> Worthy questions all. The payback comparison was to propane heat
> which at
> the time was slightly cheaper than going straight electric heat.
Thanks for the info, Bart. Was that a high efficiency propane furnace, or
standard ?
> I don't
> consider that an additional cost because I would expect something
> similar to
> fail with any other 9 year old HVAC system.
Just for contrast, my natural gas furnace appears to be original to the
house, making it over 40 years old. I've lubricated the bearings once in 15
years, and the previous owner may have replaced the thermocouple once.
Everything else is original, except the added ductwork when the house was
expanded in 1968.
> Lifetime of the indoor portion of the system was comparable to
> other units
> (5 Yr. Full Warranty).
For your sake, I hope that's not it's lifetime (2 years less than payback
period) <g>
> After
> the $1800 rebate and due to the fact that by going all electric I get a
> price break for any Kwh exceeding 1000 per month (the 1st 1000 at
> 8.251 cents
> with any additional use at 3.263 cents per Kwh per my Feb. 2005
> bill) the
> payback was estimated to be ~74 months. YMMV.
Yeah, just a bit. Last time I checked, I was paying a bit over $.11/kwh
initially (with a monthly minimum to cover the cost of the service) and I
think the top price break was almost $.08/kwh. It's probably gone up since
then, with the energy fiasco here in CA.
Randall
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