Daikin, installed in 2018. It's rated down to 5F, but I switch to propane at 15F. Ran them most of the time this winter, until this weekend. Worst electric bill was $150 higher than not running them. Keeps the house at 68F-70F no problem.

There's a program in Vermont called VHIP (Vermont Housing Improvement Program) that provides up to $50k in grant money. This can be used to retrofit a barn to create an ADU. There is a requirement that the unit be rented at a fair housing market rate for 5 years. In my opinion, that's a win/win, as it provides funds to create more affordable housing.

Sadly I’m not surprised. I know people and also been personally burdened by landlords increasing rent way beyond reasonable means for the local average income.

It's not spam. It is a relevant topic in many states and I thought I'd enter the dialog.

Thanks! I wasn’t sure how exactly to come at the tits and hoped people would get that chickadees are part of the same family as tufted and titmice.

Heat pump work regardless of the outside temp. When the temp gets below the rating, it doesn’t stop working, it just becomes more expensive than other electric heaters to operate. Would you need a backup heat source? No more than you’d need a backup water heater. Would it be cheaper to have a wood stove with heat pumps as a secondary system? It has been so far for us.

This is being spammed to every state sub.

I understand it to a point, but that’s also only one side of the equation. Even the mythical “rich out of stater working remote moving here” is still bringing their dollars here to spend at our businesses.

Whoops! It’s doubly good that so many constitutionalists don’t belong to a religion that demands they help the… oh wait, what’s that? They don’t actually follow Jesus’s teachings outside of Sunday mornings? That’s crazy.

I worked in a barn that was half cows, half horses. The cow side was always warm and the horse side was almost always frozen. The heat the cows put out is impressive.

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Statistically it’s the opposite - VT has been a leader in falling population for at least the last two census counts. Younger people especially are leaving the state in droves - we need any and all people who want to come here to grow the state.

R/burlington mods on the board of vip or something?

Many people have been calling for wider investments in housing for a decade or more before this came to a head. The governor has vetoed measures that would have aided the crises already.

There are folks fighting the good fight but I agree the obstructionists need to go.

I don't get why you're being downvoted. Politicians should be held accountable for their tax-funded actions in their official capacity. If any lawmaker proposed a bill which was made law, and then found to be unconstitutional, they should be subject to legal penalty for violating the rights of the people they are charged with governing. Why is that a controversial though for some? We encourage further violations of rights by not having such rules in place.

I don't think it's qualified immunity, though, for policy makers it is usually referred to as legislative immunity.

Seems pretty blatant, I expect there to either be a large settlement or VIP will lose. Pretty unfortunate, criminal choice from management. They should make a change, people who make choices like that don't belong in management!!

It’s tick-killin weather!

Chicken wire just keeps chickens in. You’ll need hardware cloth to protect your next post from the rabid animals on this sub :)

Doing great. Comfy warm. Same as any other day. We got Bosch with aux heat coil installed 11/22. Heat pump functions to -4 then the coil provides heat below that. We chose it for the high praise for how well it does at low temps due to the aux heat coil. $20k included install and electric upgrade at pole. Loan pmt = $300/mo. Dec elec bill = $300. Thermostat set to 70.

1400sf leaky not zoned 1868 home with some insulation but not amazing insulation, huge leaky windows (former one-room school house). Windows currently frosted up all the way to the top which we rarely see. Bedrooms have no doors. Upstairs and downstairs open air flow. Near Stowe. None of our pipes go up external walls.

Very pleased so far. Will know more after next 2 month’s elec bill.

We happen to be Ideally located/positioned for solar if need be.

Our oil furnace broke/disintegrated. We have no back-up other than a space heater (which we haven’t felt any need to use). Space heater has auto temp setting and will shut off if it falls down.

Public Service Announcement: just learned this year that space heaters need to be plugged into walls (not plugged into extension cords).

Update:

1. still cozy warm inside 70 degrees 8p. -18 outside.

2. Saturday. 7:30a still cozy 72 inside. -19 outside.

Well its not like The General Welfare is declared anywhere in our founding docu...Oh! Well that's awkward,lol.

You probably can’t do that explicitly, but maybe they could implement a “Use Tax” where if you don’t personally occupy your home from October - April your property tax is increased by 100% or something similar.

I don't really use my heat pumps in the winter for anything but air circulation in my new house. Just my woodstove from Nov to April.

But in the past I've had no issue running my Mitsubishi or others (Fujitsu and LG) down to -10F or -15F, they just heat cycle a lot and use a lot of power, without creating a ton of heat...but no issues beyond that.

It’s a terrible situation. VT needs workers, but the infrastructure isn’t there to support increased density of housing. I have seen nothing about making things easier for affordable housing at either the state or federal levels. The invisible hand of commerce seems to not be working.

It's interesting that in recognizing the very real resource constraints, the first place you think to look to tighten the belt is how many of the homeless are from another state.

These sketchy motels are just privatizing public housing. They provide unstable, incredibly low quality housing, and they're really expensive. Why do we allow for-profit motels that are otherwise nonviable businesses to survive by siphoning money from state coffers intended to house those in need? It's so wildly inefficient, and yet for some reason we accept it as - I don't even know what to put here - the best we can do? The "proper" role of government?

Let's have proper public housing. Instead of leaving our neighbors down on their luck in gross motels on and off without kitchens or reliable sources of transportation, let's give them a real chance to get back on their feet, and save money while doing it.

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