How much of the difference is amount used versus price increase per unit? And yes, the newest and biggest fees too

The bill says 1320 KW used for the 30 day period

52.8¢/kW? That can't be right!

IMPO

SR

Have you checked the level/ condition of your attic insulation?

Check your bill again. Maybe you were hit with unpaid charges from the previous owner.

The electricity used by a mini split would be about one third the cost of electric baseboard heating. It will also supply cooling for the few weeks of the year when it is needed.

My last bill says 1266 kw used in January (31 days) and the charge is $144.60.

I live in a suburb north of Boston, so pretty close to Southern NH. It has been brutally cold this winter, and last winter was pretty mild comparatively. It has a big impact -- our electric bill for one month was over $1,000, and that's with heat pumps, not 'pure' electric heat. Our house is about 2200 sf.

Learn how to use the wood stove.

Does NH have any home energy audits available? You’ll want serious insulation in the attic, blown into the walls, sealing up any leaks around windows and doors (even get foam insulation for wall outlets). I’m assuming you also have a basement so there sealing work to be done there too.

Are you sure no one is stealing electricity via external outlets? Do you have multiple old fridges running? If you’re doing work on the house are there loads of lights being used?

An energy audit will help you determine where there are inefficient appliances, heat loss through attic/ walls. And they’ll recommend the best order to make the updates. It will take time to fix all the boring guys of the building but will decrease your bills over time.

Electric baseboard heat is notoriously inefficient. Ductless mini split systems work well for me (I had installed outside of Boston and it worked great this winter). But it cost quite a bit to install.

Try the wood stove. Good luck!

Electric strip heat is very efficient form of heat, but very costly. How can you say efficient and costly in the same sentence?

Electric strip heat burns 1 btu of energy for every 1 btu produced no waste very efficient. Gas heat (depending on the efficiency of the appliance) will produce 100 btu while 80 btu goes to heat the structure, 20 btu go up the flue as waste. To the 1 btu level for gas heat it would be 0.8 btu created 0.2 btu waste.

BUT, gas heat is cheaper and therefore the bills are smaller. You can spend more money for a higher efficient gas furnace and get that Operating cost even lower on the 100 btu scale it would be something from 90 btu to 97 btu with waste of 10 btu to 3 btu per 100 btu produced.

Mechanical cooling or HP --- if you go the way of mini splits for a 1800 sq ft structure I believe this would make you what is commonly referred to as HVAC equipment poor. Maintenance, breakdowns and eventual replacments all those costs add up. Then you still have to pay those electric bills. Not what I would call a rosy situation.

HP's can work but better in the split system forced air realm (not mini splits)... and not to the realm of Natural Gas heating. Propane gas is another option, but even that is often times not that cheap of a heating fuel, I believe partly because it has to be trucked in. The fuel to truck it in is currently sky high.

If there is no forced air ducting for this structure now? Yeah you're in a difficult spot and now you know why the wood stove is there.

I’m mistyped the amount the amount used. It should read 3473 kw for the month

That is a rate of $.20 per KWh. That is above the national average. You need to minimize the use of the electric heating. A mini split is a good solution for existing houses with no duct work.

"Electric strip heat is very efficient form of heat, but very costly. How can you say efficient and costly in the same sentence?"

Good question. The answer is that it depends where you draw the boundaries for the energy conversion calculation. Electrical energy derived from fossil fuels is subject to high losses in conversion and transmission. For electricity derived from coal, only about 30% of the energy content of the coal is delivered to a household's electric meter in the form of electrical energy (70% losses.) By contrast, about 90% of the energy content of natural gas leaving the processing plant arrives at the homeowner's gas meter (10% losses.) The cost associated with the energy losses in conversion and transmission are borne by the consumer.

I appreciate the comments and that I am paying $.20/ KWh which is high. I am wondering if around $1k/ month is typical and I just need to suck it up or if I want to make a change to another form of heat like ductless mini splits am I going to be paying the same per month in addition to the cost of installation?… What would you do?

In my experience, the $1,000 monthly bill might be 2 or 3 times a year. Total bill for the year might be about $4,000. Two heat pumps (providing both heat and central a/c) and about 2200 sf house.

if I want to make a change to another form of heat like ductless mini splits am I going to be paying the same per month in addition to the cost of installation?

If you were to install a mini split and not use any electric heating, the amount of money you would spend to produce the same amount of heat would be about one third. Using your example if in the dead of winter let's assume your $1,000 electric bill was $900 for heat and $100 to run all the appliances and lighting. The mini split could reduce the $900 for heating down to $300. Your electric bill would now be $300 plus $100 for everything else for a total of $400.

What would you do?

I would get some quotes on mini splits. Once you have the installation costs, you can calculate how long it will take to recoup the cost of the installation. You also should factor in your added benefit of comfort in summer and winter.

What would you do?

So I found a website with opinions of people who live there in New Hampshire to gain some insight of what life is like in terms of RE what you could *maybe* reasonably expect to deal with in terms of HVAC. Here's a snippet of that review I found? Is it accurate? I don't know....

quote Cons include weather. Obviously, it snows. Alot. If you move here, you will invariably get your car stuck in the snow at some point so get prepared. Housing is pretty expensive compared to most other places in the country, and it's not great quality housing either. Finding a place with central heat and A/C is rare, as is finding a place with washer/dryer hookups. The state is in the middle of an awful housing crisis currently, so it's likely that you'll be pitted against dozens of other desperate renters just to get into a place. Not enough housing to go around unfortunately. end quote.

So how might this be enjoyed with possibly a half dozen mini splits to heat / cool this house?

It snows alot, temps in January / February are typically in the near single digits. That temperature is not really a problem for a mini split producing heat. Many of them now days can produce heat from negative temps. However, those numbers come from units that are maintained.

Heat pumps don't just magically create heat like a heat strip does. If you don't plan for snow related issues... a plugged up outdoor coil / blocked coil from snow and or ice isn't goint to produce much heat in those conditions.

Mini splits are sized for the room in which they sit. Most people don't like the asthetics of a ugly box on the wall (typically every room of the house). Due to this opinion above of the rare issue of finding central heat and a/c in New Hampshire leads me to believe the value of this home would go up if you figure a way to:

Add Natural Gas to the house and then figure a way to run ducts and add in central air and heat.

They do make larger multi heat mini splits where there's one unit outside and multiple heads inside, but this doesn't do anything to lower maintenance on those inside units. Due to the fast equipment change over in the mini split realm if something goes wrong with that multi head condensing unit beyond about 7 years and you'll be replacing everything again.

Then the refrigerant these things use right now is in the process of being phased out which won't help you any in terms of how long that solution will work.

If the central air and heat can't be achieved with Natural Gas, I would probably consider Central Air and Heat (ducted) with electric strip and Inverter heat pump. Fully prepared with that solution to remove snow and or ice around the outside condenser. The reason primarily for choosing ducted is maintenance but also value of this house and what appears to be the lack of "Central Air and Heat" --- that tells me there would be a pay off at some point. (maybe in time to sell it as well as appreciation.)

Oil prices are crazy, electricity is crazy, we’re all in the same boat.

If you're still thinking mini split after my post be sure to stop by the infamous "clicking noise" thread.

Remember those heads that sit on the wall, if they aren't quiet --- there is no comfort in that.

Hi, Bellgirl,

You can weigh the opinions and prescriptions of folks who don't even live in your climate zone or you can make use of some great technical resources available in Massachusetts such as the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. They have an excellent cost data base with real-world cost data you can sort by county if you like.

https://www.masscec.com/cost-residential-air-source-heat-pumps

You should investigate if there are rebates available for heat pumps at NH Dept. of Energy web site. Some rebates might be for specific utilities.

The other advantage of a mini split is you can mount the outdoor condenser high on the side of the house and have to worry about it being buried in the snow.