What is your electricity bill projected to be this month? (month to, live)

[DaveinMtAiry]

It's 16 out right now, been that way all month here in Maryland. But to be honest I really like it as long as the wind is down. We have 2 dogs and it's much easier to deal with a frozen ground then a wet ground full of mud.

But then again there is the heating bill......

[DaveinMtAiry]

Oops, forgot I was posting on the Maryland board. LOL

[EditorJul]

The highest electric bill we had when living in Maryland for a two-story house built in the 1970s (plus a four-season room with a hot tub and a downstairs freezer) was $874 back in the year when we got hit by Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse. The weather that year was a huge portion of our reason for leaving the state for sunnier climes. I won't torture you all by saying what the temperature is at our new place now, but our most expensive electric bill down here last year was $118, albeit for a 1400-sq-ft. apartment. I can't help but think that BGE was just crazy expensive in general.

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by EditorJul

The highest electric bill we had when living in Maryland for a two-story house built in the 1970s (plus a four-season room with a hot tub and a downstairs freezer) was $874 back in the year when we got hit by Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse. The weather that year was a huge portion of our reason for leaving the state for sunnier climes. I won't torture you all by saying what the temperature is at our new place now, but our most expensive electric bill down here last year was $118, albeit for a 1400-sq-ft. apartment. I can't help but think that BGE was just crazy expensive in general.

Yes but talk to us in 2 months when it comes time to cool your apartment when it's 85 in Florida and 65 in Maryland.

[andrew_s]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

According to this link the Aux heat kicks in at 40 degrees. But I'm thinking that maybe also means the home setting is high.

On the Level: Why your heat pump uses its auxiliary heat function - capitalgazette.com


The average temps in Baltimore are as follows:

November: H 56 L 37
December: H 45 L 28
January: H 41 L 24
February: H 45 L 27
March: H 54 L 34

Baltimore MD Average Temperatures by Month - Current Results

Seems to be that's a whole lot of days and nearly every night when temps fall below 40. I have read other reports that said below 30 degrees so I'm really not sure which is accurate. But even at 30 degrees it sure looks like just about every night for 3 months will require Aux heat.

Am I wrong here? I honestly don't know

Yeah those lows are ment for night time. to give yoy and idea we are over 20 degrees bellow average right now. Thats why our heat systems are having an issue. Normal winters are rarely of ever bellow 32 in the day time and only some nights dip bellow that or colder yet this has been the 3rs coldest winter on record. First year that i have seen a steady aux and even then its only been for short stints. Last winter was the same but that winter killed our original hvac

This is why I call this winter a freak year. Up until this and last winter never seen an aux light or crazy bills. As for the normal times heat pumps work for most of MD.

[EditorJul]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

Yes but talk to us in 2 months when it comes time to cool your apartment when it's 85 in Florida and 65 in Maryland.

Even when it was at the hottest in FL in the mid 90s here last year, our electric bill didn't break $120. Our electric bill in the summer in MD, even using BGE's smart rewards program, was never lower than $275.

(And we did nudge near 85 today… but we'll be cooling off for the rest of the week. Thankfully, we don't have to shovel heat, though.)

[ann7]

mine will be about $250-300 (gas+electric, for a 3-story single family home. I set the thermostat to 60, and the indoor temperature will measure 60-65 (depending on which floor you are on). I have gas heat, the furnace is over 15 years old, and the home is 100 years old. I made extra curtains from fleece fabric for some of the windows on the first floor....it helps alot Also, i don't leave things plugged in when at work, such as computers, dust busters...tv.....etc..

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by andrew_s

Yeah those lows are ment for night time. to give yoy and idea we are over 20 degrees bellow average right now. Thats why our heat systems are having an issue. Normal winters are rarely of ever bellow 32 in the day time and only some nights dip bellow that or colder yet this has been the 3rs coldest winter on record. First year that i have seen a steady aux and even then its only been for short stints. Last winter was the same but that winter killed our original hvac

This is why I call this winter a freak year. Up until this and last winter never seen an aux light or crazy bills. As for the normal times heat pumps work for most of MD.

Oh I totally get how cold it's been this year. My point was even an average winter will have temps dip low enough to kick in the AUX heat virtually every night for 3 months. So I'm still trying to understand why heat pumps are considered efficient in Maryland.

[Richard Martin]

Just an FYI, the outside temperature although related to the use of backup heat, does not cause the backup heat to come on.

What causes the backup heat to come on is a drop in the indoor temperature. All heat pump thermostats have at least 2 "set points" to operate the heat pump. The first set point is the one that you see when you adjust the thermostat. Say you set the t-stat to 70°. When the temp falls below a degree or two of 70° the heat pumps kicks on. Then when it gets a degree or two above 70° it shuts off. That's all fine and good.

Now say it's 12° outside. There just isn't enough warm energy in the outside air for the heat pump to produce enough heat to keep the inside within a degree or two of the setpoint. The temp inside the house starts to fall. Once the temp falls 3 to 4 degrees below the setpoint that you set on the t-stat, the inside temp then falls below another setpoint that's pre-programmed into the t-stat. Once you hit that second "invisible" setpoint, the backup heat comes on. That's only 1 of 2 major electric suckers that the heat pump has.

The second major sucker is the defrost mode on the outside unit of the heat pump. We've all heard that whooshing sound and then maybe seen a puff of steam from our outside units. That is the defrost cycle kicking on. When the outside unit runs on cold, dampish days, it draws moisture over the coils in the outside unit. The coils are already cold from working and when you add a little moisture to them, they start to form a coating of ice on them. This coating of ice stops the exchange of cold and hot within the heat pump.

In order to get rid of this coating of ice, the whole heat pumps goes into defrost mode. Basically the outside fan stops turning and your heat pumps reverses itself back into a AC unit. It does this because in AC mode the outside coils get hot and thaw the ice off of the coils. Now while the heat pump is in AC mode defrosting the outside coils, it still must make heat for the inside of the house. It accomplishes this by turning on backup heat.

Some high end heat pump units have an outside thermostat that lets the t -stat know that the temp is below a certain point and the defrost cycle can begin to work. Most heat pump units don't have this feature so the heat pump goes into defrost mode regardless of what the outside temp is. There is a timer in the outside unit and it runs the defrost cycle as often as every 20 minutes.

The outside unit timer is adjustable in most heat pumps. You would need the service manual that came with your outside unit to know how to adjust the timer. My Goodman heat pump that came with my other house was set to run the defrost mode every 20 minutes.

I did adjust the defrost cycle timer on my other house. I at first set it to run once an hour. It does get cold here in North Carolina so I kept a close eye on the outside unit, looking for frost to plug up the coil. I found that one hour was not often enough, particulary when we had snow. Then I reset the defrost to run every 40 minutes and it worked very well in all weather conditions.

This may not seem like much but it did cut my electric bill by about $25 a month.

[marlinfshr]

Originally Posted by Richard Martin

Just an FYI, the outside temperature although related to the use of backup heat, does not cause the backup heat to come on.

What causes the backup heat to come on is a drop in the indoor temperature. All heat pump thermostats have at least 2 "set points" to operate the heat pump. The first set point is the one that you see when you adjust the thermostat. Say you set the t-stat to 70°. When the temp falls below a degree or two of 70° the heat pumps kicks on. Then when it gets a degree or two above 70° it shuts off. That's all fine and good.

Now say it's 12° outside. There just isn't enough warm energy in the outside air for the heat pump to produce enough heat to keep the inside within a degree or two of the setpoint. The temp inside the house starts to fall. Once the temp falls 3 to 4 degrees below the setpoint that you set on the t-stat, the inside temp then falls below another setpoint that's pre-programmed into the t-stat. Once you hit that second "invisible" setpoint, the backup heat comes on. That's only 1 of 2 major electric suckers that the heat pump has.

I guess that is why, even during this winter as well as last the emergency heat really only kicks on when I come in and adjust the thermostat up. If it is set at 74 and it's in the low 20's outside the aux will only kick on if I bump it right up to 77/78 but if I step it up slowly it doesn't do that. I have woke up a few early mornings and saw it on with outside temps in the teens but it went off as soon as I'd lower the thermostat a degree or 2.

I have been wondering this as everywhere I read it says aux will kick in in the 30's but mine never trully does unless it is super cold. that being said, I have no issues at all with a heat pump here in MD. Now my old u nit kicked into aux at around 40 but I came to find out in the summer of 2013 that thee AC wasn't working so the unit was replaced. all's been good since and I like the house warm.