Re:New York City bans natural gas in new buildings
by jtchang on Sunday December 26, 2021 @12:26AM
(#29689982)
How is a heatpump more economical than natural gas? I am in bay area and it can cost anywhere from 15-20 cents a kwh for electricity.
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Re:New York City bans natural gas in new buildings
by epistasis on Sunday December 26, 2021 @12:37AM
(#29690025)
$0.15-$0.20 is extremely cheap for PG&E. Are you grandfathered into a low rate plan?
Heat pumps are 3-4 times as energy efficient as a gas furnace. However, PG&E charges 7-8x as much per kWh of energy in electricity form as it does in fossil gas form.
When you have your own solar and storage, it can be as cheap as $0.04-$0.07 for the solar. And depending on the storage vendor these days, it can be anywhere $0.05-$0.15 per kWh that gets stored and discharged. At those rates, it can be cheaper than gas.
Re:New York City bans natural gas in new buildings
by nullc on Sunday December 26, 2021 @12:49AM
(#29690081)
Unfortunately recent California requirements make it a challenging to have more than 20KWH (e.g. two tesla powerwalls are too much). As a result it can be useful to have gas appliances to reduce the amount of energy storage you need.
Re:New York City bans natural gas in new buildings
by akvadrako on Sunday December 26, 2021 @06:22AM
(#29691503)
> Heat pumps are 3-4 times as energy efficient as a gas furnace.
This depends totally on the outside temperature. Larger, more expensive heat pumps can stay efficient down to lower temps. However, they all have a point where they become less efficient than resistive electric heat.