We Cut Out All Oil-based Heating Ten Years Ago And Haven't Looked Back

User: phil.francisco.ma@gmail.com

Vendor: None

Action: 3589 - Heat and Cool your home with Heat Pumps

About a decade ago, when our oil-burning furnace was approaching an end of life decision to replace it, we decided to remove all the oil-based heating from our home (we had forced hot air and central A/C units) and go with a ground-based (aka, "geothermal) heat pump system for both heating and cooling our home. We could not be happier with the choice more than a decade on.

Importantly, we did this after further weatherproofing our house with added insulation so that the envelope that we are trying to heat/cool was as efficient as we could make what's now a 35 year old home. We use programmable thermostats to control the temperature and to avoid running the heat pumps during peak energy cost periods (4p-8p). In winter, we supplement the heat pump with a Tulukivi soapstone masonry heater -- just one brief, very hot-burning wood fire in the evening and the soapstone keeps heating our living area for about 18 hours.