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In Texas doesn't electricity use also drop during the winter? Almost everyone I know in Texas has gas heat and the winters are mild while summers are scorching.

by verall 1y ago

In Texas doesn't electricity use also drop during the winter? Almost everyone I know in Texas has gas heat and the winters are mild while summers are scorching. I use about 3X the electricity in summer months vs winter. I would guess nearly all residential energy use in Texas follows this pattern.

drob518 1y ago
Yes, it definitely drops, but we’ve had issues where wind was basically offline in west Texas. So, you still need to balance it out.
vel0city 1y ago
A lot of newer construction and especially apartment buildings will end up using resistive heating, the least efficient option. Sadly, getting an HVAC person willing to install a heat pump system in Texas seems to be quite a challenge. Some of the highest peak energy usages the state has ever seen have been in the winter. For instance, that 2021 winter storm absolutely crushed the records of energy usage in the state before it all crashed, and every year after that has seen even higher amounts of usage in the winter since.
- tocs3 1y ago
  Sadly, getting an HVAC person willing to install a heat pump system in Texas seems to be quite a challenge. We had a heat pump installed here in central Texas about a year ago. It replaced a heat pump 40+ years old. There are a couple local installers (in Blanco, TX) and I regularly see adds for others in surrounding areas (San Antonio / Austin). It is expensive (I have no idea related to other areas but seemed expensive). It is not hard to get a heat pump around here.
  - vel0city 1y ago
    > It is expensive (I have no idea related to other areas but seemed expensive). That's what I mean. You have to want to pay for someone who is going to upcharge you more for the equipment you want and the cheaper installers won't touch it. So you have to go with the primo installers charging you a lot more for otherwise the same equipment. Aside from the backup heat requirements, having a central AC installed is already 95% the same equipment. And yet they'll easily charge you 20%+ before even talking about installing extra resistive heat. And from what I've seen (a dozen quotes in North Texas) none of them would install gas as the secondary heat source despite the gas line being right there already. They were all arguing "no, it needs to be resistive electric for the secondary". I wanted a heat pump. I shopped around for months. The only people willing to do what I wanted (heat pump + gas backup) wanted more than 2.5x the cost of the group I went with that installed ac and a gas furnace.

by verall 1y ago

drob518 1y ago

Yes, it definitely drops, but we’ve had issues where wind was basically offline in west Texas. So, you still need to balance it out.

vel0city 1y ago

A lot of newer construction and especially apartment buildings will end up using resistive heating, the least efficient option. Sadly, getting an HVAC person willing to install a heat pump system in Texas seems to be quite a challenge. Some of the highest peak energy usages the state has ever seen have been in the winter. For instance, that 2021 winter storm absolutely crushed the records of energy usage in the state before it all crashed, and every year after that has seen even higher amounts of usage in the winter since.

tocs3 1y ago
Sadly, getting an HVAC person willing to install a heat pump system in Texas seems to be quite a challenge. We had a heat pump installed here in central Texas about a year ago. It replaced a heat pump 40+ years old. There are a couple local installers (in Blanco, TX) and I regularly see adds for others in surrounding areas (San Antonio / Austin). It is expensive (I have no idea related to other areas but seemed expensive). It is not hard to get a heat pump around here.
- vel0city 1y ago
  > It is expensive (I have no idea related to other areas but seemed expensive). That's what I mean. You have to want to pay for someone who is going to upcharge you more for the equipment you want and the cheaper installers won't touch it. So you have to go with the primo installers charging you a lot more for otherwise the same equipment. Aside from the backup heat requirements, having a central AC installed is already 95% the same equipment. And yet they'll easily charge you 20%+ before even talking about installing extra resistive heat. And from what I've seen (a dozen quotes in North Texas) none of them would install gas as the secondary heat source despite the gas line being right there already. They were all arguing "no, it needs to be resistive electric for the secondary". I wanted a heat pump. I shopped around for months. The only people willing to do what I wanted (heat pump + gas backup) wanted more than 2.5x the cost of the group I went with that installed ac and a gas furnace.