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[jd]

I have a backup electric heat coil in my airhandler. unless the breaker is off, the thermostat sometimes brings the coil on to speed up the temperature rise. cost me a lot till I figured that out. cut the breakker to any electric heat. Not sure about yur thermostat, if it is programable
you may be able to keep the electric off by the programing but mine will not obey!!

jd

[kybaseball]

Listen to Scott he will help you and get it fixed. I can help some have learned a little and understand what these things should do. I am like scott it sounds like youroutside unit is running also. Trust me the savings is there you just have something going on.

[Scott7m]

Let us know what you find

If you turn the breaker to the outside unit off, the heat strips inside can still kick on, only if you monkey with the thermostat, if you leave it on let's say 74 and keep wood in the stove, it will stay off

But if you like to turn it down to 68 and then back up to 74 in the morning, it will think it can't keep up and turn the heat strips on as well

[boilerman]

I also agree with Scott. I've seen a thermostat back feed before. Happened originally on my own install, but I was immeadiately aware of it. Fed power back to my central air unit outside and it would kick on everytime blower fan would energize. I've seen it happen with a heat pump too. I simply threw the electrical breaker on my A/C unit off during the winter heating months while using the OWF. I later upgraded to a programable a multi-stage thermostat and no longer need to throw the A/C breaker off. If you're not saving on your electical bill while the OWF is operating, something has to still be eating that extra juice. I do throw the breaker off on my water heater though and have never ran out of all the hot water I want. I feel this alone saves me $50-$60 a month on electrical bill.

[Drivebymashing]

Mine is actually higher than before.But i added a hottub   which im in the process of adding to owb.But i cant compare apples to apples three of us take rediculously long showers and have the heat set at 75 instead of 69.Its costs 20 bucks a month just to run the pump on the owb.So all said in done my heat pump would of never kept up at 75 degrees.I figure around 100 dollars a month at least savings.

[creeker]

Let us know what you find

If you turn the breaker to the outside unit off, the heat strips inside can still kick on, only if you monkey with the thermostat, if you leave it on let's say 74 and keep wood in the stove, it will stay off

But if you like to turn it down to 68 and then back up to 74 in the morning, it will think it can't keep up and turn the heat strips on as well

I looked at it last night and that appears to be exactly what was going on.  I had left the heat pump thermostat on but set to like 66 or something.  I turned it off and now it appears that only the owb thermostat is doing the work and the heat is coming strictly from it.

thanks!

[Scott7m]

Mine is actually higher than before.But i added a hottub   which im in the process of adding to owb.But i cant compare apples to apples three of us take rediculously long showers and have the heat set at 75 instead of 69.Its costs 20 bucks a month just to run the pump on the owb.So all said in done my heat pump would of never kept up at 75 degrees.I figure around 100 dollars a month at least savings.

Something is messed up, it should still be way cheaper, your pump ain't costing no $20/mo either.  I've tested numerous pumps and most run around 6-10 dollars even with us having the highest utility rates in the country.

Length of showers don't matter and temp inside have hardly anything to do with it, ur fan running an extra few hours a month dont add up to $5 bucks, something ain't right

[AirForcePOL]

My electric bill went up just a little bit when I hooked up the owb.  However, my rates are 18 cents per kwh here in Illinois and I was heating with propane before which was costing atleast $500 a month.  Once I get my water heated with it I am sure I will see huge savings.   

[Scott7m]

Well yea of course if you switch from gas to wood it the electric bill could go up.

I felt he was insinuating he went from electric to wood and his electric bill went up?  If that were the case I'd kick my wood stove over the hill lol

[woodman]

Mine is actually higher than before.But i added a hottub   which im in the process of adding to owb.But i cant compare apples to apples three of us take rediculously long showers and have the heat set at 75 instead of 69.Its costs 20 bucks a month just to run the pump on the owb.So all said in done my heat pump would of never kept up at 75 degrees.I figure around 100 dollars a month at least savings.

Something is messed up, it should still be way cheaper, your pump ain't costing no $20/mo either.  I've tested numerous pumps and most run around 6-10 dollars even with us having the highest utility rates in the country.

Length of showers don't matter and temp inside have hardly anything to do with it, ur fan running an extra few hours a month dont add up to $5 bucks, something ain't right

My electric rate is 12.5 cents/kw and it costs me $20.00 per month to run my pump. It is a bell and gosset 36, which draws 2.1amps. Pump runs 24/7 and was recomended for my system. kw=amps*volts/1000. Often wondered if I could use a smaller pump, however this one has been flawless for 6 years.

[Scott7m]

We're you heating with electric before your bill went up?

[RSI]

Mine is actually higher than before.But i added a hottub   which im in the process of adding to owb.But i cant compare apples to apples three of us take rediculously long showers and have the heat set at 75 instead of 69.Its costs 20 bucks a month just to run the pump on the owb.So all said in done my heat pump would of never kept up at 75 degrees.I figure around 100 dollars a month at least savings.

Something is messed up, it should still be way cheaper, your pump ain't costing no $20/mo either.  I've tested numerous pumps and most run around 6-10 dollars even with us having the highest utility rates in the country.

Length of showers don't matter and temp inside have hardly anything to do with it, ur fan running an extra few hours a month dont add up to $5 bucks, something ain't right

My electric rate is 12.5 cents/kw and it costs me $20.00 per month to run my pump. It is a bell and gosset 36, which draws 2.1amps. Pump runs 24/7 and was recomended for my system. kw=amps*volts/1000. Often wondered if I could use a smaller pump, however this one has been flawless for 6 years.

Is it a PL36 or a NRF36?
That power equation isn't quite right on an inductive motor do to the power factor. To get an accurate power usage it is best to use an actual watt meter.

Also, you can't go by the label because that is max power usage. It will use less when there is more restriction on it.
 

[woodman]

Scott, sorry about that, I don't know how to just quote part of a reply. To answer your question, no I did not heat my house with electric but I do have a electric water heater. My electric bill goes down since I use the boiler to heat dhw during the heating season. I know we use a crap ton of hot water so I figure at least a $50/ month savings for that alone. Then if you add back $20 to run the pump I am still saving $30 a month for hot water only. If I had to use my backup furnace I would use 1200 gallons of fuel oil to keep the house as warm as we do with the owb, so that saves me between $3500-$4000 per year. EASILY the best investment I have ever made! 

RSI, not sure if it is a pl or a nrf, it was the bronze one for an open system, I can check tomorrow in the light. I don't have a watt meter so I just use that formula for a rough figure.   

[RSI]

The PL has a vented motor and the NRF is sealed.

I have a PL36 and I did some testing with the watt meter. I have a fairly low head pressure system and it runs at 180 watts with all 3 heat exchanger valves open. (all in parallel)

Where I normally have it set to get more flow through the plate it runs about 170 watts. As restriction is added the watt usage drops. It bottoms out at 130 watts with it completely deadheaded.

The NRF probably uses more power but I never tested one to see just how much.

The Armstrong E9 pump is even larger and about the same amp rating but they advertise that pump as typically drawing 115 watts.

[Scott7m]

Scott, sorry about that, I don't know how to just quote part of a reply. To answer your question, no I did not heat my house with electric but I do have a electric water heater. My electric bill goes down since I use the boiler to heat dhw during the heating season. I know we use a crap ton of hot water so I figure at least a $50/ month savings for that alone. Then if you add back $20 to run the pump I am still saving $30 a month for hot water only. If I had to use my backup furnace I would use 1200 gallons of fuel oil to keep the house as warm as we do with the owb, so that saves me between $3500-$4000 per year. EASILY the best investment I have ever made! 

RSI, not sure if it is a pl or a nrf, it was the bronze one for an open system, I can check tomorrow in the light. I don't have a watt meter so I just use that formula for a rough figure.

Ok I see!  Lol I'm glad your saving money over all! 

That's what it's all about