311–320 of 494 posts
When will air source heat pumps be ready for service in cold weather climates without gas backup?
Why doubt their existence? There have been good cold climate air source heat pumps for a long time, over 10 years at least.
That’s the kind of speed we need if this is going to be any help before everything’s on fire anyway.
From what I can tell (in / for the UK at least) heat pumps currently aren’t that great - my dad’s boiler just died and every plumber he spoke to said heat pumps kinda suck and to just get a nice new gas boiler…
Half way through the article the author is touting how these can work in cold climates like Norway, then their example homeowner immediately states they have this but also they still have a furnace for when it actually is cold. Why do journalists try to pull crap like this? Contradictory information in the same paragraph!? If you have to have a backup it is _not_ a replacement and it will not get us off of carbon. Mo…
Also, Norway doesn't get as cold as you might think. They get some heat from the gulf stream in the Atlantic ocean like the UK does. Russia and Canada get a lot colder in their northern parts, like -40C quite often and sometimes even as low as -50C. Heat pumps aren't very viable below -25C, but work is ongoing to make the more efficient at lower temps.
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I don't think the hardware is that expensive in the US, it's the installation (which costs more than the hardware). And mistakes by installers will cost even more. Our installers didn't flare a line set connection properly and it leaked slowly and that was a very expensive bill (especially since refrigerants have changed so much). Our Daikin indoor units have also had condensate leaking issues, probably due to poor i…
I love our Daikin mini-splits (came with the house), but as you allude to I've had to become an mini expert on deep cleaning them. They've can get GROSS with mold when used for cooling, and the cursory filter only does so much. That being said, now they stay clean for a few years after a deep cleaning -- though my first few attempt before I refined the process did not stay clean nearly as long. (Proper water pressure…
Most of the videos from HVAC people are... sketchy to the say the least.
I've seen videos where they dismantle the whole indoor unit and leave the coil just hanging from the line set or zip tied to the backplate while they take the fan and drain pan outside to clean.
One easy thing we've found that helps with drain clogs is to use a shop vacuum from outside to suck it out (using a towel/rag to get a good pressure seal). Takes around 5 minutes per drain per cooling season.
> Lord Kelvin proposed using heat pump systems for space heating way back in 1852. The first heat pump was designed and built a few years later That’s the kind of speed we need if this is going to be any help before everything’s on fire anyway. From what I can tell (in / for the UK at least) heat pumps currently aren’t that great - my dad’s boiler just died and every plumber he spoke to said heat pumps kinda suck and…
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It's not about fault at all - I'm just saying that the analysis does not apply to lightbulbs. For a lightbulb to be as efficient as a resistance furnace at heating a room, you would need to have zero light escape that room so that all the light would be converted to heat. Then, the heat would leave the room at the same rate as heat generated by a resistance furnace. Even if we consider incandescent light bulbs, which…
Thermal infrared doesn't go through glass. You only lose a negligible amount of visible light. It's still 100% efficient as an integer percent.
> Lord Kelvin proposed using heat pump systems for space heating way back in 1852. The first heat pump was designed and built a few years later That’s the kind of speed we need if this is going to be any help before everything’s on fire anyway. From what I can tell (in / for the UK at least) heat pumps currently aren’t that great - my dad’s boiler just died and every plumber he spoke to said heat pumps kinda suck and…
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Much like solar panels on the roof (which I have also heard Americans describe as an eyesore), once they are common enough your eyes just slide over them and you don’t notice.
I don’t see rooftop solar panels unless I go outside and intentionally look for them. A mini-split system puts an ugly, cheap, plastic wall-cyst within your field of view in every room they’re installed.
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> you isolate yourself from nature That's a feature not a bug. > This hermetically sealed environment that we create for ourselves is bad for us. Not at all. Heat recovery vents exist for a reason!
Not physically. Bad for our souls.
I would feel terrible either knowing I'm wasting half my heating energy, or freezing in my home.
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You do realize that “open the window and hear that air” is massively energy inefficient, right?
I don't know; is it more energy inefficient than having a fresh air intake via a duct? Maybe they are comparable in the absence of a heat recovery ventilation system (mentioned by a sibling comment upthread)?