[Milliemoo]

As winter weather bites, so have the electricity bills, with heat pumps being blamed for skyrocketing accounts

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10524722

Heat pumps were efficient but still impacted heavily on power bills, Mr Hill said.
"There is a perception out there that heat pumps are almost free to use - that is not the case at all.
"We don't think it would be uncommon for people who are running them really hard to incur costs of up to $5 a day," he said.
Trustpower staff told disgruntled Timaru customer Moira Melhopt that a heat pump could cost up to $7 a day to run.


Milliemoo

[Moorf]

Apart from the fact they're useless in a power cut, this is another reason we've never been tempted to get heat pumps.

[Milliemoo]

Never mind heat pumps....... it's light bulbs which are a killer!

I've just got this months bill in. Prices have gone up so we average around $80/85 per month. This one's for $101! :mad: The only thing we've done differently is replaced about half a dozen or so bulbs that had popped and I hadn't got round to replacing.

Needless to say, I'm supping my vino (it's gone 5pm :D) in candle light....listening to Pink Floyd....and I'm now officially on holiday....actually, thinking about it, life's not all bad :D

Milliemoo

[Moorf]

Never mind heat pumps....... it's light bulbs which are a killer!

I've just got this months bill in. Prices have gone up so we average around $80/85 per month. This one's for $101! :mad: The only thing we've done differently is replaced about half a dozen or so bulbs that had popped and I hadn't got round to replacing.

Needless to say, I'm supping my vino (it's gone 5pm :D) in candle light....listening to Pink Floyd....and I'm now officially on holiday....actually, thinking about it, life's not all bad

Milliemoo

:D

I'll be joining you when my wine delivery (aka OH) arrives... :cheers and I'll cuddle up wiv me two heatpumps.. the dogs...

[Milliemoo]

:D

I'll cuddle up wiv me two heatpumps.. the dogs...

dog farts....nice! :p

Milliemoo

[Moorf]

*gasp* Girls don't fart :uhoh:D

[AndyR]

For ages I thought heat pumps were a renewable source of energy using geothermal energy! I had no idea they mean Air Con.

[mgbridges]

We've got a reverse cycle Daikin air con system and we have chewed through the electricity over the winter months. Our bill shot up from around $270 to just over $500 last month based on an actual reading rather than an estimate (not that the estimates have been that far out)!:eek: Looking at the actual number of 'Units Used' its hardly surprising, the last actual reading we'd used 1125 units, this time around we've used 2347.

Just as soon as I can figure out the budget we're going to be looking at more insulation and replacing some (if not all) the windows!

Anneliese

[Georgebulldog]

OH has just come home today & is talking about heat pumps & getting one installed, we have a DVS & flued gas heater in living area & rely on electric rads in the bedrooms but bills are huge
I'm now a little more confused than I was when he got home, knowing nothing about heat pumps so any advice on here would be great, love to hear good & bad points please

[CJ22]

I've just got this months bill in. Prices have gone up so we average around $80/85 per month. This one's for $101!

Heh, we're paying the equivalent of $120 gas and $80 electric per month here in the UK, and that's before the price rises (Centrica just announced a 35% increase, then announced massive profits, the *^&%&(^), with on;ly two of us (though it is averaged out over the whole year of course so it doesn't go up in winter. So your quote doesn't seem so bad to me.

[Milliemoo]

Heh, we're paying the equivalent of $120 gas and $80 electric per month here in the UK, and that's before the price rises (Centrica just announced a 35% increase, then announced massive profits, the *^&%&(^), with on;ly two of us (though it is averaged out over the whole year of course so it doesn't go up in winter. So your quote doesn't seem so bad to me.

No, it's not bad .... but it's a shock what a % increase a few extra light bulbs can make!

It's pointless comparing our bills here to what we were paying in the UK. We lived in Edinburgh and I think our last quarterly bill was in the region of £400 for gas & elec and that was nearly 2 years ago! :exit

Milliemoo

[Familyofmonkeys]

For ages I thought heat pumps were a renewable source of energy using geothermal energy!

It most of Europe/UK it does mean something like that (although you still need power for the pump) i.e. a heat exchange unit, but rather than having an exchange with outside air (like here in NZ) you have a grid of pipes running underground or into a bore so it would be exhanging with ground heat...which is much more constant temperature and so it is more efficient & far cheaper to run.

[JandM]

It most of Europe/UK it does mean something like that (although you still need power for the pump) i.e. a heat exchange unit, but rather than having an exchange with outside air (like here in NZ) you have a grid of pipes running underground or into a bore so it would be exhanging with ground heat...which is much more constant temperature and so it is more efficient & far cheaper to run.And it is possible to get that kind of installation in NZ. M has just been researching it, having seen one working in a friend's house.

[JoHnH]

A cautionary tale re heat pumps.
We've got a well-insulated little modern house in Auckland. For our first 10 years or so we were happy with our (British-made) 2400 watt oil column heater in the lounge as the main source of heating, supplemented with electric blankets, and small heaters in the bedrooms when we had visitors.
A friend got one of these roofspace ventilator systems installed, mainly to deal with her condensation problem, and the wife started agitating about our (fairly minor) condensation problem (as wives do.)
I didn't fancy forking out $3000 on what seemed to me to be no solution to the heating situation. A bit of research led me to heat pumps, to be fair to the salesmen they never claimed that a single unit would heat the whole house, but I convinced myself that a 6kw unit ($3000 installed) would do the lounge fine, and have an "overflow" effect to the rest of the house that would also help with the condensation.
The heat pump was installed in summer 2007, and we seemed to find it quite effective that year. Also, our power usage for winter 2007 was way down on 2006. And the condensation was a bit less.
However, we've had, you may recall, a real cold snap in June this year. According to my thermometer, the heat pump was actually maintaining the set heat in the lounge (20-23 Centigrade) on demand, but it didn't feel like it - we felt COLD whatever the thermometer said. So in desperation I hauled out the old radiator, and set that up as well or instead. Now the heat pump's off duty, we're using the radiator because we love being able to warm hands, backs, and other cold bits on it (standing astride it for a few minutes does wonders for the inner man, so to speak.) God only knows how much power we're using, but Her Indoors has lost faith in the heat pump.
My conclusion - when it's cold and wet and blowing outside, you need a bit of instant, up-close, tangible heat, background comfort is all very well but you can't warm your hand and other important bits on a heat pump.
Oh, all those happy years chopping tons of manuka for the old fireplace, back in the good old days! You didn't just feel warm in front of that - you felt cooked and ready to serve.

[CJ22]

(standing astride it for a few minutes does wonders for the inner man, so to speak.)

Not just me then :laugh

[Nienke]

We've had 2 heatpumps installed more than a year ago, and I can't say anything else than that we are very happy with them. They do keep us warm, even when it's cold and wet outside.
Our powerbill is not that much higher when using them, I think about 30 dollars a month more than usual.
Have to say though, our house is, apart from double glazing, fully insulated.

[Danny & Julie]

We have a fully ducked heat pump system that has vents is all the rooms & we find it lovely and warm and our bills are no more than what we were paying in our rental and that had no heating:roll
Our most expensive bill was $240.00 for last month - we do have a new house that is very well insulated and has double glazing so we don't loose much heat.
I love that at the touch of a button the house is warm in minutes :)

[incredible hulse]

Bills for us in the winter are generally 500 dollars a month (gas central heating majority and 1 electric heat pump). Thought this was expensive and checked the bill from the year before when they were around the 400 mark - we're using the same amount just increase in standing charge and unit price.

[Familyofmonkeys]

And it is possible to get that kind of installation in NZ. M has just been researching it, having seen one working in a friend's house.

We've been looking, and they do exist but are not very common....problem would be getting someone who actually knows how to install system and that means not very cheap :(

[sbinder]

Let me ask a question of all you experienced heat pump owners out there. Our landlady just had one installed in our unit and the tech doing the installation said that if we run the heat pump continuously 24 hours a day at the lowest setting (16C), and turn it up when we are home (a couple hours at night at maybe 20C), it would be more efficient than just turning it on to heat the house when we need it. The heat pump has an automatic setting that turns it on and off about every minute or two.

That sounds very counter-intuitive to me. I think that heat pumps might take a bit of time to get warmed up and use a more expensive secondary heater when first started, or something like that. However, I have to wonder if the cost of this secondary heater really is higher than running the heat pump automatically all day?

[Nienke]

I don't run my heatpumps 24 hrs a day, just when I'm home and needing the warmth. I find it pointless to run them at night when everyone is nowhere near the rooms that are heated or when we are all out of the house. It really doesn't take much time for the heatpump to heat up a room.
I don't believe it's cheaper to run them 24 hrs a day, they don't need much time to 'warm up' (1,5 minutes) and they don't use a secondary heater to warm up.

[Familyofmonkeys]

And it is possible to get that kind of installation in NZ. M has just been researching it, having seen one working in a friend's house.

Just found one company that does this style of heat pump system. They describe it as geothermal energy, which isn't technically correct and a bit misleading, but anyway here is link:

http://www.enersave.co.nz/avenir.php

[Angelonthemove]

We have 2 heat pumps and do not use our log burner anymore. We keep a constant 23 on both and at night one goes down to 20 and the one near our bedrooms 23, when we leave the house we put it down to 20 or have the option to either turn it off completely and have it set to come on again at 4pm. Our power bills are max $240 and we have no gas here.

Our rental had gas central heating and our bills were $5/600 per month ouch!!

We were told by our installer not to go for heat exchange roof space thingey as he said its costly to install and not that much more effective.He was recommend via this forum and was excellent would def use him again, but then he is an ex pat too:laugh

[victoria]

We've just had 2 heat pumps installed at either end of our long flat.I can tell you that this morning was a pure joy to have an ambient temperature in the house.It's normally cooler in the house at this time of day than outside! We also have a woodburner but at last I don't have to stoke it up first thing.I'll be gauging the the costs now but then again we're low power users anyhow. They are set to come on before we get up & run a few hours after.Oh & another thing,we were given a slimline wall heater as a gift We did negotiate a good price BTW so it's not a false gift.