this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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To expand on this, if you heat with natural gas, it's unlikely you'll save money with a heat pump unless natural gas is expensive or not available in your area. In Saskatchewan right now, a kWh of heat from natural gas is about 9x cheaper than a kWh of electricity. Even a very efficient heat pump can't offset that difference.
Propane or heating oil may be more on par with electricity, but it's best to calculate the per kWh price compared to electricity in your area. Don't forget delivery fees if those apply.
Money is better spent on other energy savings measures like air tightness, insulation, and doors and windows if you heat with natural gas.
That's today though. Those buying a heat pump are gonna have those for more than 10-15 years. Who knows what those rates will be then.
Of course that's today. Do you pay next year's utility rates? Why would you significantly increase your utility bill now because of a vague possibility that natural gas vs electricity prices might be different a decade from now? Why not wait until the prices are even somewhat close before installing one?
At least some heat pumps allow you to adjust when the furnace kicks in and in some cases override it completely so it just heats with the gas furnace.
That'd be on the thermostat end, and as the first post pointed out, a backup system is needed nearly everywhere in Canada anyway, so you'd have dual system controls anyway.
If you set it to only heat with NG, there's no point to a two way heat pump. Just get typical air conditioning.
I was mentioning that because you can switch based on the cost of electricity vs gas. As someone else said, if you get a heat pump system you should have it functioning for many years and you'll have the option of what utility to use based on what makes the most sense at the time.