Geothermal Home Show in Zionsville
Watch this video to learn more about the geothermal systems installed in the Homes of Distinction home show in Zionsville.
DIY test: is heat pump causing a high electric bill?
If you receive a high electric bill in the winter and if you heat your Indianapolis area home with an electric heat pump and if you notice your heat pump runs 24/7, you might presume the heat pump is the problem. The trouble is, you normally have to call your heating contractor to see if the heat pump is working properly. Well here is a do it yourself test to check the heat pump, to see if it is working properly. This test is so easy, you will find yourself checking the heat pump operation every time you pass by. It’s almost as alluring as checking wet paint!
Before we start, I suggest you read an earlier blog (follow link) where I explain that it is normal for your heat pump to run non stop in cold weather. But even though your system is supposed to run often, you should know that a heat pump compressor can fail and the outside unit will still appear that it is working since the outside fan is still running. So how do we know the heat pump is doing its thing?
From the link above, you know a heat pump is two to four times more efficient than your backup electric heat. If the heat pump compressor fails, the backup heat takes over, the heat pump fan never shuts off and 6 weeks later you get a high electric bill, three times what it should be.
Here’s how to test if your heat pump is working. The outside unit is connected to the inside furnace by two copper refrigerant lines. One is the size of your thumb, the other the size of your little finger. In the winter, when the outside unit is running, feel the larger of the two copper lines. It is probably covered by a black foam insulation, so you will need to get under this foam to feel the metal pipe. This line should be very warm to the touch. It will not burn you, but on most winter days above 20 degrees, you will want to pull your finger off pretty quick. This pipe is carrying lots of heat. It was robbed from the outside air and is now being sent to your home.
If the line is not hot:
- Is the outside unit running? Can you get it to run by raising the thermostat? Is your thermostat improperly set to emergency heat? If you cannot get the outdoor heat pump to run… and this is a tough one… it’s broke.
- Is the heat pump in a defrost cycle? (That’s when steam is coming off the unit.) If so, wait until it’s done and test later.
- Do you really have a heat pump? (An air conditioner is not supposed to run in the winter.) Call Precision Comfort Systems and let’s get your electric bills cut in half!
If none of the above apply and the copper line is not hot, your heat pump is probably not working. The indoor electric furnace has taken over and this is costing you two to three times what you should be paying. Call Precision Comfort Systems now and we will find out exactly what is wrong.
Repeating from my last blog (but it is very important and worth a second post):
Some nasty advice is given, even among heating contractors who do not know any better, that you can use the emergency heat setting on your thermostat and “give the heat pump a break when the weather gets cold”. Well take it from me. This switch named “em. ht.” is misnamed. It has nothing to do with getting extra heating capacity or being a cold day setting. It should be named, “DOUBLE OR TRIPLE MY BILLS!” When you switch to “em. ht.”, you turn off your heat pump and now the more expensive backup furnace (toaster coils) are heating your home at two to three times the cost. Don’t do this! Allow the heat pump to run and love it. New heat pumps are very efficient and they are designed to run non stop when you need it most so your heating bill is normal. Even older heat pumps are much better than the electric furnace.
If your heat pump is too old, then its ability to move heat may be less than what it should be. Call Precision Comfort Systems, your Central Indiana heat pump specialists, to evaluate your current heat pump. We can tune it up or eventually replace it so you are getting the most from the current heat pump technology.
Is your heat pump running non-stop?
It is worrisome for many homeowners when they realize their heat pump is running all the time. If you live in Central Indiana, or any state with weather similar to Indiana, then you are familiar with your electric heat pump running non-stop on the cold days. If this concerns you, then perhaps your heating contractor is not a heat pump specialist. A heat pump specialist will explain to you the truth: your heat pump is a very efficient means of heating your home and it is designed to run 24/7 during the cold days and nights. Here is the honest science, compliments of Precision Comfort Systems in Westfield, Indiana, your heat pump specialist for all the Indianapolis area.
Unlike a conventional gas, oil or electric furnace that consumes a raw fuel and makes heat, a heat pump is gathering heat from the outside and moving the heat into your home. In the summer, a heat pump reverses the heat moving process and moves unwanted heat from the inside of your home and disperses it outside. Back to winter heating, moving heat takes much less energy than making heat. How much less?
The efficiency of a heat pump is easiest to understand when it is compared to simple electric furnace. Most electric heaters such as your hair dryer, electric stove/oven or portable heater, are similar to what you see in an old toaster; bright red coils. Since electric heat has no combustion exhaust, we gain any heat made by the electric coils so the efficiency is 100%. But straight electric heat is not the most efficient. That is why the electric heat pump is more commonly used when heating homes. The outside portion of your heat pump does not have any electric coils. Instead, it has a compressor motor that captures the heat from the outdoor air. This heat is actually free, but we do pay a bit to move it. For each dollar that you would spend in an electric furnace to get one unit of heat, a heat pump will use the same dollar of electricity and provide up to 3.5 units of heat. As the temperature outside gets colder this efficiency decreases, but it is still a very efficient 2.5 times better than straight electric coils.
So why does my heat pump run non-stop, 24/7?
Your heat pump is sized for your air conditioning needs and in Central Indiana, this means it will not meet all your heating needs. So here is what happens. In outdoor temperatures above 30 degrees, the heat pump should cycle off and on as a normal furnace. Somewhere between 20 and 30 degrees outdoor temperature, the heat pump for your home will reach a “balance point” where the heat needed by the home is equal to the heat moved by the heat pump. So now it will run all the time. As it gets colder than the balance point temperature, the heat pump will continue to run non-stop, and occasionally backup electric coils will supplement the heat pump. But do not be alarmed by this. The heat pump is designed to run continuously to give you as much of the cheap heat as you can possibly get from the unit, in order to minimize the heat made from the backup coils. As long as the heat pump is allowed to run as it is designed, the backup heat will only account for 10% to 15% of the entire Indiana winter heating needs.
Do not turn off your heat pump!
Some nasty advice is given, even among heating contractors who do not know any better, that you can use the emergency heat setting on your thermostat and “give the heat pump a break when the weather gets cold”. Well take it from me. This switch named “em. ht.” is misnamed. It has nothing to do with getting extra heating capacity or being a cold day setting. It should be named, “DOUBLE OR TRIPLE MY BILLS!” When you switch to “em. ht.”, you turn off your heat pump and now the more expensive backup furnace (toaster coils) are heating your home at two to three times the cost. Don’t do this! Allow the heat pump to run and love it. New heat pumps are very efficient and they are designed to run non stop when you need it most so your heating bill is normal. Even older heat pumps are much better than the electric furnace.
If your heat pump is too old, then its ability to move heat may be less than what it should be. Call Precision Comfort Systems, your Central Indiana heat pump specialists, to evaluate your current heat pump. We can tune it up or eventually replace it so you are getting the most from the current heat pump technology.
Part II: How do you know if your heat pump is working properly?
Indiana demands geothermal high efficiency
We are fresh back from last week’s Indianapolis Home Show and, WOW! What a great show. Here’s the bottom summary: Indiana demands geothermal high efficiency. Central Indiana’s most popular heating and cooling tax credit is the geothermal federal tax credit of 30%. The Indianapolis area will see many new homes built this year. Precision Comfort Systems will see many new geothermal high efficiency heating and air conditioning jobs in the very near future. Here are the details on my observations.
Our home show booth was very busy and this is what we learned. Geothermal high efficiency heating and cooling is very popular. Not only because it is the most efficient choice, but also because of the 30% geothermal federal tax credit. Our visitors liked our prices, loved the savings estimates, left their names and now we are frantically trying to get back with all of them.
Couples planning on building a new home this year were much more plentiful than last year. And the most popular heating choice for the new homes was the same as the existing homes. Geothermal high efficiency systems are an easy decision when the investment is part of a low interest home mortgage. The upfront cost is reduced with the 30% federal geothermal tax credit and the small amount added to the monthly payment is offset by the monthly energy savings!
Those who heat with propane and oil are upset! Their propane and oil bills are very high! They are so high, many new geothermal installation costs can be paid off in one to two years when you compare the geothermal price (minus the federal tax credit for geothermal) to a non-geothermal installation. What a no-brainer!
We had a very popular drawing at the show and you can read about the winner on this page. Thanks for stopping by. Especially if you were one of our past satisfied geothermal customers and you just stopped by to say how much you love your geothermal system. We love to hear from you. Thanks!
Go Green in Indy with Geothermal
We all want to Go Green in Indianapolis, but which is the best route? Truthfully, the “go green” habit changes that cost nothing and help you consume less are the best. But if you are also looking to go green on a larger scale, a geothermal heating and cooling system is your best investment.
I included a picture in this post of what we have to look forward to with our upcoming Central Indiana winter weather. This is part of a current ad we are running for Precision Comfort Systems, but it also is a great way to get a feel for what geothermal energy really accomplishes.
You wake up on a cold winter morning but your home is probably warm. Even when you go green, you never escape the seemingly endless need for winter heating. It’s automatic. The thermostat clicks on and the home demands heat.
What are your choices? You can go out and harvest some wood. You can move to the tropics. You can purchase heat with traditional gas, oil and electric heating systems. Or, you can can really go green with geothermal and harvest (actually borrow) some heat from your backyard. Of course moving the heat inside will still use some electricity, but only a fraction of the amount compared to a standard electric furnace.
Green Geothermal heating uses the heat stored in the ground. This is actually solar heat since the sun is what warms the ground. Think of your yard as a very convenient, maintenance free solar collector and heat storage device all in one. Talk about going green! It turns out all of us with some kind of yard have a giant solar energy system just waiting for a geothermal system to connect the heat to the home!
Call Precision Comfort Systems the geothermal specialists. We serve Westfield, Fishers, Noblesville, Carmel, Zionsville, Hamilton County and all of Central Indiana.
Avoid high Propane Prices in Central Indiana
Are you heating your home with propane (LP) gas? Considering the high propane prices in Central Indiana, you need to read this to save some serious money. The current price of LP gas in Hamilton County, Indiana, is around $2.50 per gallon. This can translate into heating costs of $2000 per year! Imagine how far ahead you would be if you could keep $1500 of this expense every year?
Propane heat is one of the most expensive ways to heat your home. But what alternatives do you have? Here is an easy way to make a quick comparison between different heating systems and fuels. From your past heating bills we can estimate how much heat your home needed last winter. The unit of heat we use is called a BTU. (A BTU is a very small amount of heat so you need several million of these BTUs each winter.)
Let’s say your home needed 65 million BTUs last winter. Your 90% LP gas furnace can make one million BTUs for $30.86 if the gas cost is $2.50 per gallon. So your winter fuel bill ends up being about $2000 because 65 million X $30.86 = $2006. Does this unreasonably high propane bill sound familiar?
Geothermal saves $1000 to $2000 per year!
A geothermal heat pump in your home will not change the amount of heat you need. But the geo system can make (actually, move) the same one million BTUs for a mere $7.53 if the cost of electricity is $.09 per kWh. So now your winter heating bill is 65 X $7.53 or $489. Do some quick rounding and you can see about $1500 per year in geothermal energy savings! In a more extreme example, your furnace may only be 80% efficient and your electricity may only cost $.075 per kWh. Now your geothermal heating savings is over $1800 per winter!
And the geothermal air conditioning savings are added to the winter savings!
Precision Comfort Systems will help you with all your options and even update you on the 30% geothermal federal tax credit. We can help you decide if your next propane furnace repair is a wise decision. Maybe it’s better seen as a good opportunity to invest in a new system. Before you spend more money on your next propane tank refill, or your next furnace repair, or even your next air conditioner service, call the heating and cooling specialists at Precision Comfort Systems. 317-867-2665.
Savings?!! Portable Electric Heater Review
Here is the 2011 version of my perennial, portable electric heater review. Since Precision Comfort Systems in Westfield is known as the heating and cooling specialists in Indianapolis, we get many questions about the energy savings claimed by full page ads featuring plug in portable electric heaters. Despite giving you enough text for a long breakfast read, most of these claims are not accurate. In fact, for most families, these plug in portable heaters will actually raise their energy bill.
Here’s the truth. When you create heat with electricity, you have only a few options. Most whole house electric heating systems in the Indianapolis area are heat pumps. Heat pumps and especially geothermal heat pumps are fantastic! The only other electric heat option is to put electricity into some type of “resistant conductor” and this causes the conductor to glow warm and thus gives off some type of heat. You are already familiar with this type of electric heat. It’s in your toaster, your hair dryer, electric stove top and oven, electric clothes dryer, incandescent light bulb, heat lamp… you get the idea. I like to call it toaster heat.
Here’s the science. All electric resistance toaster heat is exactly the same (poor) efficiency. You will always get (a relatively small amount) 3413 units of heat (BTUs) for each unit of electricity (kWh) you put in. No variations. Compare this to a heat pump at 2 to 3 times the efficiency or a geothermal heat pump at 3 to 5 times the efficiency. So adding one of these units normally increases energy costs.
There could be one exception. If you can tolerate your home at a low (example) 55 to 60 degree temperature and then use a portable electric heater in a single, small room kept at 70, you might save some money. But this depends on the type of heating fuel and heating system you use. You may only break even for all the discomfort of a cold home.
One more comment. By code, if the advertised portable electric heater plugs into a normal wall outlet, it can only be 1500 watts maximum. So it is never “more powerful” than the same 1500 watt unit you can buy at the local discount store for as little as $12.00. If you really need a little “spot heat” in your home and do not mind a little increase in your energy costs, look over the choices in the discount store and upgrade to a heater that includes several built-in safety devices. Read more on Portable Electric Heater Safety.
Or, your best solution for any home comfort problem, call Precision Comfort Systems. We are the heating specialists that tell the truth.
This has been my annual portable electric heater review and now I will file it away until next year. With the outrageous profits being made in this scam, I’m sure the ads will continue.
Time to close crawl space vents
When I drive through neighborhoods in the winter, I cannot help but notice how many homes still have their crawl space vents open. This is a huge mistake in terms of trying to keep your home comfortable and your energy bills low. Here’s the scoop.
Home foundations are typically a basement, concrete slab or a crawl space. Of these, normally the crawl space is the only one with vents to the outside. Venting the crawl space is no longer a good idea in our energy efficient homes with heating and air conditioning ducts in the crawl space. These spaces under the home should be considered a “conditioned space” which means they are heated in the winter and “conditioned” in the summer. This post deals primarily with winter heating but here is another post about summer.
Think of your crawl space as a short basement. It should be insulated around the perimeter on the inside of the crawl space walls. Now this space will be a warm space in the winter. Many homes with a crawl space will have the heating ducts in this area and these ducts perform best when they are in a warm space in the winter. Crawl space vents need to be closed, sealed and insulated to keep the cold winter air out of this area. Note that simply closing the louvers from the outside will seldom seal this opening properly. In addition to closing the louvers, you should go into the crawl space and seal the opening with a tight fitting plug and then add insulation.
Allowing cold air into an otherwise conditioned space can increase energy costs, cause the heated air in the ducts to be cooled, create cold floors and even add to the dryness of your home. If you close your crawl space vents and you are still having comfort issues, call Precision Comfort Systems. We are the home comfort experts in Noblesville, Westfield, Carmel and all other Indianapolis area communities. We discover the real reasons you are not comfortable!
What should you do with these vents in the summer? Check back in May and I will tell you the truth about sealing up these vents forever. Wouldn’t that be great to eliminate the twice per year chore of going into the crawl space?
Reduce your high energy bill
How can I reduce my high energy bills? Your home energy costs depend on several factors. In an effort to minimize your energy usage, or at least understand where your energy is going, it is important to know which appliances and family habits contribute to the greatest (and least) energy consumption.
Someday we may use sophisticated meters and be able to see our family’s energy use itemized in a statement, just like our grocery bill. Then, if the bill total seems too high, you can simply scan the list and find the items contributing to the high bill. But we are not quite there yet. Read more
We are here to keep you warm…
To keep your family warm during the cold Indiana winters, Precision Comfort Systems offers the newest in technology with gas furnaces, heat pumps, boilers, radiant heat and geothermal systems. Our goal is simple; to deliver reliable and economical warmth for every room in your home. Our furnaces have efficiency ratings from an economical 80% to almost 100% efficiency and many models are also ENERGY STAR® qualified. The high efficiency models can significantly lower your utility bills and may qualify for tax incentives or rebates from your electric company. Call us with any of your energy efficiency or home comfort questions.
