electricity for heating (HVAC + water)?

[mdhills]

How good are the electric options for heating (HVAC or water)?
(I've been used to natural gas for these; seems like the region is encouraging a shift towards electricity for these)

thanks,
Matt

[Splinter Puller]

How good are the electric options for heating (HVAC or water)?
(I've been used to natural gas for these; seems like the region is encouraging a shift towards electricity for these)

thanks,
Matt

Air source heat pumps have come a long way.   Heat pump water heaters also.

[Robert Adams]

The heat pump waterheaters are getting pretty good. They are very efficient when water usage is low. When you use lots of hot water it will revert to conventional elements to keep up unless you have it set to only run in heat pump mode. One great benefit is that it cools and dehumidifies your garage. The bad part is you also have a condensate line you have to drain somewhere. 

           For heat Heat pumps are getting better and since it doesn't very cold where you are they will work well for you. In colder climates they are hit or miss. My parents switch theirs over to emergency heat and bypass the heat pump mode because it runs and runs and runs and runs like the AC does this time of year when it's 104* and super humid...

[JosephP]

How good are the electric options for heating (HVAC or water)?
(I've been used to natural gas for these; seems like the region is encouraging a shift towards electricity for these)

thanks,
Matt

You are in CA?  And there is a push to move to using MORE electricity???  I know it has been a while since rolling blackouts have been in the news, but are those still a thing?  Probably not during heating season (?), but I wouldn't want to loose hot water that easily.

[fredhargis]

We've had heat pumps for the last 30 years, and they have indeed come a long way from the early models. Even so, if I had nat gas, there's no way I'd switch to electric anything.

[Halfathumb]

We had our house built in 1998, the builder suggested in ground heat source (which I am very happy with) I had to replace it 4 years ago. So I'm all electric and my utility bills are and always have been under $200 each month. Only once I lost power and that was for less than 4 hours. My neighbor converted to in ground also because his propane was between $600 - $700, but that was when the cost of it was through the roof. 

Do they allow in ground heat source in the Bay area?

[Robert Adams]

We had our house built in 1998, the builder suggested in ground heat source (which I am very happy with) I had to replace it 4 years ago. So I'm all electric and my utility bills are and always have been under $200 each month. Only once I lost power and that was for less than 4 hours. My neighbor converted to in ground also because his propane was between $600 - $700, but that was when the cost of it was through the roof. 

Do they allow in ground heat source in the Bay area?

            GSHP is a different animal and something I looked into. I only have a half acre which isn't enough to do a GSHP with ground loops. I can do it with wells but... The wells would cost around 50K(more now) and then you still need the rest of the system and then over time the ground becomes heat soaked and the unit efficiency starts to trail off. Not really that bad on a house but in commercial settings it has proven to be a major problem.
 
               The better way is if you live on a lake or you have a pond you can do loops in the water which work very well and are dirt cheap to do and repair if ever needed. You can also do a pump and dump if you had really clean water.

[Halfathumb]

The wells would cost around 50K(more now)

Yikes! That's 1 reason we moved to SW Mo because more bounce to the retirement dollar.

[TDKPE]

You are in CA?  And there is a push to move to using MORE electricity???  I know it has been a while since rolling blackouts have been in the news, but are those still a thing?  Probably not during heating season (?), but I wouldn't want to loose hot water that easily.

That's the very first thing that came to mind in my hard head, too.  CA actually pushing electricity usage over other energy carriers?  Unless they're building more nuke baseload plants, which they're not and are actually decommissioning many existing plants.  https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/c...ear-energy

Being totally reliant on magic smoke would make me very nervous, unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, which could be anything since CA is so far away and not in my realm of cosmic consciousness but in the least little foggy bit.

[Robert Adams]

That's the very first thing that came to mind in my hard head, too.  CA actually pushing electricity usage over other energy carriers?  Unless they're building more nuke baseload plants, which they're not and are actually decommissioning many existing plants.  https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/c...ear-energy

Being totally reliant on magic smoke would make me very nervous, unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, which could be anything since CA is so far away and not in my realm of cosmic consciousness but in the least little foggy bit.

        They were pushing PG&E really hard to spend lots of their $ on renewable energy. But they wouldn't let them raise rates so they had to cut back on something to pay for it and they cut back on line maintenance and now PG&E is paying the price for the fires because the state wouldn't let them charge enough to do both at the same time. 

            I'm getting more and more to the point where I think we need to be as self sufficient as possible. IE Solar panels etc which are very affordable now and the payoff can be as little as 5 years if you do your shopping and do the install yourself. If you have room to ground mount the panels that's best as they perform better that way and easier/cheaper install. 
        There is one house near me with two panel arrays on poles with tracking systems and they have had them for many years now. I would cover the shop in panels but we don't plan on staying.