or if I want to make sure it still works in reverse) - I embrace the "cold" when I get it here in FL.


FLSunFIRE

Thanks FLSUnFIRE. I watch Technology Connections a lot too! I appreciate the link.

 

[NateW]

I'm in the very northern part of zone 4, with a heat pump for nearly 3,000 sq. ft.

I can't separate out the heating/air conditioning part, but our total electricity usage over the last six years is just over 33 kWH per day. I've tracked it every month so I know this is accurate.

As you say, so many other factors are involved, especially electricity rates, but this should give you an idea. We're more than satisfied with the performance.

Excellent, thank you very much Braumeister. This makes me feel better about owning a heat pump heated house. With taxes and distribution costs I think we pay about 14 cents a kilowatt-hour.

 

[REWahoo]

If your house has a heat pump (with electric resistance back-up/supplemental heat), how much does your electric bill increase during the heating season,

Measured from our lowest usage in the spring and fall months, it increases roughly 50%. However, it varies quite a bit depending on the severity of the winter.

what is your electricity cost per kilowatt-hour (if known),

To compare to braumeister, we averaged a little over 29 kWh/day in 2020.

and what climate zone are you in?

On your linked map I'm in central TX where the white Warm-Humid line intersects with the bottom of zone 3 and the top of zone 2.

Also, are you happy with the quantity and quality of the heat?

Yes, I am. However, DW does grouse a bit when temps drop to the low 30's and the system blows lukewarm air.

If I lived farther north in Zone 3 or above, I'd definitely want a gas/propane furnace to kick in when it gets really cold.

 

[Ian S]

We live in central Arizona at an elevation of about 4200 feet in Zone 4. From Phoenix, ee moved here two years ago from a poorly insulated patio home with a gas pack (gas furnace with AC - not heat pump - in a single roof-mounted package.) Our new home is all electric with no gas lines coming to the house. We have two heat pumps with separate thermostats for different parts of the 1900 sq ft main floor with an addition 900 sq. ft. in the finished basement. Our experience is similar to REWahoo's in that our heating months' electric bills increase by about 50% from the low spring and fall months. Interestingly, our summer bills are similar to our winter bills. Thermostats are set to 70 in the heating season and 78 in summer. Heat pumps are less than two years old but are not top of the line.

I do miss gas heat. Heat pumps put out lukewarm air and by the time it gets to your skin from the register, it feels cold. That said, we aren't contemplating any changes to the system. It is time to consider new windows throughout the 30 y.o. home and we'll be doing that once the pandemic is in the rear view mirror.

 

[Walt34]

I'm accustomed to natural gas heat and surprisingly, many of the newer neighborhoods we see listings in, even a mile or two from decent size cities, don't have it.

That surprised us as well when we were house-hunting. One of the non-negotiable requirements for our new house was gas heat. I grew up with oil-fired hot water heat which is too expensive and variable in price now but it sure is nice. When the heat came on you knew it. Likewise with gas-fired forced hot air. While propane feels the same it costs half again as much as natural gas, at least around here, so that's not a viable option for us.

DW grew up in a house with a heat pump and always hated the lukewarm (cold) air that came out of it so was happy when we got married that the house I owned had gas heat. She got spoiled by that real quick so was fully on board with making that a requirement when we went looking. For myself, it was enough to visit homes with heat pumps to know that I would not want that.

The availability of gas heat in an area not surprisingly has to do with the proximity of natural gas lines. In spite of WV being a major producer it is not widely available locally. We only have it because there's a gas line running close by.

BTW, when we were looking, we saw a lot of homes in more central areas of WV that advertised "free gas heat". WTH? Turns out those homes have gas lines running across their property and part of the easement deal was free natural gas, transferable to new owners, for as long as the gas line is in operation. Is that a deal or what?

So you might take a look at natural gas line transit areas and then look for homes around there. You might get lucky and hit the right combination of location and desirability.

 

[NateW]

If I lived farther north in Zone 3 or above, I'd definitely want a gas/propane furnace to kick in when it gets really cold.

Thank you REWahoo. Wow, 29 cents per kw-hr. I thought New England electric rates were high at 20+ cents/kw-hr.

 

[NateW]

That surprised us as well when we were house-hunting. One of the non-negotiable requirements for our new house was gas heat. I grew up with oil-fired hot water heat which is too expensive and variable in price now but it sure is nice. When the heat came on you knew it. Likewise with gas-fired forced hot air. While propane feels the same it costs half again as much as natural gas, at least around here, so that's not a viable option for us.

DW grew up in a house with a heat pump and always hated the lukewarm (cold) air that came out of it so was happy when we got married that the house I owned had gas heat. She got spoiled by that real quick so was fully on board with making that a requirement when we went looking. For myself, it was enough to visit homes with heat pumps to know that I would not want that.

The availability of gas heat in an area not surprisingly has to do with the proximity of natural gas lines. In spite of WV being a major producer it is not widely available locally. We only have it because there's a gas line running close by.

BTW, when we were looking, we saw a lot of homes in more central areas of WV that advertised "free gas heat". WTH? Turns out those homes have gas lines running across their property and part of the easement deal was free natural gas, transferable to new owners, for as long as the gas line is in operation. Is that a deal or what?

So you might take a look at natural gas line transit areas and then look for homes around there. You might get lucky and hit the right combination of location and desirability.

Thank you Walt34. I'll keep an eye out for natural gas transit pipeline easements, knowing this. I'm fully on board with you on both the cost of fuel oil and propane. I just read an article about how current propane stocks are at their 5-year low due to the massive amounts the US exports (the US does the same with diesel fuel, which is the same fraction as #2 home heating oil. Most of it goes to Europe, where over 50% of the cars are diesel.

The house we now own has a 60,000 BTU natural gas condensing furnace. It's 95.5% efficient. I really like it and it's surprisingly easy to work on (I did a full cleaning of the blower and both heat exchangers when we moved in a year and a half ago). The plumbing is real simple--Two 2.5 inch pvc pipes out the side of the house supply the combustion air and expell the exhaust, and of course, there is the half-inch black iron gas pipe feeding the furnace. There is no traditional flue pipe through the roof. The house is 3400 square feet and our highest gas bill this winter was $135 (water heater and stove use natural gas too). Too bad the location is not working out for us because it's a really nice house. That has become apparent the more we look at houses. We are seeing a lot less house for a lot more money.

 

[jollystomper]

We live in the mid-atlantic and are all electric with a heat pump. From our bill, for the past year our average usage in a 3000+ foot square house on 3 living levels was about 68 KWH per day. I have a lot of electronics that are almost always on (like 8 tower case computers), so that may add to it. Also, DW is more sensitive to temperate than I and and wants the bedroom warmer at night. Rather than crank up the thermostat for the entire house she will run a small heater for several hours before going to bed. Our actual electric bill for the past 12 months has averaged just about $200/month. We do the average pay plan so I do not look at the difference between the seasonal bills. When we had a house full of kids, it was higher than that .

 

[NateW]

Thank you Jollystomper. That's probably close to the sum of our gas and electric bills.

 

[Out of Steam]

We're looking at houses and are seeing many that are all electric and heat with a heat pump. This is in building climate zone 4 (the mid atlantic states) and house size is about 2500 square feet). I've only had one house with a heat pump long ago (mid 1980s) and all I remember is I did not like the luke warm air.

We installed a gas furnace backup to our heat pump, with a changeover at 40ºF, and are pleased with the combination. We're near the middle of Zone 4.

Your choice of heat will probably have more to do with electrical rates than climate. Because of high electric rates (18¢+ per kWh), heat pumps were almost never seen in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.

 

[Happyras]

We installed a gas furnace backup to our heat pump, with a changeover at 40ºF, and are pleased with the combination. We're near the middle of Zone 4.

Your choice of heat will probably have more to do with electrical rates than climate. Because of high electric rates (18¢+ per kWh), heat pumps were almost never seen in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.

If all you have is electricity, no gas, then a heat pump is a given. If you have both, you are right on with the changeover set at 40F. In our area, Electric is 0.11/kw-hr, and gas costs about 0.032 per equivalent Kw-hr in therms. Factoring in the efficiency of a gas furnace at a fair 90%, this is about 0.035/equivalent kw-hr for heating. If the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the heat pump is >3.5, then run the heat pump. If it drops below 3.0, then use the gas furnace for cost. This is in the tabular data for the system. Typically a SEER 16 or better heat pump will run >3.0 COP at 35F. However for comfort, its nice to run a hot duct when its cold outside when gas cost the same.

A gas furnace should run, with proper fan flow, a rise of 30-40 degrees on gas, and 20 to 30 degrees on HP. Some ducts run hotter but are likely not running efficiently due to too low a volume across the heat exchanger. If the HP is running a duct temp rise <20F, then it is simply not sized correctly or the fan is blowing too much air, or its really cold out etc. Lots to consider.

If all you have is electric, you will run the HP with the outdoor temp as low as you can. The COP will be better than resistance heat can produce efficiency wise, but the ducts will run pretty cool when the outdoors are in the 20's unless you have a 18 to 20 SEER rated HP.

So, in the old days a HP had a SEER or 10 or 12 and they did not work so well unless way oversized. Now days a properly sized system with a High SEER rating does very well even when below 30F outside.

 

[Idnar7]

We live in the polar Twin Cities of MN. Last year our gas/electric averaged about $150/mo.
After we first got our heat pump the average savings were $30/mo. The furnace usually only runs Dec-Feb.

 

[Bamaman]

First HVAC consideration is what kind of fuel is available? How expensive is electricity? How cold is the climate? What are your neighbors using?

Natural gas heat would be my preference. But we live 10 miles out of town with farms surrounding us, and our choices are electricity or LP. Our electricity is 10 cents a KWH and LP is very expensive. And our climate is the Mid South--not too cold.

Homes in our area use electric heat pumps. Some have the compressor/condenser and the air handler split. Others use Package heat pumps with the whole unit outside the foundation. We have one of each--upstairs and downstairs.

Our biggest heating and cooling months will have a $375 per month heating bill for 3900 square feet with very tall ceilings.

My lake house heat pump compressor locked up and I've got to replace the whole split unit. I'm going to install a new generation Mr. Cool Universal inverter heat pump that heats to below 0 degrees without a secondary heat coil. Online, they get very good ratings, and they have very high quality components. I suggest you look at them online.

 

[jazz4cash]

Have you tried asking the local utility for usage info?

We are in zone 4 heating 3700 sq ft. Gas furnace on lower level and money pump for the upper level. Home built in 2000 so I guess newer units are better but it was very expensive and not very comfortable. We were accustomed to gas heat and the heat pump just felt drafty and it was hard to use a setback thermostat. The smell of the resistor elements would wake me up when they kicked on. Since it runs year round it tends to wear out quicker. in our case it was toast after 14 yrs. We switched that unit over to gas at great expense but our electric usage was cut in half. The total gas+electric usage went down over 30% but a lot of the savings was due to higher efficiency AC and we switched the water heater to gas also.

 

[Bamaman]

We are in zone 4 heating 3700 sq. ft. Gas furnace on lower level and money pump for the upper level. Home built in 2000 so I guess newer units are better but it was very expensive and not very comfortable. We were accustomed to gas heat and the heat pump just felt drafty and it was hard to use a setback thermostat. The smell of the resistor elements would wake me up when they kicked on. Since it runs year round it tends to wear out quicker. in our case it was toast after 14 yrs. We switched that unit over to gas at great expense but our electric usage was cut in half. The total gas +electric usage went down over 30% but a lot of the savings was due to higher efficiency AC and we switched the water heater to gas also.

You are right that a natural gas home on 72 degrees will feel warmer than a heat pump home at 72 degrees. When temperatures get low enough--probably 35 degrees--the electrical elements do kick in and the dust burning off does smell. But after the dust's gone, they shouldn't smell. And you are right about a heat pump having a relatively short lifespan--12-14 years can be common.

If someone has natural gas available, by all means heat with it. But we only have electricity or LP--and propane is really expensive. I'd still have electricity to use for a/c and pushing the fans.

 

[NateW]

If all you have is electricity, no gas, then a heat pump is a given. If you have both, you are right on with the changeover set at 40F. In our area, Electric is 0.11/kw-hr, and gas costs about 0.032 per equivalent Kw-hr in therms. Factoring in the efficiency of a gas furnace at a fair 90%, this is about 0.035/equivalent kw-hr for heating. If the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the heat pump is >3.5, then run the heat pump. If it drops below 3.0, then use the gas furnace for cost. This is in the tabular data for the system. Typically a SEER 16 or better heat pump will run >3.0 COP at 35F. However for comfort, its nice to run a hot duct when its cold outside when gas cost the same.

A gas furnace should run, with proper fan flow, a rise of 30-40 degrees on gas, and 20 to 30 degrees on HP. Some ducts run hotter but are likely not running efficiently due to too low a volume across the heat exchanger. If the HP is running a duct temp rise <20F, then it is simply not sized correctly or the fan is blowing too much air, or its really cold out etc. Lots to consider.

If all you have is electric, you will run the HP with the outdoor temp as low as you can. The COP will be better than resistance heat can produce efficiency wise, but the ducts will run pretty cool when the outdoors are in the 20's unless you have a 18 to 20 SEER rated HP.

So, in the old days a HP had a SEER or 10 or 12 and they did not work so well unless way oversized. Now days a properly sized system with a High SEER rating does very well even when below 30F outside.

Thank you Happyras. Excellent technical breakdown; most helpful that you included variables and how they affect performance, as compared to a gas furnace. Looks like I should note the model number and look up the SEER of any heat pump in a house I am really interested, as this will have a direct bearing on operating costs. I also imagine adequate building insulation is all the more important in a home heated with a heat pump.

 

[NateW]

We installed a gas furnace backup to our heat pump, with a changeover at 40ºF, and are pleased with the combination. We're near the middle of Zone 4.

Your choice of heat will probably have more to do with electrical rates than climate. Because of high electric rates (18¢+ per kWh), heat pumps were almost never seen in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.

Thanks Out of Steam. I lived in Northern Virginia for many years and VEPCO rates were about 9 cents a kw-hr a few years ago and a good percentage of the newer houses have heat pumps.

 

[REWahoo]

Thank you REWahoo. Wow, 29 cents per kw-hr. I thought New England electric rates were high at 20+ cents/kw-hr.

That’s my average daily usage, not my rate.

 

[NateW]

We live in central Arizona at an elevation of about 4200 feet in Zone 4. .... Our new home is all electric with no gas lines coming to the house. We have two heat pumps with separate thermostats for different parts of the 1900 sq ft main floor with an addition 900 sq. ft. in the finished basement. Our experience is similar to REWahoo's in that our heating months' electric bills increase by about 50% from the low spring and fall months. Interestingly, our summer bills are similar to our winter bills. Thermostats are set to 70 in the heating season and 78 in summer. Heat pumps are less than two years old but are not top of the line.

I do miss gas heat. Heat pumps put out lukewarm air and by the time it gets to your skin from the register, it feels cold. That said, we aren't contemplating any changes to the system. It is time to consider new windows throughout the 30 y.o. home and we'll be doing that once the pandemic is in the rear view mirror.

Thank you Ian S., very helpful.

 

[NateW]

We live in the polar Twin Cities of MN. Last year our gas/electric averaged about $150/mo.
After we first got our heat pump the average savings were $30/mo. The furnace usually only runs Dec-Feb.

Thank you Idnar7.