Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Tim Dinger of Croton-on-Hudson installed an air-source heat pump split system in December 2020, reducing his carbon footprint by an estimated 4 tons per year.

What inspired you to make this upgrade?

Our central air conditioning system was on its last legs having cost us $800 every other year for freon replacement and our oil burner is nearing the 25-year point. So, we decided it was time to overhaul the entire system before we were facing an outage situation. We also knew that we wanted to install a cleaner heating system with a marked carbon footprint reduction.

What’s the most common question you get about your system from friends or family?

Why did you decide to install the systems and how do they work? It is counterintuitive that 68-degree air can be generated from outside air that is only at a temperature of 20 degrees.

How did you go about searching for a vendor? And which did you select?

We had originally hoped to install a geothermal heat pump system but the layout of our property and the lack of ducting on the ground floor made this choice unaffordable. We then began looking for a vendor with experience in air source heat pump installation and found that our energy supplier, Robison Oil, was a highly rated installer in the area. They had been providing plumbing service to us for years so we felt comfortable that they would do a good job for us.

What was the planning and sales process like?

This planning process was rigorous and required multiple visits by the project manager and then by the installation team prior to the actual installation. Our installation was complicated by the need for both mini split systems for the ground floor and a ducted system to service the second floor and finished attic space. The sales process was very positive because the team immediately saw our installation as an opportunity to apply very generous rebates being offered by Con Edison and NYSERDA for whole house air source heat pump conversions. The Robison team worked with us to place the interior and exterior units in convenient and inconspicuous locations and accommodated changes to the plan when we saw that a particular unit would be better placed in a different location.

What was the installation process like?

The installation process was very smooth and professional. The entire job required 6 full working days to complete. The installation team worked quietly outside of our working spaces (3 professionals in the house working remotely) until it was necessary to actually install equipment in those spaces. The noisiest part of the installation was drilling through the exterior walls to run the piping for the mini split systems.

How has it been living with the new system? How are the summers and winters?

The winter has been quite comfortable. The mini split systems operate efficiently when the outside air is quite cold. The ducted unit is less efficient when temperatures go below 40 degrees and then supplements heating using the oil burner. We have not gone through the summer yet with the new system, but we expect a huge improvement in cooling since our previous air conditioning did not extend to the ground floor due to ducting limitations. The mini splits solve that problem for us.

What did the system cost? What incentives were available? What was the final cost after incentives? And did it deliver on the promise of cost savings?

The total cost of the systems and installation was $43,700. The out-of-pocket cost was $23,000 after the rebates from Con Edison and NYSERDA. Robison Oil handled the entire process of filing for the rebates on our behalf. The jury is still out on whether the systems will save us money since we have had them for such a short time, but I am confident we will see savings because these systems are simply more efficient than the units we had been using. The fact that we are now doing a large fraction of our heating using clean electric energy as opposed to burning fossil fuels gives a little peace of mind that we are doing our part to reduce global warming.

What did you wish you knew before the installation?

I felt very well informed prior to the installation. I cannot come up with anything that I did not know that would have changed by mind about the vendor/purchase or installation.

Would you recommend the installation and the vendor you used?

I would definitely recommend Robison Oil to those looking to install air source heat pumps. They were courteous and professional through the entire process.

Anything else you’d tell a person considering this upgrade?

Be prepared that the heat generated by these systems is “slow” compared to your fossil fuel burning system. When you change the thermostat temperature the increase in temperature occurs over a much longer time period than you have become accustomed to.

For more information on Tim Dinger’s experience, email him at dinger@us.ibm.com