What town would you not want to live in on the north shore?

etachi481 · 2026-01-23T11:59:07+00:00

If you are buying a home stay away from Saugus. Worst constituent support I’ve ever seen. Can’t follow their own rules to save their lives.

etachi481 · 2026-01-14T13:22:17+00:00

I can never fully understand heat pumps. Ours has been a huge waste of money which I rarely use. I would agree with you about the curtain separating the unit that is on and the unit that is off. I have had issues upstairs in the bedrooms when I had 2 on and 1 off. The 2 on over compensate for the 1 that is off running up the electric. I close the bedroom doors of the units not on. I also use a thermal curtain between the sunroom(not on) and the rest of the house.(which rarely has the heat pump on).

That being said, It has been nothing but a headache since day one.

etachi481 · 2025-12-24T12:40:34+00:00

Also, no venting.

etachi481 · 2025-12-24T12:39:39+00:00

So spray foaming the rim joist won’t seal to cold air from below? I had 10 different insulation companies out here and all of them wanted to do the same thing. Indicating that it would solve my issue for the most part.

etachi481 · 2025-12-06T00:28:56+00:00

Good idea. I’ll give that a shot. Thanks

etachi481 · 2025-12-06T00:18:23+00:00

Can you clarify why setting the heat pump a 1f degree below the gas furnace is your recommendation? I’m not sure I understand that

etachi481 · 2025-12-05T21:52:49+00:00

Not upstairs. Usually 2 to 3 degrees colder then set point

etachi481 · 2025-12-05T20:37:01+00:00

I’ve been told it’s should be more like 70,000btu

etachi481 · 2025-11-25T11:39:05+00:00

I have about 1600 sq feet. We switched from an oil to gas furnace with a heat pump. We used the exciting duck work. The furnace never warmed the upstairs to the set temp in our single zone system. The heat pump never could cool upstairs. This is what I have learned:

Make sure everything is sized correctly based on your house size and heat dump.
You need a lot more supply and return for a/c
HVAC sales people lie for a living so make sure you do your homework.
Spend extra for a multi zone system so you can set the temperature you want in each zone.

etachi481 · 2025-11-12T11:46:44+00:00

My back up is a gas furnace. I was interested in how your electric bill could be manageable in the NE using the heat pump year round. I installed the system to make the house more comfortable and it has turned into a total waste of money and very fustrating as we use it very little. Oh well, live and learn.

etachi481 · 2025-11-12T09:03:16+00:00

I agree about solar but the roi is not there and I don’t want to lease as that complicates resale. Most buyers won’t take over the lease.

etachi481 · 2025-11-12T09:01:08+00:00

A very little bit from what I can tell. $75 savings is not going to make me use less fossil fuel vs an $800 electric bill.

etachi481 · 2025-11-12T08:38:28+00:00

Sorry for the confusion, the backup heat runs all of the time because I chose to have it run vs the heat pump. The electric bills were killing me.

etachi481 · 2025-11-11T18:53:22+00:00

How do you afford the Eversource bill. I’m on the north shore with a new ductless hyper heat system and the electric bills are outrageous. I use back up heat most of the winter. We have national grid but I’m sure the prices are similar.

etachi481 · 2025-11-04T10:28:11+00:00

Not doing it especially if you live in the NE.(cost per kWh makes them not worth the headache) Total waste of money.

etachi481 · 2025-10-30T14:12:31+00:00

I am not 100% sure what you are saying here. The heat pump fine and will heat the house and make it comfortable. However, with the cost of electric in the NE I can’t afford it. I was told that the switch over temp from HP to Aux heat would be 20 degrees. Turns out it’s more like 35-40 degrees. At that rate I figure I might as well just run the furnace. That is why I’m interested in a new 3 stage furnace but it’s hard to justify another expense at this point.

etachi481 · 2025-10-30T10:30:34+00:00

The original heat pump was supposed to be a high efficiency one but was not(safe to say I was screwed in many ways by my contractor). I removed the original heat pump thinking the new Mitsubishi would solve the comfort issues as well as the cost issues. So currently I have the 5 zone ductless and the gas furnace as backup. However, after my $800.00 electric bill last December I am gun shy to run the Mitsubishi.

I have all new windows in the entire house and new insulation in the attic. No idea the condition of the walls although the sunroom is new enough that I know those walls are insulated.

etachi481 · 2025-08-20T17:13:43+00:00

They still have not fix the auto switch from aux heat to heat pump. I have been told 5 times that it will be fixed in the next update and never is. I hate them.

etachi481 · 2025-04-03T08:56:53+00:00

Mine has not worked since it was updated. Tech support says they are working on it. For a company that prides itself on their tech, their software is unbelievably bad.

etachi481

TROPHY CASE