First, if heat pumps are so great than why isn’t government using them? Second, why doesn’t screed writer Pamela Barbaglia tell us about the one she bought for her own home? Third, this is not news. This is a cult attempting to force people to comply with their beliefs. It’s advocacy. And, heck, maybe an advertisement for a product. It’s not news. But, what really caught my attention is
Sweaty Europe can kill two birds with one pump
Europe’s sweltering summer has focused attention on its building stock. Responding to the continent’s 40 degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) temperatures means cutting carbon emissions from gas heaters, while rolling out ways to efficiently cool residences and offices amid an “era of global boiling”. What may be less immediately obvious is that heat pumps are the best way to do both.
The marching orders went out to yammer about the era of global boiling.
Continuing to burn gas in winter and use inefficient air-conditioning units in summer is unsustainable. The former helps explain why heating and powering buildings account for 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the International Energy Agency, or about a quarter of the global total. The electricity required to cool a more populous planet by 2050 during increasingly hot summers, meanwhile, could nearly triple to 5,800 terawatt-hours, the IEA reckons. That’s double current demand in the entire European Union, at a time when power demands from electric vehicles are already set to soar.
I could probably get into the facts and figures on heat pumps again, or, I could just write “mind your own f’ing business.” Heat pumps have also been said to be worse for heating a home than a gas boiler. They’ve been deemed bad for ‘climate change’. Heat pumps will not last as long as separate AC and heating units, because they will be constantly working. A heat pump would be fine if you only use it for one or the other. Meh, let’s just just “mind your own f’ing business.”
Meanwhile
Covidiots racing climate crisis cars panic due to Covid. Outdoors. ????
—
Solar car race canceled, but Central Oregon team to keep going https://t.co/gLISylPnU3
— Peabody (@peabodyfmdev) August 7, 2023
Our esteemed host wrote:
The Distinguished Gentleman from Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders, loudly condemned fossil fuel use a couple of days ago, so I did the research: 58% of Vermonters, the third-highest percentage of all of the states, use fossil fuels to heat their homes, and another 12%, the highest percentage in the nation — or so it said; I have to wonder, considering Alaska — use wood as their primary heat source.
The only states in which the majority of households use electricity as their primary heating source are in the Confederacy, and adjacent states. (Kentucky never joined the CSA, but we have a bare majority, 51%, of homes heated primarily by sparktricity.)
Why? Two reasons:
1 – In our spread-out rural areas, natural gas service is not always available, where electric lines are much easier to install; and
2 – Our winters are milder, and electric heating can normally keep up.
Europe is very different geographically. A lot of Americans don’t realize it, but much of Europe, including the vast majority of Germany, a large part of France, Poland, the Baltic States, etc, are north of the 49th parallel, which makes up half of our border with Canada. Berlin is at the same latitude as the southern border of Labrador! While the UK has winter temperatures moderated by the ocean, once you get inland on the continent, winters are cold.
Heat pumps have their uses, no doubt about that, but places which routinely see persistent temperatures below 10º F are places in which you do not want to be using a heat pump only.
My experience in the Keystone State taught me a lot. When it snows in Kentucky, it’s gone in a day or two; In Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, I had at least some snow in my yard for two months. The colder weather is simply more persistent, and the daytime melting we see in the South doesn’t happen there as quickly.
I’m pleased that someone is finally recommending that Europeans join the modern world that has air conditioning and electric heating. When I was there, almost everything was heated by large steam plants and centralized water chillers for AC. Heat pumps are a very cost efficient solution to provide most structures with heat and cooling. This sounds like a common sense consumer choice, not something that needs advocacy.
I just bought a new one myself for my home.
Heat pumps work well in a narrow climate band, and require proper sizing and regular maintenance. In areas with persistent heat or cold, they are less than ideal. My experience with heat pumps is not good and I would continue to use a dedicated heat system and dedicated air conditioning system sized by a competent engineer. I will say that what some friends have related about a water to air system is better than air to air. As well, geo-thermal is said to work well until major equipment replacement is needed, then the price goes astronomical. Again, from a friend’s experience, not mine.
Additionally, equipment life with heat pumps tends to be shorter than dedicated systems due to being combined units and running continuously.
With a hat tip to our host, how about the gummint sticking to what it was hired for and stay the fornication out of our business.
Good points all, except that being Europe, they have no experience with “gummint” being anything other than aristocrats telling everyone else what to do and the serfs doing it.
Some, perhaps all, heat pumps have electric heating strips installed that will turn on when the outside air reaches a temperature that keeps the pump from providing enough heat to raise the temperature to the desired temp on the thermostat.
At that point the home’s electric meter is spinning so fast that friction provides some additional heat radiating from the spot where the meter is installed.
It also helps to have a fireplace to suck out what small amount of warm air provided by the heat pump, heat strips and meter friction to provide maximum shock when the home owners receives their first utility bill.
An electric second stage is totally voluntary. Gas is also an option. With modern SEER ratings my area in Virginia is never expected to get cold enough to need the second stage. So I am not even bothering to install one. My plan is for wood stove back up on extreme cold nights, should climate change every get things that cold here.
Again. These are all just valid consumer choices and not anything that needs advocacy. Swamp coolers for desert areas. AC/Gas furnace. Heat pump. Steam plant with open windows on hot days. You do you.
Germany in the 90’s used to consider any AC at all was wasteful extravagance by those pampered Americans going from their refrigerated homes to their refrigerated cars to their refrigerated offices and a national building code of 6 degree C differential from outside ambient as all you will ever need. It is good to see them finally accepting other options and allowing more freedom for their citizens.
Heat pumps can work fine in even some of the coldest climates…if they are used as part of a geothermal heating/cooling system. We have a number of homes and town facilities using them in my town (I’m in central New Hampshire) and they seem to work just fine. It does require drilling a well (or two, depending one the size of the building being served) for the exchange loop.
A couple of my neighbors have ‘Split’ A/C-heat units and relied on them during the winter to keep their homes above freezing. (They are seasonal homes, so they aren’t occupied through most of the year.) When the outside temps get much below freezing they can’t keep up. On more than one occasion they’ve called me to set the thermostats on their oil-fired furnaces to bring the indoor temps in their homes up to 55degF. (It was below zero outside on those particular days.)