Ugh, tell me about it! I tried the whole tent and box fan trick in my back yard once and the paint looked like sandpaper before it was even dry. Wind kicked up right as I was laying down the clear and I swear every leaf in the county landed on it. Ended up paying double to fix it too, so I feel your pain on that one.

Man, that's wild. I had the opposite thing happen in Minnesota but it was with a swamp cooler vs central AC. My buddy swore evaporative cooling was cheaper till we got that humid week in July and my electric bill looked like a mortgage payment. Anyway, your numbers make sense if you factor in the time of use rates and how the heat pump defrosts like crazy when it's below 20. I still think people overlook how much maintenance a heat pump needs when it's running nonstop for months, but hey, if gas works for you, run it and don't look back.

Contact frames help a ton, but thick paste fixes the root cause even better.