191–200 of 406 posts
Then this recent rise in popularity elsewhere dispelled that notion.
My 20 year old air conditioner recently died and I was looking into replacements. In my climate the temperature ranges from 40C in the summer, and -40C in the winter. After doing some research, it seemed pretty clear that having a furnace+AC was the way to go for my climate. Hardly a magic bullet technology.
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It seems to me, there is no future where a heatpump can be the only source of in-home heating then. 1) Natural Gas is vastly cheaper in most/all of the US. 2) Homes still require an alternative heating source when temperatures drop to low levels (coincidentally when people need heating the most). So, even if a heatpump is technically more efficient in terms of emissions, the technology does not solve all of the probl…
> It seems to me, there is no future where a heatpump can be the only source of in-home heating then. > > 1) Natural Gas is vastly cheaper in most/all of the US. > > 2) Homes still require an alternative heating source when temperatures drop to low levels (coincidentally when people need heating the most). > ... > I must be missing something here... Yes you are, your natural gas subsidized, i.e. government handout, i…
> Your energy grid is shit, which is why your electricity price is so high.
Adding a heatpump solves this issue, or makes it worse?
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Perhaps think of "heat pump" as something that can (also) bring heat into a building, whereas A/C generally (only) removes heat from it.
An A/C is a heat pump. Stop trying to change existing terminology
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Are you sure you aren't getting quotes for a ground-sourced (AKA geo) heat pump? We just installed a 4.5 ton (overkill for your sqft) 20 seer unit for $18000.
I got a very similar quote ($27k for ~2000sqft home) in seattle a few months ago. Salesperson said there is excess demand for both labor and machinery for heat pump installations in the past few months. I wondered at the time to what extent this is a regional phenomenon (seattlites are nerds who like energy efficiency) vs. supply chain issues vs. a sales technique. Interestingly, I learned that it will be too cold fo…
I was interested in doing an air-source heat pump (because hey, my furnace was 19 years old and would have to be replaced soon anyway), but due to the excessive cost, the payback time was figured to be something like 50 years. I would have loved to do that, but it just doesn't make sense. Instead, it was new AC unit + new natural gas furnace.
Nevermind ground-source, which would have been much more expensive.
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Heat pumps are expensive to operate, and a nightmare to fix. There is a big movement to build whole subdivisions without using natural gas at all, electric ranges and heat pumps. I don't know why it upsets me so much but it does.
Well, the no-gas thing upsets me because cooking on modern electric cooktops/stoves is still staggeringly awful.
When I needed a new air conditioner a couple years ago I was quoted $17,000 for a heat pump. I can only guess at that point whatever energy cost savings it would bring would never be realized within the service life of the system. I went with a $6000 standard replacement AC unit.
My 20 year old air conditioner recently died and I was looking into replacements. In my climate the temperature ranges from 40C in the summer, and -40C in the winter. After doing some research, it seemed pretty clear that having a furnace+AC was the way to go for my climate. Hardly a magic bullet technology.
There is zero reason not to get a dual heat system. A heat pump vs pure cooling A/C is mostly just a reversing valve. There is almost no difference between the two which makes sense: A/Cs are just heat pumps setup to move heat outside the home. A "heat pump" heating system simply runs the other direction to move heat inside the home. Either way it is standard vapor compression with a compressor, two coils, and two co…
I say this as someone who recently helped undo the damage after an inept HVAC technician replaced someone’s thermostat (for $500, thanks California prices) and did it wrong. The quality of the instruction manuals is low, and the quality of online resources about how conventional HVAC controls work is lower.
As far as I can tell, the theory is that HVAC systems used to consist of a bunch of discrete components, strung together, with control power coming from one or two transformers or thermocouples [0], and essentially no logic in the equipment. A relatively modern heat pump may well rely on a mechanism in the thermostat to protect the compressor. The actual equipment contains nothing resembling a microcontroller.
[0] Yes, the actual power available from the equipment to the thermostat may be negligible, and old thermostats were mercury switches on bimetallic strips that were powered solely by temperature changes in the room.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps think of "heat pump" as something that can (also) bring heat into a building, whereas A/C generally (only) removes heat from it.
An A/C is a heat pump. Stop trying to change existing terminology