Heat Pumps Could Quadruple Your Electricity Consumption

A recent article posted by the CBC contained disturbing information about how heat pumps have played a significant role in driving up the demand of electricity by a factor of significant proportions for households in Nova Scotia.  Those having converted their heat source (oil or gas furnaces) from the use of fossil fuels to heat pumps have seen their electricity bills skyrocket with the article noting one household said they tripled.  The article further stated “More than 2,500 people have signed a petition calling on the provincial government to intervene after many of them also experienced rate shock.“

It seems ironic that only five days after the article appeared Steven Guilbeault, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change trekked off to New Brunswick with a $20 million dollar handout “to get more New Brunswick households off furnace oil and add heat pumps and insulation, a measure that will help only a small fraction of homes.“ The article went on to note; “The $20 million promised on Monday through the Future Electricity Fund is specifically meant for households that want to convert from oil, rather than electrical, heat.”

Guilbeault went on and claimed the new funding “is one of many announcements to come in New Brunswick as well in other Atlantic provinces to ensure we can help more homeowners reach these goals of energy efficiency.” Guilbeault went on stating; “Clearly, we need to do more, and in fact, we are doing more. As I said, there will be many more announcements.”  We should assume Minister Guilbeault didn’t want to visit Nova Scotia and speak to any of the household owners or tenants now living with those skyrocketing electricity bills!

When queried about the impact his policies would have on the Irving oil refineries 4,000 employees in Saint John he danced claiming; “Canadians are embracing electrical vehicles which will obviously drive down the demand for refined oil products,” he said. “Clearly for these companies the future is in alternatives, which is why we are helping them invest in biomass, alternative fuels, hydrogen, because that’s where the world is heading.“ He avoided saying anything about what would happen to those jobs! He also didn’t note around 31% of households in New Brunswick are living in “energy poverty” and conversion to electric heat pumps won’t reduce that level!

Co-incidentally a contact of mine here in Ontario had recently informed me he had a heat pump installed to replace his furnace and told me his electricity usage had quadrupled* since having the heat pump installed!  Quiring him about the total costs of installation and the potential rebate he informed me the total, including conversion of his service from 100 amp to 200 amp as well as a new hydro line cost almost $21K and his grant rebate will be $7,100 so his net costs will be almost $14K!**  At a current approximate cost of 18 cents/kWh we should suspect that will add somewhere between $1,200 to $2,000 per year to his electricity bill or perhaps about what he was previously paying for a natural gas supply! 

The plus side is he will not be burdened with the increasing costs of the “carbon tax” that will continue its increase unless the Federal Conservative Party win the next election and “Axe the Tax”!

*3.6 million Ontario households heat with natural gas so a full conversion would require the addition of as much or more than 3,000 MW of reliable power to meet their needs so we should wonder from what source will that power be?

**As a matter of interest a new high efficiency natural gas or propane furnace would cost from $5,000 to $7,000!