Cost of oil heat vs. air-to-air Heat Pump
 

Reading here,

Don’t Feed the Alligators home heating oil

I found this: "(140,000 BTU/gal) X (.86) / ($2.45/gal) = 49,959 BTU/dollar"


So, it seems you can get about 25,000 BTUh for 50 cents..

Humm, If it's not too cold out, I think it's possible to get 25,000 BTU
out of my Sanyo heat pump for the same price.. (2.5kW @ 20 cents per KWh).

It seems like the oil heat advantage is fading away..

It would be interesting to see how that comparison works from last year which I'd imagine had higher oil prices, to this year which I'm guessing will be a bit lower.

They say it's going up to around $2.81 this winter (in the northeast).
U.S. retail heating oil price up for 5th week: Government | Reuters

We got about 200 gallons (first winter fillup) last month and it was $2.30
because we paid early and got a dime off the regular price of $2.40

Just looking at my last few oil bills..

11/04/2010 78 gal @ $2.59

12/30/2010 70 gal @ $2.89
02/10/2011 101 gal @ $3.25
05/20/2011 74 gal @ $3.49

During the last 200 days, I think we may have burned about 245 gallons of oil
(About $860 at today's prices).

This use is a combination of heating hot water and some space heating.


That's 1.225 gallons per day on average. I expect we will be using < half
that much, now that it's warmer out, and hot water use is 1/2 gal per day.



At 1/2 gallon per day, that's 182.5 gallons per year. (for hot water only).
If the average oil price was $3.05 per gallon, that's $556.62 per year.

I guess $46.39 per month isn't that bad for hot water..

Humm, if I invested $1200 to $1500 in technology to cut my hot water
heating bill by 50 to 75 percent, the break-even point isn't too far down the road..
Of course, if oil prices remain stable.. LOL!! :rolleyes: