high electric bills due to hw heater

13 years ago

We live in New York with very high electric rates. We have oil heat (natural gas not available) and the cost of propane varies considerably. We only use it for stovetop cooking, but have looked into a demand propane tankless. Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of the propane supplier as far as prices go as they will only fill their own tanks. Some friends in our area got rid of propane for hot water for this reason.

Our oil burner is an 18 year old Weil McLain and we spend approx 200 a month for about 2600 sq feet. The oil company that comes to tune it up every year says it is about 85% efficient. We have baseboard heating.

We are looking into an indirect tank for our current oil burner, but my husband has been told by someone that the new oil burners are way more efficient now and we should upgrade to a whole new heating and hot water system to save money on both hot water and oil.

Do you agree with this opinion?

We still have 2 in college and would like not to spend 7-10K on a new system. But....our electric bills are 500/month due to 5 adults and a huge demand for hot water. This is just for electric--oil bill is 200/month.

We just installed all cfls,timers,a low flow showerhead (Omni), and have started washing clothes with cold water in order to reduce our electric consumption, but we'll have to wait a month to see if the changes make a difference. We also suspect our hot water heater temp is set too high, and that has to be fixed also.

We also looked into the ge geosprings hybrid, but I can't find a lot of actual customer reviews--the few I've found have been negative. Our basement is finished and heated and we're not sure it's a viable option. We don't need all the heat to get sucked out of the air raising our oil bill. Am I correct in that thinking? They seem to have a high efficiency rating, though. I'm the researcher in the family and it's wearing me out!

And lastly, I went to a website that listed the tax credits for heating and was shocked to see that almost no oil burners qualify. So if you are in the northeast and don't have access to nat gas, you are at a huge disadvantage. And solar is out--even with the tax credits we can't finance the upfront costs.

I would be grateful for any comments you may have before we start calling contractors and getting confused! It seems hard to get unbiased opinions:) We are not adverse to spending big bucks for a top of the line system, but we must be sure it is the right move financially....

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Comments (14)

centralairunits
13 years ago
Wow........ nice sharing
Thank's a lot for nice post
weedmeister
13 years ago
how old is the h/w heater?

Are you saying that you do not have A/C in this house? No electrical appliances such as refridgerators or freezers? No other electrical equipment?
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elle3
Original Author
13 years ago
The hot water heater is 18 years old. We have central air and an in ground pool. Of course we have refrigerators (2).
Our electric bills are twice as high as those in our neighborhood with the same size homes, with pools and central a/c. These people use indirect hot water using oil though--so we are assuming it is our hot water heater that drives up our bill.
The question is: are brand new oil heat and hot water systems that much more efficient now than they were 18 years ago to justify the expense of a new system?
I'm sorry if I offended by giving too much information.
bus_driver
13 years ago
I doubt that oil burners ever achieve higher than 85% efficiency. I even have doubts that the system efficiency reaches 85%.
wisehvac
13 years ago
here is what you need in the house and its up to you to look up.

weil mclain ultras oil boiler with an outdoor reset and an indirect water heater to the demand of the house. a good weil mclain guy should be able to come over size it up and swap it out for you...........
david_cary
13 years ago
HW heat is not that expensive. There are little efficiency gains to a new electric hot water. An electric heating element is an electric heating element. The insulation might be a bit better but I'd expect a 10% or less improvement.

The national average for electric HW is about $450 annually. So it is unlikely that your HW bill is really that high.

Generally electricity is more expensive than oil for heating hot water but the amount of heat needed is not that high so the switchover doesn't help that much.

There are no tax credits for oil because I think the point is to use less oil. There are tax credits for geothermal which would be an option for you but it would be a large capital outlay. Your oil bill is not that bad so you can't save that much. 85% is not bad and not worth replacing.

Solar hot water with tax credits almost always pays for itself over a reasonable time period. I realize you don't want to outlay the cash but it isn't a bad idea. We paid about $6000 for a system - between state, federal, utility rebates/credits - the net was $2000. (it was a new house and so it saved about $800 for conventional so the net was really just $1200) You might need a larger system so it would be closer to $8000. And then being in NY, it might be more...
srercrcr
13 years ago
Swimming pool...BINGO. The circulating pump takes juice and if its got a heater, game over.
elle3
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you for your thoughts and comments--we decided to have an energy assessment done by an "independent" contractor. We realize now that there is no sense looking for solutions until we know exactly what the problem is! Hopefully we will get honest feedback and can implement some cost cutting solutions...
tigerdunes
13 years ago
elle

I would concentrate more on why your electric bill is so abnormally high. some type of appliance could be malfunctioning.

IMO
creek_side
13 years ago
A swimming pool heater stuck on would cause your problem. It should be easy to find. Just flip the breaker to the pool while watching your meter spin.
weedmeister
13 years ago
I asked what I asked in order to get some more facts. Sometimes people ask this type of question (why is my electric bill so high?) and eventually come back with more information (my husband makes furniture in the garage and has a lot of heavy machinery).

I used to work for a company that, among other things, sold equipment that was used to monitor electricity usage in the home. What we saw was, as Dave said, the WH is not a big user of electricity in the home. My guess would be that for an older unit it may be around $500/yr or $45/month depending on where it is set and your electrical rates.

The bigger users are AC and, since you have it, a pool.

A newer electric WH will have better insulation than an 18yr old model. Mine does. This MIGHT lessen its power useage by 10%. Maybe.

New refridgerators/freezers use a bit less power than older units. Keeping older ones clean helps them out. Especially defrosting freezers if they have a lot of ice built up in them.
elle3
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you again everyone!
We may have jumped to the conclusion that it is the water heater, but only because our home is similar to many in the neighborhood and our bill is twice as high. Thank you for helping us think this through.
We use propane only occasionally to heat the pool--maybe 8-10 times a season-- and the pool is 7 years old. Maybe my husband runs the filter too much-- I'll have to ask him.

If what some of you have suggested is true, then replacing the hot water heater with indirect won't help that much. Big expense for not much in savings.

Our kitchen fridge is only 3 years old, but the one in the garage is 15. Do old fridges really use that much energy?
weedmeister
13 years ago
a 15-yr old fridge will use more energy than a new one. But not like $500/month.
nineplus23_gmail_com
13 years ago
I built a new home in the poconos pennsylvania..its a 2000 sqft home and it only cost me about $600 a year for heating and cooling....my home has geothermal..and it was bult by falcon crest homes..you can call them...their pricing is very fair...800-936-3727

high electric bills due to hw heater

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