High Efficient Oil Furnaces As Cheap As Air Source Heat Pumps

Based on this week's prices, Mainers can estimate the cost of heating by using the table below. Prices between various heating fuels are listed, and these prices are converted to a common heating unit value (dollars per million Btu).

Comparison of Heating Fuel Prices per Million Btu (February 4, 2019)

Fuel Price (in dollars) Fuel Price (dollars per million Btu)
Cord Wood ($275/cord) $12.50
Wood Pellets ($268/ton) $16.24
Natural Gas ($1.499-$2.127/therm) $14.99-$21.27
Heating Oil ($2.90/gallon) $20.91
Kerosene ($3.50/gallon) $25.93
Propane ($2.88/gallon) $31.53
Electricity - baseboard (15.8-18.5 cents/kwh) $46.31-$54.22
Electricity - air source heat pump (5.85-6.85 cents/kwh)** $17.15-$20.08

*price varies depending on location; natural gas and electricity delivery companies
service only selected areas of the state. **ductless, air source heat pump calculations courtesy of Efficiency Maine

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Comment by Art Brigades on February 22, 2019 at 9:28pm
1.  This assumes 100% combustion efficiency and 100% distribution efficiency for the conventional fuels including oil, a major error.
2.  This assumes a COP of 2.7 for the heat pumps.
The efficiency Maine website does a far better job:
Comment by Willem Post on February 18, 2019 at 10:40am

HEAT PUMPS

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/furnaces-for-heating-an...

 

The NE grid had emissions of 710 lb CO2/MWh in 2016, fed to grid. See note

Every 1 million Btu of electricity drawn from the NE grid has (1000000 Btu/3412 Btu/kWh) x (710/ lb CO2/MWh) x (1 MWh/1000 kWh) x 1.075, T&D = 224 lb/million Btu (electrical), at user meter.

Heat pump winter average COP = 2.2

CO2 per million Btu of delivered heat = 224/2.2 = 102 lb, i.e., only slightly better than gas  

https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2018/01/2016_emissio...

NOTE: 

- As Vermont is connected to the NE-grid, any electricity drawn from the grid is the grid mix, which likely would have a fossil fuel component, i.e., not some hypothetical, artificial “Vermont mix”.

- Electricity moves on the grid as electromagnetic waves at near the speed of light, i.e., from northern Maine to southern Florida, about 1800 miles in 0.01 second; the electrons migrate at about 1 inch/second. In fact, if electricity did not move that fast, no electric grid would work.

- To proclaim, without scientific proof, there is a “Vermont mix”, or a “New Hampshire mix”, or a "Maine mix" is beyond rational.

 

Table 1/Fuel

 lb CO2/million Btu

 Efficiency, %

 CO2/million Btu of delivered heat

 Ratio

Wood, old

213

75

284

2.53

Wood, new

213

 Up to 85

251

2.23

No. 2 fuel oil, old

161

70

230

2.05

No. 2 fuel oil; new

161

 Up to 83

194

1.73

Propane, old

139

80

174

1.55

Propane new, condensing

139

Up to 96

145

1.29

Natural gas, old

117

80

146

1.30

Natural gas, condensing

117

Up to 96

112

1.00

 

 

Winter COP

 

 

Heat pump

224

2.2

102

 

Comment by Dan McKay on February 18, 2019 at 8:48am

Willem, they tell me Efficiency Maine only rebates ASHP with HSPF of 12 or above. How do the costs stack up for the high performance units ?

Comment by Willem Post on February 18, 2019 at 8:41am

McKay,

The Maine calculation is a hoax, gross deception to promote heat pumps.

It takes the electricity its price and devices it by the coefficient of performance of the heat pump.

18.5/2.7 = 6.85

It is highly likely the ANNUAL COP of the heat pump is about 2.0 to 2.2

A condensing propane or gas fired furnace would have an efficiency of about 95%

Older wood stove emits far more CO2 than gas, 284 vs 146 lb/million of usable heat.

Regarding heat pumps:

The NE grid had emissions of 710 lb CO2/MWh in 2016, fed to grid, or

1000000/3412 x 710/1000 x 1.075, T&D = 224 lb/million Btu (electrical), at user meter

Every 1 million Btu of electricity drawn from the NE grid, at user meter, has 224 lb of CO2

   

https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2018/01/2016_emissio...

 

Table 1/Fuel

 lb CO2/million Btu

 Efficiency, %

 lb CO2/million Btu of usable heat

 Ratio

Wood, old

213

75

284

2.53

Wood, new

213

 Up to 85

251

2.23

No. 2 fuel oil, old

161

70

230

2.05

No. 2 fuel oil; new

161

 Up to 83

194

1.73

Propane, old

139

80

174

1.55

Propane new, condensing

139

Up to 96

145

1.29

Natural gas, old

117

80

146

1.30

Natural gas, condensing

117

Up to 96

112

1.00

Comment by Willem Post on February 16, 2019 at 10:16pm

COMPARISON OF CO2 OF VARIOUS HEATING FURNACES  

 

The AFUEs of various furnaces and CO2 per million Btu of delivered heat are shown on table 2.

Wood has 2.53 times the CO2 emissions/kWh of natural gas

Wood toxic pollutants/kWh are about 1.67 times greater than of hard coal, because 1) coal combustion has slightly less lb CO2/million Btu and 2) coal power plants are much more efficient than wood power plants. See URLs.

 

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/is-burning-wood-co-2-ne... 

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=73&t=11

 

It takes about 50 years in moderate climates (North Carolina) to about 100 years in colder climates (Vermont) for the combustionCO2 of wood burning to be naturally reabsorbed.

 

The absorption has the shape of an S-curve, i.e., slowly increasing during the first 1/3, rapidly increasing during the second 1/3, and slowly increasing during the last 1/3 of the period; not much help if the world’s climate is to be prevented from falling off the cliff during the next 20 to 30 years.

 

NOTE: Any other CO2 associated with the A to Z chain (from embodied CO2, and CO2 due to managing wood lots, harvesting, O&M of the plant, and plant decommissioning) would never be absorbed, unless additional forest is set aside.

 

Inefficient heating systems should be banned within a certain time period.

High-efficiency propane and natural gas condensing furnaces should be promoted with incentives and new gas lines, etc.

High-efficiency wood stoves should be promoted with incentives.

 

Table 1/Fuel

 lb CO2/million Btu

 Efficiency, %

 CO2/million Btu of delivered heat

 Ratio

Wood, old

213

75

284

2.53

Wood, new

213

 Up to 85

251

2.23

No. 2 fuel oil, old

161

70

230

2.05

No. 2 fuel oil; new

161

 Up to 83

194

1.73

Propane, old

139

80

174

1.55

Propane new, condensing

139

Up to 96

145

1.29

Natural gas, old

117

80

146

1.30

Natural gas, condensing

117

Up to 96

112

1.00

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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