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Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#3

Post by flyingfences »

There was a thread [0] on /r/Maine in the aftermath of the extreme cold snap last weekend, when outdoor temps dropped into the negative double digits, where people chimed in on how their heat pumps held up. By and large, they confirmed that the manufacturers' claims are correct -- they do keep working (albeit less efficiently) down to the rated temperatures and in some cases even below. The winning strategy, at least up here, seems to be a cold-weather heat pump (commonly rated to -10F) for normal baseline heat and a woodstove to fill in when it gets really cold or the power goes out.

[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/Maine/comments/10t0yd9/heat_pumps_i...

Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#4

Post by pfdietz »

flyingfences wrote: post #3

There was a thread [0] on /r/Maine in the aftermath of the extreme cold snap last weekend, when outdoor temps dropped into the negative double digits, where people chimed in on how their heat pumps held up. By and large, they confirmed that the manufacturers' claims are correct -- they do keep working (albeit less efficiently) down to the rated temperatures and in some cases even below. The winning strategy, at least…

I like these schemes where two solutions with different performance metrics are combined that cover each others weak points. Other examples are RAM and cache memory, and short term (battery) and long term/backup (hydrogen) energy storage.

Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#5

Post by fallingfrog »

I have an oil furnace as a backup, but my oil furnace pooped out and the heat pump kept working during the recent cold snap. I think it's because they ran the pipe for the forced hot water from the oil furnace right up against the wood timbers of the foundation in contact with the outside, and they froze in that spot. So I wound up just running the heat pumps.

Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#7

Post by londons_explore »

flyingfences wrote: post #3

There was a thread [0] on /r/Maine in the aftermath of the extreme cold snap last weekend, when outdoor temps dropped into the negative double digits, where people chimed in on how their heat pumps held up. By and large, they confirmed that the manufacturers' claims are correct -- they do keep working (albeit less efficiently) down to the rated temperatures and in some cases even below. The winning strategy, at least…

For 'enthusiasts', a dual heat source system is a good plan.

But regular folk want to just pay the energy bill and have a warm home, whatever the weather outside.

They don't care to worry about lighting the wood stove on super cold days. They don't want to have to have a wood delivery separate from their energy bill, and be carting it around in boxes. They don't want to huddle into the room with the wood stove because the rest of the house is too cold.

Regular folk aren't interested in heating systems, so will pay a small premium for a system that just works, whatever the weather.

Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#8

Post by 1970-01-01 »

We need more stories like this. Installing a heat pump is a win for everyone except big oil and gas. Reasons for refilling an oil tank must be harder and harder to justify every time. Perhaps one day we can repurpose our buried gas pipelines into wire conduits.

Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#9

Post by ben7799 »

I'd somehow expect some paid pro-oil/gas/propane commenters to show up in these comments and tell us we're all wrong, no different then the industry plants going out to these people in the article!

My house has natural gas.. two setups that are both really complicated. Each unit has failed in the past during extreme weather. Fossil fuel heating units are certainly not immune to failure any more than heat pumps are.

Re: Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

#10

Post by aidenn0 »

londons_explore wrote: post #7
flyingfences wrote: post #3

There was a thread [0] on /r/Maine in the aftermath of the extreme cold snap last weekend, when outdoor temps dropped into the negative double digits, where people chimed in on how their heat pumps held up. By and large, they confirmed that the manufacturers' claims are correct -- they do keep working (albeit less efficiently) down to the rated temperatures and in some cases even below. The winning strategy, at least…

For 'enthusiasts', a dual heat source system is a good plan. But regular folk want to just pay the energy bill and have a warm home, whatever the weather outside. They don't care to worry about lighting the wood stove on super cold days. They don't want to have to have a wood delivery separate from their energy bill, and be carting it around in boxes. They don't want to huddle into the room with the wood stove becaus…

There is no modern system that "just works" whatever the weather. We had an ice storm when I was growing up and lost power for 3 days. Wood stove worked great as a backup, not much else would have.
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