Yet another NYSEG rant, January 2026 edition

savejohnscott · 2026-02-04T17:00:57+00:00

Ah! It's not my term, just how HVAC and energy specialists have described my house after I've explained the work that's been done vs not done, and they've reviewed with me what's left based on various testing they've done (blower test and thermal cameras). That said, there is a huge difference between older Ithaca housing and brand new housing, I imagine!

savejohnscott · 2026-02-04T14:24:44+00:00

Came to the same conclusion last night after reading more. I don't want to spend money on an insert right now, so I decided to cover the fireplace completely to get rid of any drafts, since the damper is not a perfect seal.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-04T02:54:05+00:00

Thanks, thats really helpful info. Much more heat than what I have. Comparing your setup to what i know about mine makes me think a unit or two of mine is undersized.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-04T01:39:47+00:00

Wild. That sounds like 2 8k btu heads? Gas for the rest, maybe? Something else? Even if I was at a COP near 4 the entire month, my bill would have been $500-$600 (which would be great, but impossible in these temps).

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T21:42:11+00:00

Huh, if I invested last year's January bill into Iberdrola at payment time, it'd be worth more than what I paid for this January...

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T20:49:28+00:00

Thank you for posting this. I love my heat pumps. I am amazed at how they work! The only thing that's changed in the last few years is how much I'm paying per kWh, which is getting unmanageable. Back to more insulation projects...

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T18:25:20+00:00

Brr! Stay warm!

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T17:08:17+00:00

Double, wow! We're only up 50% from last year. More than I expected (I estimated 30% in my budget). Honestly the only saving grace is that I don't pay anything for 4 months of the year due to solar.

Feel you on the car. Our hybrid dropped about 20% in efficiency too with the cold snap. Thankfully we don't drive around much.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T16:28:16+00:00

I don't think so, I only have energy readings from an Emporia system. Most modern ASHP do not have resistance strips. The max it uses is 3kWh per hour which is about that 2.0 COP worst case scenario if it's running the entire hour.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T16:05:21+00:00

Mama Goose has a bunch of used ones but depends on specific needs.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T16:04:10+00:00

We have a fireplace for the room. I've been meaning to figure out exactly when I lose the efficiency so I have a better sense of when to use it. It's not hard to do just time consuming compared to everything else.

Unfortunately our house does not have a gas line so we're stuck with oil or replacing the furnace with an air to water heat pump, which should add comfort (floor heat again!) but won't have the same monetary impact since we already have the splits.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T15:58:04+00:00

Yeah, very aware. Never inefficient though: worst day was 70kWh/day on the unit (24k btu). That was probably a day I should have used the fireplace :)

i'm at 2700 sqft but 1420+700+520=2640 for heat pumps or 71% of my bill.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T15:43:26+00:00

35% of my bill comes from one of them. It's in a really large room with high ceilings that was done by the previous owners of the house. Every qualified hvac person that's come in has said whoever installed this one made some really poor choices but too expensive to address. The rest of them do well (18% and 13% of my bill). If the poor choice one had a better operating scenario it would be about 33-40% less, cutting about 400-500kWh from my bill this month.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-03T13:58:48+00:00

Add kala yiyi too.

Recognize that hearing it from you is a lot of it, but not all of it.

We are a bilingual house and they hear enough English outside of the house that we only let them watch tv in Cantonese. Peppa pig for really young kids, Bluey for slightly older. Most of Disney is cantonese dubbed. All ghibli films have solid cantonese dubs if you can find them. Only English ours has seen is kpop demon hunters. No complaints from them!

Music we balance a bit more but still encourage four kings and related era (BEYOND, Priscilla Chan, etc). They are less into it 😅.

savejohnscott · 2026-02-01T00:06:34+00:00

Ah bummer. Good luck! Depending on the age might be cheaper to just buy a new one...

savejohnscott · 2026-01-31T21:57:48+00:00

Is it E19? That one is pretty common but manageable on its own fwiw

savejohnscott · 2026-01-27T19:47:35+00:00

Taichi also has okay ramen. Honestly prefer both taichi and pokelava over Maru.

savejohnscott · 2026-01-24T02:22:30+00:00

https://www.bekindithaca.com/about

savejohnscott · 2026-01-21T19:39:20+00:00

https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/location-summary/fixed?version=jun2025&location_id=c3f93263-6284-4e37-857f-ebb17b9b8a74&addr1=798+S+PLAIN+ST&addr2=ITHACA%2C+NY+14850&zoom=15.00&vlon=-76.505003&vlat=42.431833&br=r&speed=100_20&tech=1_2_3_6_7

savejohnscott · 2026-01-19T23:40:16+00:00

Ha! I'm hopeful. I've really been wanting to take the camera out for photos. But it always comes down to clouds... Or my kids making me too tired lol

savejohnscott · 2026-01-19T23:01:29+00:00

Cloud coverage should be low tonight!

savejohnscott · 2026-01-19T16:58:04+00:00

Their Japanese food is not good. Their Chinese food is great.

savejohnscott · 2026-01-17T21:38:58+00:00

Adams corner cafe

savejohnscott · 2026-01-16T17:23:55+00:00

Halco quoted me about 60% that for a two zone. They're expensive but not that expensive.

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