TAKING the HEAT
As energy costs rise, homeowners are seeking ways to stay warm without breaking the bank
When it comes to home heating, Dharik Mallapragada has his head in the clouds. It’s his job to take the 30,000-foot view of our collective future for energy solutions: He’s a principal research scientist for the MIT Energy Initiative, and he recently served on former Governor Charlie Baker’s Commission on Clean Heat.
But Mallapragada is also a homeowner. Living with his family in a two-unit condo building in Watertown, he spent his holiday break crunching the numbers for a potential conversion from gas to electric heat pumps.
“I’m in the process of getting all the facts,” he said. “If I’m being honest, the sticker shock is pretty large.”
Environmentally friendly heat pumps — which extract existing heat from outside or the ground using electricity — promise an energy-efficient method of both heating and cooling a home. They come in a wide range of options.
Price per unit and installation can vary wildly, reaching as high as $20,000 or more.
Around Greater Boston, where the housing stock can be significantly older than much of the rest of the country, homeowners like Mallapragada are grappling with the rising costs of home heating and the pressure to switch to heat pumps.
In the Northeast, a typical household is expected to pay more than $1,000 to heat with natural gas this winter, 23 percent more than last year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Homes that rely on oil for heat will pay even more, with an average bill of $2,354.
In November, National Grid’s winter energy price hikes took effect, resulting in a 64 percent increase in an average monthly electric bill and a 24 percent average increase for natural gas. MASSCAP, the Massachusetts Association for Community Action, is reporting a significant increase in requests for home heating assistance.
According to Elizabeth Berube, executive director of Citizens for Citizens in Fall River, the statewide number for new applicants to MASSCAP’s heating assistance program this winter is 22,556, compared with 11,927 at the same point last year. Including returning applicants, there are more than 142,000 homes enrolled in the program this year compared with just under 120,000 last year.
To cope with the mounting costs of gas and oil, energy experts say consumers are lowering their thermostats, deploying more space heaters, and asking family members to dress more warmly indoors. Many are taking advantage of home energy assessments, which identify air sealing of drafty windows and doors and recommend insulation im
provements.
For Barry Charbonneau, who owns the Woodstove Fireplace and Patio Shop in Littleton and just opened a second location in Sudbury, homeowners’ concerns over heating costs have been good for business. In a typical season, he said, his store earns about 70 percent of its revenue from gas appliances, including fireplace inserts. The remaining 30 percent of the business usually comes from wood and pellet stoves, or what the industry calls “solid” fuel.
“This year, those numbers have flipped,” he said.
Wood and pellet stoves typically cost at least $2,000, with some models as high as $5,000, Charbonneau said.
Charbonneau bought the original store about a decade ago. A former accountant, he was previously the sustainability director for a company in Clinton.
“I wanted to develop a clean energy company,” he said, “and I thought this would be a nice segue.”
When a former fireplace retailer in Sudbury called Clapper’s became available, Charbonneau took it over as his second location. He lives in Norton, where he heats his home with heat pumps and a pellet stove, with the home’s old oil system still online as a backup.
“We try to run that as little as possible,” he said. “The only time we shut down the pellet stove is to clean it.”
Like most things, the price of wood has gone up in recent years. In Massachusetts, a cord of seasoned wood (128 cubic feet) can cost from $500 to $750. Wood pellets cost approximately $250 per ton, Charbonneau said. A 2,000-square-foot, two-story house will require between four and six cords of firewood for the winter.
Travis Estes is the chief operating officer for Abode Energy Management in Concord. As a lead vendor for Mass Save, the company oversees about half of the residential home energy assessments and weatherization projects in the state. The company also offers consulting services to help homeowners navigate the confusing array of options for conversion to heat pumps.
With Massachusetts setting a target of reducing carbon emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030, the state has set a goal of 100,000 conversions to heat pumps annually, Estes said.
“We’re a ways off from that right now.”
But while he acknowledged that the slow adoption rate can be frustrating, Estes said that he and his colleagues remain optimistic they will eventually reach a tipping point.
“We’re all committed environmentalists here,” he said. “We’re all out here trying to decarbonize as many homes as we can. I think we’ll see more adoption, particularly in underserved communities.”
Abode has seen demand for its services soar in recent months, Estes said.
“You’re looking at a situation where oil costs have gone north of five dollars a gallon,” he said. “From a year ago, that’s up 40 to 50 percent, probably. Electric rates are also going up.”
One obstacle to heat pump conversion, he said, is the notion that they may not be as efficient as traditional systems when the temperature drops below freezing.
“A lot of contractors are not convinced that heat pumps can condition a home, but they’re more than capable of maintaining safe levels even during a cold snap,” he said. “Every manufacturer has great equipment that can maintain efficiency well into the single digits and below.”
Mass Save’s incentive for homeowners who install heat pumps has helped push the numbers up, Estes said. For a whole-home conversion, the rebate is $10,000. The program also offers zero-interest loans up to $25,000 on the remaining balance.
“That’s pretty compelling,” Estes said.
The challenge now, said Mallapragada, the MIT researcher, is to convince consumers who still may be reluctant to make the switch that it’s in their best interest to do so.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said. “We want to be careful about ensuring that people who are a little slower to make the transition are encouraged to do it, and not be burdened with costs in an undue manner.
“I’m knee-deep in these topics, and even for me, it’s a significant time commitment to work through this. We really have to make the process more seamless.”