I was feeling good about our support for global warmimng when we completed putting solar panels on the house.  What an absolute no brainer, not only producing most of our house energy using solar, but saving money to boot.  Then we went to church and Carolyn and Rand Barthel gave another spirited sermon on going green.  I remember driving home that day wondering what can do to go even greener and I got a blinding flash of the obvious, my furnace and ac compressor were on their last legs and it was keeping me up at night.  I got home and immediately started googling geothermal and heat pumps.  After a little research, I called Rodenhiser and they showed me that I could replace my ac unit with an air to air heat pump providing new efficient air conditioning and my primary heating unit, as well as a new gas fired furnace that would serve as my back up heat.  All this plus MASS SAVE was offering all sorts of rebates.  First I had to have my attic insulation increased for mimimal cost, and I got a $10K rebate and interest free loan for the remainder of the system.  The total cost was $22K but after all of the rebates, I'm paying about $130 a month for 7 years.  What a deal, and I'm now sleeping like a baby.

My wife and I moved back to Franklin in 2016, purchasing a home with an oil-burner hot air heating system, with whole-house A/C sharing the same ducts. The house was built in 1986, so we realized that we would need to be replacing heating and cooling systems soon.

In 2019, it became time to update the systems. We looked at various options to reduce our carbon footprint. After evaluating various options, we decided to replace our oil-burning furnace with a dual-fuel oil burner/heat pump whole-house system. (If there was natural gas available on our street, we may have considered using natural gas as the heat pump dual fuel.) This system uses a Bosch air-source heat pump installed in-line with a new oil furnace, and using our existing ducting throughout the house. The system is controlled by a Bosch smart thermostat, which controls which heat source will be heating our home based on outdoor temperature and demand for heat. Generally, during most of spring and fall, when outdoor temperatures are above 35-40 F, the heat pump heats our home using only green electricity (supplied by our great, low-cost Franklin / Dynergy contract). When outdoor temperatures fall below 35F, our oil furnace kicks in to supply heat when the Bosch heat pump technology cannot. During summer cooling months, the heat pump provides energy-efficient air conditioning as well. The additional cost of installing the dual-fuel heat pump system was partially offset by Mass Save rebates of approximately $3500; Supreme Energy designed and installed the system, as well as helping us with the Mass Save rebates.

Although not as environmentally friendly as a full heat pump system would have been, the dual-fuel approach works well with our existing home, and helps us reduce our heating/cooling carbon footprint. We are always happy to hear the outdoor heat pump unit blowing air, whether during spring, summer, fall, or moderate winter days, knowing that our home is being heated or cooled using low-cost green, Dynergy-supplied electricity! (And also knowing that we are less subject to fossil fuel price increases!)

I’m very happy with Rodenhiser and the heat pump installation performed just 4 days ago. I especially thank Jacob Law for his good work and for letting me take his picture. The installation took 2 days and Rodenhiser had 4 trucks deployed and 2 electricians. I like that all the workers were Rodenhiser employees and not subcontractors. They accommodated my request to put a circuit breaker panel in the garage for an added fee. This will save me when I switch to a full electric vehicle which may need a 60amp 240v circuit. It also can power an inductive range when I replace my gas one. The heat pump has allowed me to turn off my gas heat now that the outside temperature is above 32 degrees. Currently it’s 52 outside, 59 in my basement, 67 on the first floor and 70 on the second floor where the heat pump thermostat is. So far, I haven’t used over 21kwh per day with the heat pump on and on a good sunny day my solar panels produce 44kwh this time of year. My home has gas forced hot water heat which cannot be connected to the heat pump. Rather the heat pump replaced the central air conditioning system with air handler in the attic and just 2 vents on the first floor. This allows the system to cool first & second floors to the same temperature because cool air sinks but results in the upstairs being 3 degrees warmer since hot air rises. Folks with forced hot air heating should not have an issue with temperature differences between floors when switching from gas to a heat pump. Feels great to know I have an efficient source of clean electric heat that should significantly reduce my gas usage. It will also take much less electricity to cool my house. The compressor installed in 2003 was 10 SEER. The new Bryant unit is 24 SEER and it was made in the USA.