TexasCHLforum.com

Ed4032 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:11 am We have frozen ponds here in Plano. Never thought that I would ever see that in Texas.

RPBrown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:10 am

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:22 pm

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:46 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:45 am It just so happens that larger homes are far less likely to have heat pump systems because a heat pump would never heat a 2500 plus square foot home. I get so tired of everyone looking to be a victim. Next thing we will see is morons playing the race card.

I have to respectfully disagree here. My 2500 square foot home has been heated by a heat pump without a glitch for over 23 years. My wife & I built the house and it is properly insulated. The heat pump rarely calls in the auxiliary electric strips (Last few days exception).

I have been servicing HVAC systems for 35 years and know what I am talking about. Your home would heat much more effeciently, and cheaper with gas. One exception would be if you live in an area without natural gas lines(propane can cost as much as using electricity to heat a home). Maybe I should have worded it differently. I was tired from no sleep for so long. I should have said never heat a home as effeciently as gas heat. But the main point of the post was that larger homes use natural gas for heating the vast majority of the time.

I have about 16 years on you
But you are correct that gas heat is the best, most efficient way to heat your home. These companies that are selling duel fuel heat pump systems are doing a big injustice to their customers IMHO.
Although I don’t plan n moving, I learned a long time ago that I will not own a home that doesn’t have gas to it for both heating and cooking

philip964 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:53 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:14 pm

philip964 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:08 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:22 pm

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:46 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:45 am It just so happens that larger homes are far less likely to have heat pump systems because a heat pump would never heat a 2500 plus square foot home. I get so tired of everyone looking to be a victim. Next thing we will see is morons playing the race card.

I have to respectfully disagree here. My 2500 square foot home has been heated by a heat pump without a glitch for over 23 years. My wife & I built the house and it is properly insulated. The heat pump rarely calls in the auxiliary electric strips (Last few days exception).

I have been servicing HVAC systems for 35 years and know what I am talking about. Your home would heat much more effeciently, and cheaper with gas. One exception would be if you live in an area without natural gas lines(propane can cost as much as using electricity to heat a home). Maybe I should have worded it differently. I was tired from no sleep for so long. I should have said never heat a home as effeciently as gas heat. But the main point of the post was that larger homes use natural gas for heating the vast majority of the time.

I would agree, except that I switched to Griddy a few years back.
It’s been great until two days ago. I have not lost power, as I am near a hospital. However I believe I am now paying $500 a day to run the small fan on my gas furnace. At $10 a KWh things get expensive quickly. Griddy is not telling me what I am using or at what price for the last two days. They say it’s because they have not gotten the information from the supplier. Usually I know every morning from the previous day. I am just really glad I switched from electric heat to gas heat last year.

Imagine what it would cost to run 15KW of electric heat strips pulling 60 amps at your rate! Holy cow! 10 dollars a KWH??? My god!

I don’t know if he strips are 220 v cause you get the square root of 3 thing but 120v 15kw heat strips would be 15x 10 = $150 an hour to run. I got my update for Sunday it was “only” $115.00 for Sunday only. I’m probably not the only one, but bills are in number of new handguns, college tuition is in terms of number of new Corvettes.

philip964 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:08 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:22 pm

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:46 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:45 am It just so happens that larger homes are far less likely to have heat pump systems because a heat pump would never heat a 2500 plus square foot home. I get so tired of everyone looking to be a victim. Next thing we will see is morons playing the race card.

I have to respectfully disagree here. My 2500 square foot home has been heated by a heat pump without a glitch for over 23 years. My wife & I built the house and it is properly insulated. The heat pump rarely calls in the auxiliary electric strips (Last few days exception).

I have been servicing HVAC systems for 35 years and know what I am talking about. Your home would heat much more effeciently, and cheaper with gas. One exception would be if you live in an area without natural gas lines(propane can cost as much as using electricity to heat a home). Maybe I should have worded it differently. I was tired from no sleep for so long. I should have said never heat a home as effeciently as gas heat. But the main point of the post was that larger homes use natural gas for heating the vast majority of the time.

I would agree, except that I switched to Griddy a few years back.
It’s been great until two days ago. I have not lost power, as I am near a hospital. However I believe I am now paying $500 a day to run the small fan on my gas furnace. At $10 a KWh things get expensive quickly. Griddy is not telling me what I am using or at what price for the last two days. They say it’s because they have not gotten the information from the supplier. Usually I know every morning from the previous day. I am just really glad I switched from electric heat to gas heat last year.

Texas Utility Regulator Orders Energy Price Hike While Millions Go Without Power

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 2:09 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:22 pm

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:46 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:45 am It just so happens that larger homes are far less likely to have heat pump systems because a heat pump would never heat a 2500 plus square foot home. I get so tired of everyone looking to be a victim. Next thing we will see is morons playing the race card.

I have to respectfully disagree here. My 2500 square foot home has been heated by a heat pump without a glitch for over 23 years. My wife & I built the house and it is properly insulated. The heat pump rarely calls in the auxiliary electric strips (Last few days exception).

I have been servicing HVAC systems for 35 years and know what I am talking about. Your home would heat much more effeciently, and cheaper with gas. One exception would be if you live in an area without natural gas lines(propane can cost as much as using electricity to heat a home). Maybe I should have worded it differently. I was tired from no sleep for so long. I should have said never heat a home as effeciently as gas heat. But the main point of the post was that larger homes use natural gas for heating the vast majority of the time.

I completely agree. And if there was a natural gas line within a mile or so of me, I would have built with gas heating. However, living out here with my own private airstrip, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

mayor wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:39 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:30 pm The reason some hoods are not losing power is if they are in a grid that is serving an essential service. That may be why their grid has not been shut down yet.

I get my service from a co-op as does my SIL. Her electricity has been off for more than 24 hrs. When she contacted the electricity company they told that if a gas well is on the grid, they won't turn the electric off. My electric hasn't been off since the start of the Polar Vortex so, I must be on a portion with a gas well. They also told her that her portion of the grid has some other problem and "we are working diligently to get it repaired". All of her pipes will be broken. I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

RPBrown wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:15 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:45 am One issue I am noticing is defenitely affecting grid selection for shut downs. Areas with a high number of heat pump/electric heat seem to be having longer down times. I think this is due to the large demand these areas create. Take for example a home with a three ton heat pump and 15KW of back up electric heat. When that system comes on it will draw as much as 80 amps at 220 volts. Convert that to Watts (W=VxA) and it is staggering. A home the same size with gas heat uses a blower pulling 1-10 amps at 120 volts with most being the average 5. It is easy to see why turning on a grid with 90% heat pump homes would put extreme demand on the available KW. Another way to look at it. To turn on a grid that is mostly heat pump homes, they have to turn off 8-10 grids with majority gas furnaces to keep demand at same level. When they turn on the power to a majority heat pump grid, the systems all have to run full on heat pump with all heat strips calling to heat the home back up. This creates a huge spike in demand.

My daughters home is gas heat but she is in a neighborhood/grid that is at least 75% heat pump homes. I am five minutes away and right across Legacy but my neighborhood/grid is 95% gas heat. Her grid has been shut down far longer with fewer on cycles than my grid.

Some "victims" on Twitter are crying that selection is being made due to income levels. LOL. Selection is being made based on your heat source. It just so happens that larger homes are far less likely to have heat pump systems because a heat pump would never heat a 2500 plus square foot home. I get so tired of everyone looking to be a victim. Next thing we will see is morons playing the race card.

Normally I would agree with you, however, my neighborhood is 95% gas heat for 100,000 or so homes and all have been off 5-6 hours and on 1-1.5 hours at a time but we have friends that live a couple of miles from us, in a newer neighborhood that is predominantly heat pump and have not lost power at all.

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:46 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:45 am It just so happens that larger homes are far less likely to have heat pump systems because a heat pump would never heat a 2500 plus square foot home. I get so tired of everyone looking to be a victim. Next thing we will see is morons playing the race card.

I have to respectfully disagree here. My 2500 square foot home has been heated by a heat pump without a glitch for over 23 years. My wife & I built the house and it is properly insulated. The heat pump rarely calls in the auxiliary electric strips (Last few days exception).

rtschl wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:01 am I realize this is a storm like no other, but this is a leadership failure in our state. Why does it seem ONCOR and ERCOT were unprepared for this storm that was predicted for more than a week?

Our leaders need to take a hard look at ALL avenues of power generation including natural gas, coal, and especially nuclear. Wind and Solar are not ecologically friendly nor efficient despite what the left says. We shouldn't be so dependent upon "green" energy which is useless in severe weather. It also doesn't work when there is little to no wind or sunshine. It will be next to impossible in a Democratic controlled US government but nuclear energy is the most efficient and environmentally sound option that we should be actively pursuing. We're going to end up being like California with constant power failures in summer when it is normal weather here if Texas doesn't reverse course on it's current energy