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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.

• epistasis 5y ago
  $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.
  • jtchang 5y ago
    Whoops I was off. It's around 32 cents per KWH.
  • nullc 5y ago
    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.
  • akvadrako 5y ago
    > 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.