this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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I'm building a new house soon, and looked heavily into this. Live in USDA zone 5 Midwest.
First, like many have mention, I MUST keep gas furnace to handle the few weeks of -10F we have.
SECOND - the cost of gas is SO CHEAP, and electricity SO HIGH - that it ALWAYS costs more to run the heat pump. Even adjusting the heat pump range.
I couldn't justify spending $10k more on the house, just to spend more on monthly bills.
My gas is like $7/mmbtu, and electricity $0.20/kwh.
Is solar an option to offset the cost?
In winter, depending on snow, latitude and the size of the system, solar may not help. I have a 6kW system, which offsets my AC use in the summer (about 1mWh generated in June and July), but I get very little at a 42 degree north latitude, usually less than 100kWh in January and December. There was one February recently where the system was covered in snow all month and I generated a goose-egg.