OK I have not posted on my blog for a while, but I figured I'd share the results of the Hallowell heat pumps.
For the 2 month period 05-Jan-2010 to 02-Mar-2010, I used a total of 6465 killowatts, for which NYSEG charged me $746.67. So that is 373.33, for the 2 coldest months of the year.
That covers all of my electric usage - lights, appliances, plasma tv, etc, an 80 gallon electric water heater, and the Hallowell system. I keep the temperature set at 68 all day, and 65 at night (1 am to 9 am).
I am extremely happy with that. I would estimate that my electric water heater accounts for about $80 per month. The lights, appliances, plasma tv, etc I am guessing to be $100-$120. Which would leave my Hallowell heating cost at around $183 per month for Jan and Feb.
If I had been heating my house with oil (natural gas not available here), I would have to believe I would have gone through a 275 gallon tank in 3 weeks or less. Thats how much usage I had at 2 prior houses, which were half the size of the new one, but less well insulated. So lets say 13 gallons of oil, for 57 days is 746 gallons. At a price of $2.40 a gallon, that would have cost me $1792 (or $896) for the same time period.
That sounds shocking to me? Anything wrong with my math? $183 for Hallowell, $896 for oil?
Here are my actual bills:
January Bill
February Bill
UPDATE: PLEASE READ MY OTHER POSTS ABOUT THE HALLOWELL ACADIA. I'm having compressor problems like many other Hallowell Acadia Owners...
Also if you deal/install/own a Hallowell Acadia, please join the Hallowell Acadia Google Group.
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33 comments:
Great to know! I was seriously considering an Acadia.
I live a bit more north of you (Eastern Canada) and have a new two story ~2400sqft house. R40 in the ceiling and R22? in the walls.
Amana 3T 9.5HSPF heat pump set at 69F throughout the winter. 60 gallon hot water heater and electric appliances which get used everyday.
Used 5725kWh for January and February, which I'm extremely happy with. My base energy use through the summer (minimal AC needed) is 2500kWh, so I'm using about $160CDN/month to heat.
I wonder how much an Acadia might have been able to save.
Is the Acadia noisy while it is running? I am thinking of installing an Acadia on a house I am buying, but my neighbor is about 50 feet away. Will it bother them? How is the reliability? How is the heat quality? Is it warm enough, even on very cold winter mornings?
Thanks.
I seen complaints on the Internet that the Acadia is noisy, but I can only hear it when I'm in the room adjacent to the outdoor units.
I love the heat quality. The heat does not feel cool to me, it is warm. I've been in Hydro-Air system houses where the air is much hotter. That seems to promote hot/cold spots more in the house. I feel like the warm air from the Acadia keeps my house a more uniform temperature.
Good ppost, very interesting
Curious to hear how your heat pump is working currently? I installed one this summer and it worked great for cooling...now that I want heat, I am having issues....
Wondering what Anonymous issues may be. I have a 4 ton unit and have nothing but problems. The unit doesn't shut off even after it has reached temperature. Yesterday I set it for a 2 degree increase in temp and it immediately went to 3rd stage (says stage 1 with stage 2 flashing). Since I was consuming gobs of energy already, I asked it to go from 50 to 56 (it was 43-45 degrees outside). That took 3 hours. When it reached temp, it was still reading stage 1 with stage 2 flashing. I left it on and then it changed to stage 1 stage 2 (not flashing after about an hour. For hours it was running like that when I had set it for 56 and it was at 56. I shut the unit off. This morning I turned it on and figured I'd be using 3rd stage heat anyway, and requested it go from 48 to 54. Stage one went on, the outside unit was making a strange noise and the fan wasn't turning. After an hour, I shut it off and turned it on again, then stage one and stage 2 (not flashing)came on and now the fan is turning on the outside unit. 3 hours later, house temp went up 3 degrees. With a call now to go from 51 to 54 degrees, the stage 2 started flashing. Obviously something not right here. Mind you, this is the second 4 ton unit that I've had - the first one died (2nd compressor croaked) after only a couple of months and that had issues in the few months it was supposedly operating. It was replaced with th unit that I now have. I have called them (Hallowell) on numerous occasions and I never get a person and they don't call back. Meanwhile, I'm freezing. Not looking forward to the winter!
unhappy customer - that is scary. My wife will go crazy if that happens to us.
unhappy customer,
I have read similar complaints on the Internet about the Hallowell Acadia heat pump. It appears the root of the problem is usually either faulty equipment or faulty installation. I think more often than not, it is faulty installation, as these heat pumps must been installed correctly to function correctly, and few installers have enough experience to go in and install one without making mistakes. Then it's a big mess trying to figure out what is wrong with the installation.
I also have read other accounts of bad customer service from Hallowell. It should be noted that Hallowell has a "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbb.org/boston/business-reviews/heating-equipment/hallowell-international-in-bangor-me-118703/
The combination of inexperienced installers and bad customer service, makes for a nightmare when your Acadia heat pump is installed incorrectly or has a mechanical problem.
I thought about installing an Acadia heat pump, but decided against it for now after reading some of the horror stories and the bad customer support. I can't wast my time and money on a product that isn't reliable and a company that doesn't stand behind it.
Going into our second winter with the Hallowell Acadia up here in Kelowna, British Columbia and we are very happy with it. It's 16F here at the moment and the house(1900 square feet) is nice and warm. The high here this summer was 104F and the house was always cool.
I agree with others that you must have a good installer. We did have one issue with the Acadia, a part from an outside supplier broke, and Hallowell shipped a new one to our installer and paid for his time to replace it. So our experience with their customer service has been excellent.
In regards to the BBB complaints mentioned by JohnnyCJohnny, if you look at the complaints they were for advertising issues and not product or service issues.
John D.
If Hallowell is serious about doing business, they should work on improving their BBB rating. I don't care what the reason is for the F rating. It looks terrible, and says they don't care. If I was going to propose installing an Acadia heat pump, I'd have to explain the F rating with BBB. It wouldn't fly.
unhappy customer, be sure your Hallowell thermostat is set up correctly...mine was not and caused all sorts of issues. Once set to the paramaters as described in the manual, it worked fine...14 degrees this morning and pumping lots of heat. Also, pick a temperature for the house and leave it...found that it does not like to have different settings at different times of day. Good luck!
We had a 3 ton Acadia installed in June 2009 and have had a lot of problems with it. When it's running it works fine and during the first year when we didn't have to pay the labor for repairs we saved money over our previous oil heat system. However, now we have to pay labor every time a valve or sensor goes bad and they seem to all too frequently. We are on our third main control board and the last time the electrical problem caused a small fire inside the unit that disabled not only the heat pump, but also the emergency heat. More recently Hallowell has stopped sending out parts and responding to emails and phone calls. Their customer service at present is simply inexcusable and unprofessional. I would certainly not recommend this unit due to the fact that it is unreliable, expensive to repair, and the customer service is at present non-existent.
We have the 48 arcadia heat pump-just found out they are being bought out by Trane? All the neg posts seem to be about the 48 that were installed in 08. Just spoke to a guy in Mich who has had 3 units in 2 years. They are suppose to be sending me a new unit. Had all the same problems that are oposted at the cnet web site-my email is lisbet5153@msn.com-would like other feed back from people who have had units replaced. I do not feel we should have to pay the labor cost. It's 8 degrees with 3' of snow on the ground tell me how we are going to install a new unit. I think I will be taking this to the news stations but would like to found out the reasons for the failures.
Just had the unit repaired and had to buy some parts that should have been covered under warranty. Now it's icing up but only bottom six inches or so of the HP. The repair included a new main control board (HVAC installer managed to get this before Hallowell stopped communicating), and I'm wondering if Hallowell monkeyed around with the defrost cycles. It seems like the defrost cycles is somewhat too short and not all the ice melts at the bottom before the unit kicks on again, so it just keeps building up. This situation is a nightmare. How can a heating company leave their customers stranded in the middle of the winter and get away with it?
Glad to read these responses on the Acadia Heat Pump. We installed a 4 T unit in our brand new home in Berlin, MA. Installer was new and did a terrible job with installation. System ran fine in the summer, cooling the house at low cost. Our first winter was a night mare. We paid more than $1000 for Jan and we have solar panels to help with the electric cost. After a long battle with Hallowell and the installer, we paid for a new $260 control board on the air handler to "fix" the problem of having the emergency system coming on to keep the house at 67 degrees. Again summer was fine and lo and behold winter brought more problems in Dec 2010. Hallowell did not respond, email reply sent us a list of installers to call. We have now spent another cold, cold January running on emergency heat. Can't wait for the next electric bill. Is there a group we should form to help one another out? Class action suit? We are retired and chose this type of heating and cooling to make our retirement dollars go further.
Yeah I wish there were a group for Hallowell owners. They may be out of business now. My heat pump compressor just broke, no response from Hallowell, I'm on emergency heat now, for 2 weeks.
OK, I just quickly whipped up a Google Group. Who knows if anyone will join or not.
http://groups.google.com/group/hallowell-acadia
OK all, Google Bangor News + Hallowell, there is an article dated February 1st.
Rest assured, you are not alone, there is a 30% failure rate of these pumps.
According to some of the posts following the article, Duane Hallowell (whom is NOT an engineer), David Shaw (whom never set foot in the Maine Plant) and another crook, Ron Popolizio knew they had a flawed design and proceeded to market it fraudulently anyway. Lawsuit anyone?
Good morning I am also one those customers that have a failed Acadia system. I was wondering if I can reach Matthew Haydinger from ARC, my email is attached steve.brian.160@gmail.com... I am looking for a support group regarding these issues with the Hallowell ACADIA system. My unit has been down since October 2010 with a failed compressor.
My installer came to install a new compressor and after reviewing the instructions sent by Hallowell to complete the installation he pulled the plug due to high labor cost of a major tear down of the system and additional equipment $1600 to $1800.
Need help
Best regards
Steve Brian
I haven't gotten my Acadia fixed yet. Partly because I'm extremely busy with other things, and partly because several hvac companies I've contacted will not touch it. If anyone knows someone in the mahopac ny area that can fix it, please contact me!
If anyone know anybody anywhere willing to fix one of these let me know!!
We all need to get a class action lawsuit going against Hallowell. I was a dealer for several years and have been left high and dry. I can't get parts and I have many once happy customers now angry they ever bought one of these systems. Hallowell owes my company thousands of dollars for labor claims on warranty work and the units are failing left and right... Please, everyone get together on this because if you haven't gotten burned yet, you will. Join the group below.
http://groups.google.com/group/hallowell-acadia
We all need to get a class action lawsuit going against Hallowell. I was a dealer for several years and have been left high and dry. I can't get parts and I have many once happy customers now angry they ever bought one of these systems. Hallowell owes my company thousands of dollars for labor claims on warranty work and the units are failing left and right... Please, everyone get together on this because if you haven't gotten burned yet, you will. Join the group below.
http://groups.google.com/group/hallowell-acadia
My Acadia's primary compressor went out over three weeks ago, and my contractor has not gotten ANY support from Hallowell. We are having to find the compressor from a third party and install it. Screw the 5-year warranty: that's Hallowell's approach. They are ignoring their responsibility and my inquiries. I would be in total support of any class-action lawsuit.
The Acadia worked GREAT while it ran and I was happy with the costs. Service once it failed, however, has been non-existent for 24 days so far.
I guess "Go to Hallowell" isn't such a thinly veiled motto after all.
Hollowell has all but gone out of business. My firm has installed 5 of these units and the primary compressors have had a 100% fail rate. Two of my customers and my boss are not going to be able to get replacement compressors under warranty. Stay away from Hollowell.
Wow...and I thought I was the only one..I installed an Acadia in my new house 2 years on the North Shore in Massachusetts and after multiple 'bugs' in the 1st year it ran well until 3 weeks ago when the compressor went. My local service guy (who dropped the line) is telling me Hallowell seems to be going down for the count or something. I have called Mr Hallowell himself "duane" and emailed him multiple times with NO satisfaction. I have personally reccomended this guys product to others along the way. Thier support is aweful. Can you get away with this? I'm in for the class action. KM in Mass.
I'm so glad I found this site. We spent a fortune in Sept. 2008 for the Acadia unit and have had problems ever since. We have been without heat AGAIN now for a week and we have a little baby at home. No one is returning our phone calls or emails. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Bought my a 4-Ton Acadia in Sept 09 for a 2200 sqft home in NH and the compressor failed in Jan 11. Like some of the people on this site, I liked the heat the unit provided even on the coldest days. My installer who was very good, got us a replacement compressor after about 3 weeks. The compressor may have been one of the last compressors sent from Hallowell.
Yesterday I received an $800 service bill from the installer to cover his parts and labor for changing the compressor. I can't blame the installer for the bill since its unlikely that Hallowell will honor any warranty labor.
This is not a good sign for other folks running an Acadia system. Expect high service bills in the future to maintain this unreliable system. That's if anyone will continue to work on them.
Thank god I kept my oil furnace.
I'm not sure if a class action suit will go anywhere since Duane likely structured the company to protect his ass ets!
Like so many others my two units worked well for the first two years than problems. i had a compresor replaced the first week of jan 2011 for a house i built on cape cod two years ago . has anyone found a replacement heatpump that could easly replace the arcadia units? i have a three ton and four ton unit.before next winter rolls around i rather bite the bullet and replace them now not when they fail and its cold outside I am also for class action. Tim Harris tim@showevent.com
Tim if you want to replace the Acadia outside unit, you should consider a York heat pump since the air handler that came with the Acadia is made by York.
My unit has been down for 4months now. Not having much luck getting it fixed. No one wants to touch it. Plus I dont have the money to repair something I just bought only 2 years ago and should not be having problems with. Being told compressor and that its a real pain in the butt job to replace. I agree there needs to be a lawsuit. Dont know about you but I dont have the extra money to fix the problem. corky870@msn.com
Two great guys Gabe and David Friedman are trying to help us fix the Acadia/Hallowell heat pumps. Join hallowell-acadia@googlegroups.com for a fixed that is less than $100 to keep your units running.
tMy 3 ton unit was installed in March 2009. It had many problems, operated in emergency mode almost the entire first and second winter. Finally control board replaced (last one out of the factory before it went bust!) and it ran perfectly for the winter of '11-'12 and through the summer. Now just into the '12-'13 heating season it seems either the primary starting caps have failed or (more likely) the primary compressor has failed. Tech says don't bother fixing. I've got the paperwork on the go to join the class action suit. A $20,000 mistake! Ouch!
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