BrianW

49 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Makes good sense, thanks.

Maine is aggressively deploying heat pumps and has incentives for them. Here is an interesting article on it. Didn't realize they had soo many installed. I also attached a performance graph of how newer units can achieve some impressive cold weather performance. My unit can put out its full rated heat all the way to almost -20 before capacity drops. 

Maine is the most heating-oil-dependent state in the country. More than 60 percent of the state’s 550,000 households rely on heating oil as their primary energy source for heat.

But because a little more than half of the electricity generated in Maine already comes from zero-carbon hydropower and wind power — and legislation signed yesterday sets a 100 percent renewable electricity target for 2050 — a rapid shift to electric heat could deliver significant emissions reductions. It should also save households and businesses money.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.greentechmedia.com/amp/article/maine-wants-to-install-100000-heat-pumps-by-2025

47 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Noted also in the Dec. thread:  It appears that the efficiency numbers in your earlier post weren't energy in/energy out, thus permissible under Newtonian physics. 
Rather it looks like a comparison of energy expense compared to the best of the "traditional" 

An Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) will typically produce around 4kW thermal energy for every 1kW of electrical energy consumed, giving an effective “efficiency” of 400%. It is thermodynamically impossible to have an efficiency of more than 100%, as this implies that more energy is being produced than is being put in.  For this reason the performance is expressed as a Coefficient of Performance (COP) rather than an efficiency. The above example would be expressed as having a COP of 4.  The reason that it appears that more energy is being produced than is consumed, is because the only “valuable” energy input is electricity used to drive the compressor and circulating pumps.  The remainder of the energy simply transferred from a heat source that would otherwise not be used (such as the ambient air, ground or a river) so is not considered as an energy input.

How is that 380% efficiency measured?

Google coefficient of performance. Here is a real fuel cost comparison calculator I use. I I inputed some real New England numbers so its pretty accurate.

15 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Thanks. I’ve been meaning to separate my water heating from my oil. This is the way to go. 

I installed one at my Moms and the payback was like a few months from switching  from burning a gallon or 2 a day in heating oil. Most oil hot water boilers cycle all day and the stanbdy losses are massive.

If you havent got one yet I recommend you get the energy audit done as well. They install insulation, air sealed my ducts, installed weather striping, led bulbs, etc. There is a surcharge for energy efficiency on everyones electric bill that pays for all this stuff but nobody uses it. I am probably close to like 8k in free energy efficient upgrades I did through energize CT on my house. 

Those in Massachusetts have some of the nations best incentives/rebates available as well. 

4 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Sorry I meant everything.  Solar etc.

50 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

How much did you pay for everything. 

The tanks are like $1000-1200 but 6 years ago Eversource had a 1000$ rebate on them. I installed it myself so it cost me out of pocket like $300 or so. They are basically a dehumidifier as well so if you run one it eliminates needing to run one. 

Looks like the rebate is still available and is $750 so you can basically get one as the same cost as a regular electric tank. I monitored mine with an electric meter and it cost about 7-10$ a month to run. If you use oil for hot water your savings will be astronomical. In heat pump only mode they ise about 50-75  percent less electricity than a regular electric tank.

https://www.energizect.com/your-home/solutions-list/energy-star®-heat-pump-water-heater-rebate

1 minute ago, dryslot said:

Nope, Going with a Buderus Boiler, They're the most efficient boiler out there, Still need a hot water source if you go with heat pumps.

I have a heat pump water heater that is 380% efficient. It absolutely destroys an 85% oil furnace and is powered by my solar panels.

Brookline MA recently banned fossil fuels on new construction. Heat pumps are where we are headed as they can be run 100 percent on renewable energy. The rest of the world has been using them for decades, especially Japan where mininsplits were invented.

15 minutes ago, dryslot said:

My fears with an older boiler here too, Already had to replace the Honeywell triple aquastat for the second time in 18 mos 4 weeks ago,( had no heat) at $600 a pop, Going to be going to a new boiler next summer.

You guys up north need to put in some cold climate heat pump mini splits. I think VT has incentives and rebates for them. The technology is incredible now. My units put out full heat down to -18 and 79 percent at -30.  I installed 2 and have been heating my entire house with them. I still use my oil furnace once in awhile but have saved a fortune on not buying oil. Way more reliable than oil furnaces as well.

I cut down my oil use by like 90 percent. I have only used 20 gallons so far this winter. 

They are also free to run via my solar panels and net metering.

Here come the outages.

Eversource has radar on the map now. The outages line right up with the red freezing precip. 

Lost power for most of the night. Ground is so saturated here trees were coming down like crazy last night from the winds.

5.21 inches in the last 7 days!

2.36 here. Heavy basement flooding here. Pond across the street overflowed. 

6 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

May they rest in peace

Some serious ice damming on that roof from poor or no attic insulation. 

Big flakes falling in New Haven. 

It is a little past the middle of November. Here is a summary of the month so far in terms of average temperature departures from normal and the daily high temperatures for Central Park.

A nice CT shoreline torch. 46 here on ssw winds. 

15 minutes ago, mreaves said:

Not if it happened off slope.  People sue for anything.  It wouldn't surprise me if it is less expensive than hiring people to maintain the sidewalks manually.

It makes total sense in todays world.  You completely eliminated the high new england labor cost of snow/ice removal and the big lawsuits.

My sister is a lawyer. How it works is everyone sues for everything even if its completely your fault. Its cheaper to just pay out then spending 300 an hour on lawyers for months to litigate it. You slip on ice its cheaper to say heres 50k we will settle it now. Thre statistic is like 80% of people will just take the first quick payout and its over.  

60 here at KHVN. 

Temps just jumped like 15 degrees here along the coast on sw winds. That 29 is busting hard.

44 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Weed apparently has no effect on me, at least the smoking kind. My neighbor gave me a bag last winter. I bought and tried vaping it. 10 hits later, I felt the same. Maybe try edibles, but weed isn't my thing. I'll stick to beer and wine.

You should try dabbing. You heat up a poppy seed size drop of pure 90-95% thc and inhale it. Most weed is like around 25% or less. I guarantee you will feel it. Lol

Nice streamer with some flakes here in New Haven. 

30 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Hamden actually had the most of any place in New England in that storm..according to the weather channel...40” was recorded there.  Ya it was crazy here with that.  Funny thing was that we were forecast to get less(15-20” instead of 24-36”)during the day Friday as the snow started...and we got the most..along with your dads area of Hamden getting the 40”!  
Band set up right through west central(west of the river) CT north to south, and down through Long Island.  Incredible storm!!  Paralyzing for almost a week!!

Picture from Hamden during that storm. There are 2 cars buried in there with the wipers just sticking up.

Electricity being sent long distances over powerlines with massive efficiency losses will be antiquated much sooner than you think. Solar and battery storage and small local microgrids are coming. 

My house is all electric powered 100% by my solar panels. I am totally ready to call Eversource and tell them I dont need their line anymore once battery storage comes down in price. That is already happening in Hawaii and New England is right behind Hawaii with the most expensive electricity in the US. Utilities are already using large scale battery storage here.