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Heatpump Model and Installer Research

August 2022, we are looking into buying and installing one or more heatpumps for our oil-heated forced-hot-water home to reduce our winter oil use and to give us some cooling during the summer heat/humidity.

Heat pump installers

Commenter	Company	Contact info	Comments
AS MS WR	NETR Heating and Cooling Systems (Woburn)	https://www.netrinc.com/ 781-933-6387	Good tech service & knowledgeable technicians
MM	Muirfield Electric (Ayer)	https://muirfieldmechanical.com/ 978-263-7130	did what they said they'd do, on schedule, middle-of-road price, no extra fuss
RK	128 Heating and Plumbing (Wakefield)	https://www.128plumbing.com/ 781-670-3261	(annoying website, can't get rid of stuff covering info)
AW	Central Cooling and Heating (Woburn)	https://centralcooling.com/ 800-236-8725	they did rebate paperwork, good company.
RR CL JL	Total Comfort (Burlington)	https://www.totalcomfortmech.com/lexington 781-999-1275, 781-697-9016	Good consultation, communication. helped w/MassSave
JL MA	NetZero Heating and Air Conditioning (Billerica)	https://netzerohvac.net/ 888-306-3893
WT	New England Ductless (Boston)	https://www.newenglandductless.com/ 781-995-2665

Heat pump devices

Mitsubishi	high demand, long lead times (8+ months?)
Bosch
Daikin
LG	One Lex List member reported issues with non-LG thermostat; system would stay on, but this might be related to the usage learning curve; pressure relief valve issue; be sure to verify experience of installers and techs
Samsung

Concerns to address

Will your electrical feed need to be upgraded? (If you have 200 Amp service, will that be enough to support one or more heat pumps?)
Temperature range. Make sure your units can handle the temps in our area (eg, -20 to 110F)
Will the unit work with your existing thermostat or must it be replaced?
Will (and if so how will) heat pump work with existing home heating system?
Verify experience of Installers and Tech support

Ideas

Get wall units for rooms with doors you can close (to isolate heat/cool to the room)
Heat pump for your hot water. will chill your basement if it's in the basement

Analysis & Comparison, heat pump vs oil boiler

We got a quote from a company for the cost of a whole-house solution. There are two rebates available to us, approx $5k since we're going whole-house, and $10k if we also sign an agreement that we will only use oil heat in an emergency.

Description of quoted system: TBD

Assumptions

We have an oil-fueled boiler forced hot water heating system. We have a single window air conditioner that the heat pumps would replace. Here are the cost factors for our situation.

“Heatpump” is cost of heat pumps installed. “Heatpump w/agreement” is when we also sign an agreement saying we will only use oil to heat the house in an emergency.

	Heatpump	Heatpump w/agreement	Oil Boiler only (current situation)
Equipment	23000	18000	0	cost of added equipment
Maintenance/yr	835	200
Electricity increment estimate/yr	1200	1200	0	assuming extra $100/month for heat pumps
Est cost oil, 700gal/yr, $4/gal	100 gal@$4/gal=400	100 gal@$4/gal	700 gal@$4/gal=2800	need oil to heat hot water

Also assuming for the purpose of this analysis:

Energy costs stay the same over the analysis period (oil and electricity)
Maintenance costs stay the same over the analysis period
We are not considering electricity savings by using heat pumps over the one window air conditioner we're using

Cost analysis

	Heatpump	heatpump w/big rebate	Oil
EQUIPMENT cost	23000	18000	0
heatpump maintenance	635	635
oil boiler maintenance	200	200	200
MAINTENANCE cost/yr	835	835	200
electr incremement $/mo	100	100
gallons oil/year	100	100	700
oil cost/gal	4	4	4
ENERGY COST/yr	1600	1600	2800

TOTAL COST END OF YEAR
1	25435	20435	3000
2	27870	22870	6000
5	35175	30175	15000
10	47350	42350	30000
15	59525	54525	45000
20	71700	66700	60000
25	83875	78875	75000

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