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High costs fuel changes

Local
By Laura Ruby
Source: Fauquier Weekend
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 2008

Investing for the future

For the last several years, Ralph Crafts has been paying $26 a month for propane to heat and cool his 1,800 square foot Fauquier home. Recently, the price jumped to $135 a month.

An architect with a long career in the building industry, Crafts balked at the price and began exploring his options. That’s where Tom Noland, owner and general manager of TLC Heating and Cooling, came in.

“You just don't want to evaluate the existing heating and cooling system,” said Noland, a 1993 Fauquier High School graduate who founded the company in 2000. “You have to look at the air distribution system and energy intake. Are the ducts sealed and designed properly? There are lots of enhancements that can be done to make a home more livable, more comfortable and they'll save you money on energy.”

After a four-hour energy audit and evaluation of the Crafts' needs, Noland and the homeowners discussed their options. Crafts and his wife Rosemary fairly quickly decided that a geothermal system was the ideal choice for them. Starting at $25,000, geothermal systems don't come cheap, but it's an investment that the Crafts' felt strongly about making. Learning that it would cost them $650 a year to heat, cool, and produce hot water for their home was the icing on the cake.

With Noland's help, they locked into financing for the system and they've quickly become enamored with it for a number of reasons, Crafts said.

Improved energy efficiency and monthly savings on their heating and cooling bills are one benefit, but Crafts seems just as appreciative of the environmental perks of not using fossil fuels or pumping hot air back into the air. There are also health benefits, Crafts said, explaining that through the audit they learned that their ducts had mold growing in them, resulting from moisture seeping into the system.

“Many duct systems leak 30 to 40 percent of the air flow they're trying to produce,” Noland said, explaining that having high-functioning ducts make the most use of the energy being produced by the system. Conversely, he said, many homes have over-sized systems which use more energy that is then wasted through leaking ducts. “For the price you’re paying for fuel, it’s hard not to look at energy efficiency.”

The system, Crafts said, is also extremely user-friendly and comfortable. Like mileage monitors in cars, programmable thermostats in the house make the couple more aware of how much energy they are using and when. At the Craft house, TLC installed three zones on the same system, allowing them to keep different areas of the house comfortable for different uses. The system is set up to turn up or down air flow, depending on the time of day and based on the way the Crafts use specific rooms in the house.

“This system is designed for our house and our needs,” said Crafts.

Noting that thermostats allow the house to grow cooler at night, Crafts said that they are programmed to come on in time to heat the bedroom before the couple arises.

“For the first time in 21 years, she doesn’t have to turn on the space heater in the bathroom when she gets up in the morning,” he said. “For the first time in 21 years, I can work in [the office] with the computer and be comfortably cool and she can be in the other room and be comfortably warm.”

Crafts was also pleased with the work done by TLC. At the Crafts’ house, TLC drilled a pair of six-inch in diameter, 160-feet deep holes several feet from the house to install the necessary tubing. The rest of the system is housed, insulated and sealed, in a crawl space beneath the home. Installation of the new system, including removing and replacing the existing duct work, took about a week, Crafts said.

Noting their high efficiency, explained Noland that the system uses a closed loop of pipe to transfer warm air from the house into the ground in hot weather and pulls air from the ground, heats it, and pumps it into the house in cold weather. As a side benefit, the system is set up to use the warm water, heated from warm air removed from the house, to heat the water, resulting in free hot water in the summer months.


Despite the initial high price for geothermal installation, Noland said the company is getting tons of calls from interested homeowners who envision the long-term benefits both for themselves and for the resale value of their homes.

“We’ve had customers who were paying $5,000 a year in propane and we totally eliminated that,” Noland said. “It’s an investment in the house. When people sell their houses, the [buyers] want to see the energy bills.”

He expects those calls to keep coming, and perhaps increase, as the home heating costs rise. The prices “are just going to go up. Just wait until we get that first cold snap,” he said.

The bad news is that the cost of heating your home is almost sure to rise this winter. The good news is that there are ways to reduce that increase.

More bad news: Most of those cost-cutting measures will require an upfront investment that will pay dividends down the road.

Virtually all homes in Fauquier County are served by either electric heat, fuel oil, or propane and, according to the government’s Energy Information Administration, the cost for all three types of heat is projected to increase significantly this winter.

According to EIA calculations, heating oil is projected to rise by 24.9 percent from last winter’s prices to $4.13 per gallon in the Northeast region, which includes Virginia.

Propane gas users will see a smaller jump, as that product is predicted to rise by 8.5 percent to $3.01 per gallon in the Northeast, the administration said.

Electricity rates in the region are forecast to rise by 9.8 percent, up to 0.159 cents per kilowatt-hour. Earlier this year, Dominion Virginia Power, which serves portions of Fauquier, raised its fuel rate, resulting in an approximate 18 percent rate hike for residential customers.

With already high gasoline and food prices, residents are looking for cost-saving measures.

There are steps, both large and small, that homeowners can take to protect their pocketbooks.

Making a change

Shane Lanhardt, owner and general manager of McCrea Heating and Cooling and Jared Dean, owner of One Hour Heating and Air said that their companies worked with numerous homeowners during the summer to switch from less-efficient systems to more cost-friendly alternatives.

This is a trend that's gaining momentum with the rising costs, Dean said.

“We hardly saw people removing oil heat a few years ago because people really like it. But in the past two or three years, we’ve taken out a lot of oil heat and installed heat pumps,” Dean said, noting that some homeowners opt for a hybrid system that combines oil heat with the heat pump.

While prices for electricity haven’t risen as quickly as heating fuel costs, Dean said that he expects that to change. Over the years, he said, as one kind of heat goes up, other soon follow.

“People say, ‘what’s the best way to go?’ and sometimes there’s no good answer,” he said.

Lanhardt said that while homeowners are interested in getting rid of older, less-efficient systems, they are cautious about spending money to upgrade to new systems. Those costs, he said, can be significant, depending on the system, the house, and what the homeowner wants.

Prices for upgrades vary dramatically, from $5,000 to $20,000 or more, depending on the kind of system the homeowner wants.

Hybrid systems that combine propane, oil heat or natural gas with heat pumps are a popular choice for homeowners, Lanhardt said. Like Dean, he said that sometimes homeowners prefer to keep their current system and just add the heat pump. In other cases, more extensive overhauls are required.

“The heat pump is incredibly efficient on mild days, days when the temperature is in the 40s or 50s and even high 30s,” Lanhardt said. “It’s much less effective when the temperature drops below freezing. The system is set up so that when the temperature drops, the gas heat, or whatever the homeowner is using, kicks on. Most systems are set up with an outdoor sensor set to 32 degrees.

“They are a very, very efficient way to reduce energy consumption and heat your home more efficiently. There is a substantial savings in going to a hybrid application,” he said, adding that individual homeowners must do the math to ensure that a change is in their best interest.

McCrea has a computer program that takes into account average usage and the current prices of propane or heating fuel to calculate the potential savings for customers, he said. Homeowners then need to analyze those savings, factoring in the additional cost of having the system installed, he said.

Dean said that some upgrades will be more beneficial for homeowners than others. “It depends on how old the system is and how efficient the new system will be,” he said, adding that replacing a fairly new system with a low-quality heat pump may not be all that advantageous to the customer while replacing an older system with a high-efficiency heat pump will reap huge benefits.

“We focus on how to get people to be more energy efficient. We look at each homeowner on a case-by-case basis and give them options to choose from,” Lanhardt said. “If they’re going to sell the house in two years, they’re not going to see the savings.”

He said that anyone with a system that is five years old or older should consider upgrading or changing to hybrid because most of those system warranties expire after 5 years and repairs come out of pocket.

“It doesn’t cost anything to find out. People can look at it and get and idea about what it would cost. If the system is 10 ten years old or older, this is a no-brainer,” he said, adding that the homeowner should plan to stay in the house for at least five years to recoup the cost. “It just depends on the situation with the homeowner. Nobody wants to go and spend more money than they need to, but if they’re going to be there more than five years, it’s something they should seriously consider.”

Dean added the consumers should also consider the repair costs associated with maintaining older systems.

“As those older systems go out of warranty, the repair costs can be high. It’s a double- edged sword,” he said. “People a lot of times just think about their bill, they seem to forget the $400 they dropped in repairs on the heating system four months ago.”

Dean said that his company carries a variety of systems for homeowners to choose from, and they can pick the system and method of heating that works best for them.


Smaller steps

If making a large investment doesn’t make sense or is not in the budget, there are smaller steps homeowners can take to reduce their energy costs.

System maintenance is vital, Dean said.

“The biggest thing is like changing the oil in your car. Have it looked at twice a year before cooling season and before heating season,” he said, adding that optimal performance saves customers money.

Changing the system’s filters each month is also important, Dean said, noting that clogged filters dramatically reduce efficiency.

“Right now, we’re just hammered with people trying to get ready before cold weather hits,” he said.

A programmable thermostat is another consideration. These can be used to keep from heating the house when no one is home and to reduce the temperature overnight. He said they are used in all of the new systems the company installs.

“There are a lot of options. It’s important that homeowner get somebody who will explain all of the options and not just tell them about one thing,” he said.

Both McCrea and One Hour offer free consultations.



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Where did they get the 3.01 a gallon price for propane.
Amerigas is charging me 3.24 a gallon.
Is someone price gouging?

Posted by jett

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