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What explains the difference between heating systems in the USA?
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this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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One reason is bad laws. I would love to replace my natural gas boiler and steam radiators with an electric heat pump system. It would be more efficient, cheaper to run, be able use solar power, and keep my house more comfortable.
But state law requires that buildings meet a specific efficiency requirement, which my house does not meet because it is 170 years old. I understand why they have that requirement for new construction, but it is stupid to not have an exception for old buildings.
Our home is from the 19th century, but with modern insulation it's still fit to be heated with ACs and a heat pump. We've opted not to since that's a big ass unit and we're limited on space, but it could work.
We did have to replace isolation basically everywhere and we still need to replace some door frames, but the total cost was just a few thousand euros, before govt funding.
Doing almost all of the work yourselves saves a fuckton of money.
Did you look into it though? Anything you can do to weatherproof your home is far cheaper than paying forever to heat or cool it.
I’m in a similar situation but less so. My house is only half the age but well built so not too leaky. My state strongly encourages efficiency measures and they’re not a bad idea. However since their criteria is “recommended” insulation, I’m “ok”. Basically since I have two layers of fiberglass in my attic, I’ve “done all I could”. However I did have to have an insulating contractor out to say “yep, can’t do any more”
Now my only problem was that I have functioning (but old) heating and a/c so wanted to save up a few years, but now I need to decide whether I have to try asap to get the incentive while it lasts