Frugal and Energy Efficient Living

I put two 12,000 btu mini split systems in last fall I did the install myself they are Pioneer units from Home Depot.

Our primary heat for the house has always been our wood stove with electric baseboard and a propane space heater in the living room for backup when we leave for extended periods.

I have been interested in mini split heat pumps for years and in the last few the efficiency has really improved so here are the results.

I installed a real time watt meter and KWH meter to monitor energy consumption in outside temperatures in the high teens and 20's the units pull about 500 watts each single digits about 900 watts the coldest it got here has been -12F for several mornings the heat pumps were still putting out 100 degree air normal is about that usually 104.

Our total energy consumption since NOV to April 10 is 1,311 KWH about 315.00 dollars in electric here in the Catskills with the electric rate at 23 cents a KWH with all the fees. I figure those numbers would be at least double without the wood stove, still half the cost of propane per btu, Nat gas is unavailable out here in the sticks

But we also have 9KW of solar panels offsetting our electric I am going to be adding an additional 3KW to offset the heat pumps

I will be adding one more mini split I have been very impressed at the performance in subzero temps.

As we get older I would like to cut down on dragging in firewood all the time.

And the other benefit is they do AC a few weeks of the summer here gets hot and humid and the noisy window unit we have will not be needed any more the mini spit is about twice as efficient as the window AC and almost silent.

Highly recommend them.