{"id":10467,"date":"2024-04-30T15:22:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T15:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10467"},"modified":"2024-04-30T16:01:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T16:01:00","slug":"the-cost-of-outlawing-fossil-fuel-heat-in-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10467","title":{"rendered":"The cost of outlawing fossil fuel heat in Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/the-cost-of-outlawing-fossil-fuel-heat-in-wisconsin\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Switching to heat pumps in a northern climate will prove much more expensive<\/em><\/h4>\n

What if Wisconsinites were told they couldn\u2019t heat their houses by burning fossil fuels in a furnace, the way about 4 out of 5<\/a> Wisconsin homes do now? What would that cost us?<\/p>\n

Quite a bit, it turns out.<\/p>\n

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While there\u2019s been some research nationally<\/a> about the potential costs of disconnecting homeowners from fossil fuels in favor of the likeliest all-electric alternative, the air source heat pump, we wanted to know the hard numbers for the harsh winters of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Economists Andrew Hanson, a Badger Institute visiting fellow, and Zackary Hawley teamed up to build a cold-climate model appropriate to a state where winter temperatures routinely fall below the minimum at which a heat pump can extract warmth from outside air.<\/p>\n

Their bottom line, summing up a future of annually higher operating costs as a single \u201cnet present value\u201d estimate of the added costs borne by an average Wisconsin homeowner over the 15-year life of a heat pump: $19,976.14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Report<\/a>
Read the report<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While operating a conventional gas furnace for 15 years will cost, in today\u2019s \u201cnet present value\u201d terms, just over $20,000, operating a heat pump will cost just over $40,000, according to Hanson and Hawley.<\/p>\n

The figure would be still higher in northern Wisconsin, higher if electricity prices rise, higher if people keep their homes above 65 degrees. The results show why heat pumps, which work well in mild climates, have only 1% of the home heating market<\/a> in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

But homeowners might not have a choice in the future. Already, at least 147 local governments nationwide have some kind of \u201cdecarbonization\u201d ordinance or rule, as have six states. One state, New York, has banned<\/a> outright any gas and oil hookups in new homes. Gas isn\u2019t banned anywhere in Wisconsin now, but when the Legislature in 2023 passed bills prohibiting such restrictions on homeowners\u2019 freedom, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed them<\/a>, claiming that if the state or cities couldn\u2019t ban natural gas heat, it would \u201cdiminish our collective ability to help combat climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson and Hawley\u2019s model of just such a ban \u2014 effectively, a mandate to use heat pumps instead \u2014 finds not only $232 million of higher annual operating costs statewide. The economists also find that a typical new homeowner would see a reduction in the value of her new house of $7,833.78, thanks to a heat pump mandate.<\/p>\n

And because houses would cost more yet be worth less due to such a mandate, fewer homes would be built \u2014 about 4.7% fewer statewide, with harder reductions in northern markets, according to Hanson and Hawley.<\/p>\n

Neither the economists nor the Badger Institute here are arguing against heat pumps, which warm as many as 40%<\/a> of homes in states such as Alabama or the Carolinas. And the Badger Institute, as noted in our statement of guiding principles on energy research<\/a>, acknowledges there is widespread agreement we should transition to new energy sources to address climate change. Solutions, however, must include consideration of all data and facts and technological advances and a pragmatic balancing of costs and benefits to the economy. Our aim here is to put a price tag on one aspect of a potential, mandated transition in Wisconsin. We hope you find it illuminating.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Patrick McIlheran<\/em><\/p>\n

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