In the next few weeks the Maine legislature will vote on LD 1864, An Act to Lower the Price of Electricity for Maine Consumers. The bill authorizes Maine electric utilities to offer efficient electric heating pilot programs to electricity customers in Maine.
Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service Co. plan to offer on-bill financing to customers who install a heat pump. Customers will have up to five years to pay for the equipment using to savings they achieve from moving off oil heat. The final program will require approval of the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Heat pump technology isn’t new, but with the price of home heating oil climbing once again and recent cuts in Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding, our most vulnerable homeowners are facing crisis situations. The LIHEAP crisis could be solved by converting these customers to heat pumps. Bangor Hydro and MPS have been working closely with heat pump manufacturers for years and we’ve seen the technology evolve.
When Gov. LePage challenged us to find a way to reduce energy costs for Mainers, it was a great opportunity to try to get heat pump technology into the homes of our customers. It’s easy to be skeptical when something sounds too good to be true, so we encourage consumers to do the research if considering a heat pump purchase.
Heat pumps work by using refrigerant to absorb heat from the outside air. Refrigerant is naturally much colder than outside air, even on a cold day. Electricity is used to move the refrigerant and transfer heat from one space from another. Depending on the type of heat pump, they may pull heat from the air or the ground. The technology works the same way air conditioners work and in fact can be used to cool your home very efficiently in the summer.
Because heat pumps are extracting heat from the air or ground, they can be up to 400 percent more efficient than conventional heaters. To put it into perspective, consider that most traditional fuel oil furnaces are 75-80 percent efficient. This means that for every 100 gallons of oil that you burn, you get the equivalent of 75 to 80 gallons worth usable heat. Wood pellet stoves are 50-65 percent efficient, which means for every ton of pellets that you burn, you get about a half a ton worth of heat.
With heat pumps, for every unit of electricity you put into the heater to operate it, the heat pump is able to extract from the environment approximately two to four times the heat than would otherwise be created by that unit of electricity.
One obstacle preventing many customers from installing heat pumps has been the cost. Unless you’re building a new home or business, it seems senseless to spend money on another heating system. However, heat pumps are so efficient that they pay for themselves within three or four years just in the savings achieved by not filling the oil tank. Once the equipment is paid for, those savings can be adding up in your bank account.
These systems are designed to supplement your primary heat source and, depending on size, cost up to $5,000, including materials and labor. Average savings per year can range from $1,100 to $1,700, again depending on size. A unit will generally pay for itself in energy savings in about three to four years.
You might want to think about using your heat pump and your oil furnace in combination — just like you use your commuter car and your SUV. Most of the time you will want to use your heat pump because it is so efficient, but there will be about 10 days a year when you will want to use your oil furnace or wood stove to provide additional heat when the temperature dips below 10 degrees.
Heat pumps give Mainers heating options in a time when heating oil is once again climbing out of control. Mainers use the most heating oil per capita in the U.S., with more than 75 percent using oil to heat their homes at a cost of $286 million this past year. Heat pumps also reduce CO2 emissions.
Bangor Hydro and MPS want to invest in real energy solutions for our customers. If you want to learn more, go to bangorhydro.com. If you want the Legislature to vote yes, contact your local legislator.
Gerry Chasse is president and chief operating officer of Bangor Hydro Electric Company and Maine Public Service.
“Refrigerant is naturally much colder than outside air, even on a cold day.”
Can someone point me to the ‘natural temperature’ of refrigerant? Thanks in advance.
I lived down south for a long time and as much as heat pump’s are effective they do have a huge problem. Once the outside temperature drops below 40 they just can’t be effective since they depend on the inside / outside temperature difference’s to work. Realizing that this recent winter was a very mild one, for Maine, the minute we get one of the ‘4 ft of snow overnight’ or multi-below zero day stretch’s, we are all gonna be seeing the cost’s of heating. Heat pump’s just will not work in these condition’s. Do I wish they would, and save a bunch ? No arguement from me ! But given the cold vs the ‘hot’ days here, and the heat pump’s operating requirement’s to work and pay for itself, I for one just don’t see it working. But hey, someone please prove me wrong it they have the real number’s to prove it.
The heat pumps used in the south are not the same thing. New pumps run to 5 degrees at a good rate of efficiency.
Then please, by all means, put your numbers here so we can all see them. And while you’re at it, also put the number’s out for installation, weatherization and insulation to make it work out there as well. The pump, by itself, is only part of the equation. It’s the TOTAL COST that makes the decision, not just a part of it, to install and use.
Heat pumps are useless in the North……….
You couldnt lug enough electricity to the heatpump when the temp got 10 below…
Wait until the emergency heat kicks in…Then you will pay……
Here in MD, I’ve had heat pumps, below 40 they are useless….
And my point has been made ! Thank’s !!!!!
very welcome…. heat pumps sux,…. no other way to explain it…
Once the equipment is installed it costs about the same to heat with wood pellets as it does to heat with a heat pump. But pellet stoves are simpler to install and don’t require digging up your yard or digging a new well like ground source heat pumps do, and pellet stove efficiency doesn’t drop when it gets cold out. Some pellet stoves can run on batteries when the power goes out, which happens around here. Pellets are made in Maine, unlike most fuels for electric power plants.
The author is wrong about heating efficiencies. Few would rate heat pumps at 400%. 330% is closer to the numbers commonly found for ground source heat pumps, and 176% for air source heat pumps. Oil furnaces are typically 82%, which is a little more than the 75% the author claims, and a new pellet stove or furnace is about 85% efficient, not 50%. If you want to figure out real numbers, use this spreadsheet from the state: http://www.maine.gov/oeis/docs/heatcalculatorMEv3_1.xls I have to assume these errors are intentional, because this is basic information and easy to find.
And the author says “When Gov. LePage challenged us to find a way to reduce energy costs for Mainers…”, all I can do is roll my eyes. LePage has done what he can to cut weatherization programs in the state, which is where the real savings comes from for most houses. All I’d expect from the head of Bangor Hydro, is that he’d look out for what’s best for Bangor Hydro. I notice no mention of how much lower this new heating rate would be, and you’d think that’d be something he’d crow about.
Air source heat pumps are great. In a well insulated house a heat pump and solar electricity = energy independence. The solar part is now financially feasible. Our righty would rather we send our energy dollars out of state or to shareholders at CMP and Bangor Hydro.
Seriously,
“The LIHEAP crisis could be solved by converting these customers to heat pumps. ”
“You might want to think about using your heat pump and your oil furnace in combination — just like you use your commuter car and your SUV. ”
The author is compltely out of touch with the low income people of Maine receiving LiHEAP. They struggle just to survive, and your suggesting they have commuter cars and SUV’s????? HELLO
Heat pump in Maine?????
Don’t be foolish!!!!!!