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Heating Energy Cost Comparison: Heat Pump and Electric
Heating Systems
Factors Affecting Heating Cost Comparisons
As stated earlier, the relative savings you can expect from running a
heat pump to provide heating in your home depend on a number of factors,
including:
- The cost of electricity and other fuels in your area.
- Where your home is located – severity of winter climate.
- The type and the efficiency of the heat pump you are considering
– whether closer to the least energy-efficient or most energy-efficient
HSPF or COP shown in Figures 4,
9 and 10.
- How the heat pump is sized or matched to the home – the balance
point below which supplementary heating is required.
Comparison Results
Table 2 shows estimated heating energy costs for
eight different heat pumps, an electric furnace, and an oil furnace. Seven
locations across Canada have been selected for the purposes of this comparison.
Six of these locations are cities, while one, rural central Ontario, is
a region. Each has unique electricity costs. Results in other cities in
the same climate region may differ, due to variations in electricity costs.
A range of annual energy costs is provided by region for each heating
system. This accounts for variations in equipment efficiency, size of
house or annual heating requirements, and the ratio of heat pump to house
heat loss. According to Table 2, the lowest operating
costs for all systems are found in Vancouver, which has the warmest climate.
The highest operating costs for most systems are found in rural central
Ontario. In all of these estimated cases, heat pump systems have lower
annual heating energy costs than electric or oil furnaces. Also note that
in all locations, ground water EESs have lower operating costs than closed-loop
EESs.
The comparisons shown in Table 2 include only energy
costs for space heating. For some heat pumps equipped with a desuperheater,
domestic water heating costs can be reduced by 25 to 50 percent. This
would increase the savings and improve the payback on investment for these
systems. Furthermore, there may be payback and energy savings for those
heat pumps, which can be used to meet space cooling requirements.
Table 2:
Heat Pump and Conventional Heating System –
Heating Energy Cost Comparison
(Energy cost range in $/yr.)
(Simple payback period ranges in years shown in italics below energy cost
ranges) |
Location |
Furnace
with Air Conditioning |
Air-Source
Add-on to Oil Furnace |
|
Air-Source
with Elec.Resistance Backup |
Ground Water
ESS |
Closed-Loop
ESS |
|
Electric 100% AFUE |
Oil 78% AFUE |
Standard Efficiency |
High Efficiency |
Standard Efficiency |
High Efficiency |
Standard Efficiency |
High Efficiency |
Standard Efficiency |
High Efficiency |
Vancouver |
$405-$727 |
$441-$786 |
$139-$258 |
$125-$232 |
$138-$258 |
$125-$232 |
$170-$339 |
$141-$282 |
$197-$394 |
$165-$329 |
|
|
3.6-5.2 |
4.1-6.1 |
4.0-5.9 |
4.6-6.9 |
14.6-17.1 |
14.2-17.0 |
29.7-33.8 |
26.5-31.2 |
Calgary |
$1,128-$1,907 |
$930-$1,536 |
$634-$1,053 |
$597-$985 |
$689-$1,137 |
$650-$1,063 |
$432-$863 |
$365-$730 |
$488-$975 |
$410-$820 |
|
|
3.5-4.8 |
3.7-5.2 |
2.2-3.2 |
2.4-3.6 |
4.9-5.3 |
4.9-5.3 |
9.6-10.3 |
8.8-9.4 |
Winnipeg |
$1,057-$1,776 |
$1,290-$2,128 |
$867-$1,402 |
$837-$1,346 |
$750-$1,225 |
$717-$1,162 |
$332-$665 |
$281-$562 |
$375-$751 |
$316-$632 |
|
|
2.3-3.4 |
2.6-3.8 |
3.1-4.6 |
3.3-5.1 |
4.6-5.0 |
4.7-5.2 |
8.7-9.3 |
8.3-9.1 |
Rural Central Ontario (North
Bay) |
$1,509-$2,551 |
$1,072-$1,764 |
$806-$1,341 |
$758-$1,251 |
$935-$1,531 |
$882-$1,430 |
$453-$905 |
$382-$763 |
$515-$1,030 |
$432-$864 |
|
|
4.4-5.8 |
4.4-6.0 |
1.8-2.7 |
2.0-3.0 |
3.4-3.8 |
3.5-3.9 |
6.4-7.0 |
6.2-6.8 |
Toronto (Etobicoke) |
$1,082-$1,854 |
$803-$1,338 |
$490-$825 |
$452-$755 |
$529-$873 |
$491-$801 |
$282-$493 |
$235-$411 |
$326-$571 |
$273-$477 |
|
|
3.8-5.2 |
4.0-5.7 |
|
2.0-3.0 |
2.2-3.4 |
4.3-5.2 |
4.6-5.5 |
8.0-9.6 |
7.9-9.6 |
Montréal |
$832-$1,417 |
$716-$1,190 |
$462-$766 |
$433-$712 |
|
$484-$796 |
$454-$738 |
$314-$627 |
$264-$528 |
$357-$713 |
$299-$599 |
|
|
4.3-5.9 |
4.5-6.5 |
|
2.9-4.3 |
3.2-4.9 |
6.9-7.4 |
6.8-7.6 |
13.5-14.1 |
12.3-13.5 |
Halifax |
$1,068-$1,833 |
$836-$1,397 |
$452-$772 |
$414-$701 |
|
$471-$791 |
$432-$719 |
$280-$490 |
$233-$409 |
$324-$567 |
$271-$474 |
|
|
2.7-3.7 |
2.9-4.1 |
|
1.6-2.4 |
1.8-2.7 |
3.8-4.6 |
4.0-4.8 |
7.0-8.5 |
7.0-8.4 |
Notes to Table 2:
- Electricity prices are residential runoff rates as
of November 2003, as supplied by local utilities. Rates varied from
a low of 5.16¢ per kWh in Winnipeg to a high of 8.67¢ per
kWh in Toronto.
- Oil prices are "typical" prices from local
suppliers as of November 2003. Prices varied from 38.9¢ per litre
in Montréal to 50¢ per litre in Halifax.
- AFUE: Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (seasonal
efficiency).
- Simple payback period (shown in italics) is based on
heating cost savings and initial cost. The initial cost for air-source
heat pump systems is the additional cost from an air conditioner to
the heat pump. The initial cost for EES heat pump systems is the full
installed cost of the heat pump.
- HVAC Advisor 2.0 software, developed by NRCan, was
used for all the cost simulations.
- The above costs are for space heating only. EESs are
commonly equipped with a desuperheater to facilitate water heating.
Desuperheaters can reduce electric water heating bills by $100 to $200
per year. Adding this savings to the space heating operating savings
would reduce the payback period of an EES.
- The above costs are based on the HSPFs of Figures 7,
14 and 15 and house insulation values of RSI-3.5 (R-20) for walls, RSI-5.3
(R-30) for the roof, RSI-0.39 (R-2.2) for windows and RSI-1.8 (R-10)
for the basement.
- The cost of equipment for the payback period analysis
was derived from the data of RSMeans and other sources. These costs
were adjusted to reflect local costs according to the location factors
supplied by RSMeans.
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