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Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

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Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#2
> Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump.

Uh, you still need a furnace (though it could be electric) if you live somewhere that ever really gets cold, right?

[edit] I mean, seeing it presented as a furnace replacement is weird to me. I’ve always seen it sold as an air conditioner replacement that also happens to heat (with weird characteristics that often confuse people—they’ll think their heat is broken, because the air coming out is only kinda warm, not very-warm like furnace heat) when it’s not really cold out.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#3

> Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. Uh, you still need a furnace (though it could be electric) if you live somewhere that ever really gets cold, right? [edit] I mean, seeing it presented as a furnace replacement is weird to me. I’ve always seen it sold as an air conditioner replacement that also happens to heat (with weird characteristics that often confuse people—…

Yes. I live in Utah and have a heat pump and gas furnace. I am told the heat pump is really efficient at medium-cold temperatures, but not so much on really cold days.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#4

> Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. Uh, you still need a furnace (though it could be electric) if you live somewhere that ever really gets cold, right? [edit] I mean, seeing it presented as a furnace replacement is weird to me. I’ve always seen it sold as an air conditioner replacement that also happens to heat (with weird characteristics that often confuse people—…

Heat pumps are still more efficient, but you’d need damn good insulation (or a really big heat pump) in super cold weather. Furnaces scale-up pretty well on the other hand.

If your locale gets life threateningly cold though, I’d feel more comfortable with a furnace because of the fewer moving parts. Burn gas, get heat, dead simple.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#6
Tried to get one in NJ and no one wanted to install one. Everyone we got a quote from tried really hard to talk us out of it. We ended up going with gas cause it was cheaper but I'm not happy about it. Gas is just the new oil, once everyone is hooked they'll jack up prices like they did with oil.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#7

> Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. Uh, you still need a furnace (though it could be electric) if you live somewhere that ever really gets cold, right? [edit] I mean, seeing it presented as a furnace replacement is weird to me. I’ve always seen it sold as an air conditioner replacement that also happens to heat (with weird characteristics that often confuse people—…

Heatpumps have resistance heating backup for the exceptional periods when it is too cold to make use of the compression system. Most people live somewhere a heatpump would work well.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#8
A big issue right now is the oversizing of heat pumps by HVAC contractors who are used to sizing gas furnaces using very simple btu/hr/sqft calculations.

A contractor should do some kind of heating need analysis, at the least by studying old utility bills, and ideally by doing a Manual J heat loss calculation for the house. But almost none of them do that.

There are some startups attempting to handle these design steps as a service, but the construction industry is slow to adopt new technology.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#9

> Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. Uh, you still need a furnace (though it could be electric) if you live somewhere that ever really gets cold, right? [edit] I mean, seeing it presented as a furnace replacement is weird to me. I’ve always seen it sold as an air conditioner replacement that also happens to heat (with weird characteristics that often confuse people—…

Cutting edge heat pumps can now work down into the sub zero (F) temperatures. Manufacturers have really been pushing hard on this in recent years. But these units still are more expensive than your run of the mill ones.

Re: Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps

#10

> Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. Uh, you still need a furnace (though it could be electric) if you live somewhere that ever really gets cold, right? [edit] I mean, seeing it presented as a furnace replacement is weird to me. I’ve always seen it sold as an air conditioner replacement that also happens to heat (with weird characteristics that often confuse people—…

The best mental model for a heat pump is that they can maintain a certain temperature differential, say 80F. If it gets to be 0F outside and you want it to be 70? You don’t need to switch to a fully separate heating system, you just need to warm up either the incoming or outgoing air an additional 10 degrees via a small resistance heater. The super wide range heat pump systems will do that automatically, and the principle really applies to any differential you could want.
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