How Much Can I Save With a Heat Pump – Oil Hot Water Baseboards

In a previous post and video we discussed how much it costs to operate a heat pump in Nova Scotia. If you haven’t watched that video and read the post yet I’d suggest you start there.

Based on the thousands of homes we’ve visited in HRM over the past couple of years we’ve discovered that the average home with oil Hot Water Baseboard or in-floor radiant heat spends between $3,000 and $3,500 a year on oil.

Of that 1/3rd is spent on residential hot water and the other 2/3rd’s are spent on heating your home.

Based on the 1/3rd and 2/3rd’s that means you’re spending between $1,980 and $2,310 a year on heating.

The video above explains all of this very well, so if you haven’t watched it yet I suggest you check it out.

Example of Oil Heating Cost per Month

Let’s take an average of $2,000 a year to heat your home with oil hot water baseboards. Now that’s your whole home. If you have a two level, bungalow, split entry etc. you’re not going to install a heat pump in every single room and area of your home.

We mean you could, but realistically it would end up being cost prohibitive. Instead what you want to do is install a heat pump in the areas that you spend most of your time in the home.

For most people this is a family area, dining area etc.

A fair split in most homes is you spend 70% of your time in this main area and 30% in the rest of the home. So it’s safe to say that you spend 70% of that $2,000 a year to heat the area you spend most of your time which is $1,400 a year.

Now that we have this number we can start figuring out what our potential savings are with a heat pump system.

How Much Are You Spending a Month?

In Nova Scotia most homes heat for around 6 months of the year. So lets divide that $1,400 by 6 months which gives us about $233.33 a month.

Now we can start calculating our potential savings with a heat pump.

Remember the post and video I referenced at the beginning? That post walked you through an example cost to operate a heat pump of $62 a month.

If you were to install a heat pump and cover the area that you spend the majority of your time in than you can effectively swap the $233 a month you’re spending on oil for $62 a month to run a heat pump.

In this example you could be looking at saving as high as $170 a month during the heating season.

Voila! There’s where your savings come from.

This is a simple example. We know that temperature varies all winter long and that not every home will be a perfect fit for a ductless unit. The key take away is understanding how a heat pump saves you money on oil.

Note: When you install a heat pump you will see a reduction on your oil bill but an increase on your power bill. This difference will be the savings you enjoy on a monthly basis!

Any questions on this? As always give us call, send us an email or submit the form to the right of this page to book an in-home assessment with one of our home energy specialists.