this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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I'm going through this right now with my state (MA). After a lot of talking and finding non-shit vendors and quotes and stuff I've got an application into the state program. About $28k total to remove oil from my home completely in favor of heatpumps and a new water heater. State will give us a 10k rebate and a loan where they pay 7 years of interest. So that works out to 10k upfront we get back and then 7 years of $225/month payments.
We pay $300/month for oil. And that price is always getting higher.
Edit: worth mentioning that we are going for a full whole home rebate - to get the full 10k we are required to heat the same areas to the same heat load to qualify. We could have gone for a partial rebate and done a hybrid oil heat pump system. (Which didn't seem to be a good idea long term with oil costs)
Why so expensive? That's the price of our geothermal system with its really expensive well.
5 indoor units, 2 outdoor units, new water tank, electric work, boiler and oil tank both got to get chopped up safely before being brought out. Went through several vendors to get the project under 30k.
And it's New England so the heat pumps have to be hyper heat units that function in winter. We are getting units that will heat to 70 degrees inside at -13deg outside and functions down to -22. (All F)
wow, we paid $16k for 4 indoor units/1 outdoor unit (we can add 1 more indoor unit in case we re-do the basement). $2k for the heat pump hot water heater. $1k to have the oil tank removed. $19k total. for the mini split/water heater we got a 1% loan from the state.
we're in new england and got the mitsubishi hyper heats. this was all pre-covid but wow that is an expensive quote.
For reference the cheapest heat pump water heater I was able to get quoted (4 companies quoted) was $6k. We elected to get a non efficient water tank at $1900. 2023.
I think covid drove up the cost for sure. And I think certain contractors are inflating the price for the rebate. 2 of 4 companies gave me 50k plus quotes even without duct work. Maybe that was the fuck you we don't have the people to do it please go away price though I dunno.
Ah. That explains it. Mini split?
Yeah. Our duct system is absolutely awful. We looked into mini splits to solve the problem before the geothermal. The ones with multiple heads were just ridiculous.
We did later finish our attic and put one up there. It's awesome.
Yea it's basically a not mini mini split.
We looked into doing a ducted heat pump through the attic for the top floor. But it quickly brought the project into the 50k range for what amounted to a slightly better looking design.
That's the problem we had. Not only is actually making our duct work work probably not physically feasible, I can't find an HVAC company that actually tries to solve the problem I have.
It's "I'm not sure why you think that splitting my HVAC system left to right (the easy way) will help my problem with HVAC front to back."
I have a PhD in engineering and strongly respect the trades. It's just don't be stupid. And HVAC have to know a lot about all the various trades.
And you guys get 8 months of winter
Not any more.
Yeah past few years Southern NE has barely kept snow on the ground, if at all.
We get a fall and 3-4 months of winter.