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

Post by thehappypm » Wed, Feb 08, 2023, 3:54 PM UTC

beamgirl wrote: post #28

My dad is a retired heat and power engineer up in Maine (20something years at a paper mill). We probably spent half of Christmas talking about his new minisplit. He has been tracking his electricity bill and heating oil bills in spreadsheets for years. He still has the old oil boiler in place for emergencies, but as far as I know he hasn't had to use it yet this year. He said he wanted more data before he made a defi…

Post by twobitshifter » Wed, Feb 08, 2023, 3:55 PM UTC

acidburnNSA wrote: post #88

twobitshifter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of nuclear power plants in the US near residential communities is a non-starter. Solar thermal or geothermal might be an option, but I believe heat pumps outperform those options on cost.

How is it a non-starter? Nuclear plants are low-carbon and extremely safe [1]. 100 km is a long way. There are millions of people in the USA living within 100 km of a nuclear plant. Showing people the numbers on nuclear isn't that hard. [1] https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy

Post by dahfizz » Wed, Feb 08, 2023, 3:57 PM UTC

strgcmc wrote: post #78

losvedir wrote: post #65

I know heat pumps are all the rage on HN these days, but I looked into them for myself in Indiana, and they don't seem to make financial sense at all, unfortunately. My utility, NIPSCO, charges $0.25699/therm for gas. There are 29.3 kWh of energy in 1 therm of gas, and my furnace is 95% efficient, so this works out to an electric equivalent of $0.009/kWh. That's more than an order of magnitude cheaper than the electr…

I don't understand how you can compare the price of gas (which you convert into an equivalent $/kWh price, no issues so far), with the price of electricity, without trying to account for how long or how often either heating system has to run for... it's almost certainly not the same amount of time. For example, let's imagine an experiment where 2 heating systems are tasked with doing the same thing -- let's say, to k…

Post by jghn » Wed, Feb 08, 2023, 3:59 PM UTC

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #91

pen2l wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to this, I think we should go back to doing things the hard way, the old-school way: adapt and adjust your lifestyle to temperature changes like our ancestors did. Let the temperature dictate your cooking: do the dishes that require oven use, that require you to have 3 stoves on at the same time (and crucially, avoid these dishes in the summer!). Go on a bulk in the winter time so that you are more resili…

While, sure, we can adjust ourselves, my concern is more for my house - if my heat pump can't keep things warm that means the cold bits in my house aren't getting the heat they need when they need it the most to keep my pipes from freezing. Yes, that should be solved with insulation too, but you don't really find out about those problems until after they happen.

Post by rfb » Wed, Feb 08, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC

beamgirl wrote: post #64

londons_explore wrote: post #18

I worry about the 'futureproofness' of heat pumps. Specifically, heat pumps use more energy on cold days. They use a massive amount more energy on the coldest days. Today, if you use double the electricity, it costs double the money. Thats affordable as long as it happens rarely. But, with lots of people getting EV's and heat pumps, and the generation mix getting more wind and solar, I forsee energy companies forcing…

When I saw futureproofness I thought you were going to talk about repairability. Thats probably my biggest concern. My heating system is largely made out of commodity parts. Aquastats and zone control boxes form the control system, copper pipes soldered on, pex crimped on. All parts you can buy at any hardware store in the country, and all interchangeable. As long as the actual tank and fire tubes in my boilers are i…