101–110 of 332 posts
I wish, wish wish there was a portable mini split (not a portable air conditioner). The closest thing is this: https://rollibot.com/product/mini-split-ac-room-air-conditio... but it sucks. I don't understand why these things have to be permanent fixtures of your house, necessarily.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason is that suddenly everybody understood that Russia is an unreliable partner for their countries energy needs (at least in Europe). For consumers it's also became clear that being slightly more independent from centralized heating and/or energy infrastructure is a good thing
Suddenly, as in Crimea didn't happen?
There was also push to do the opppsite to neutralise that threat to fossil profits e.g. Bjorn Lomberg the skeptic saying that we didnt have any tech that could replace gas, so the only response to Crimea was to frack or invent totally new tech, not rolling out renewables and heat pumps faster.
"Fracking Could Free Europe from Putin"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bjornlomborg/2014/06/23/frackin...
> Still, many EU politicians talk mostly about expanding renewable energies as a way of making Europe independent of Russian energy. Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action, said the Ukraine crisis should be a “wake-up call” for European countries to make the switch from Russian gas to clean, renewable sources of energy.
> But this simply ignores reality. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Europe gets just 1.3 percent of its energy from renewables like solar and wind, whereas it gets about 75 percent from fossil fuels and most of the remainder from nuclear. Even an extremely optimistic scenario from the IEA suggests that by 2035, Europe will only be able to generate 8 percent of its energy from these renewables. Focusing on them is simply populism without realism.
At that point, climate skepticism was strong enough politically to prevail. They tried to use this latest annexation to promote fracking etc. too but it seems to have largely failed.
What is going on? Is there a global push to get everyone to switch to heat pumps. It seems that there is heat pump content everywhere. Clearly there is a push. I understand that its for climate benefits but it feels very coordinated. edit: didn't realize the attention I would get. Let me add someone answered my question -- a good product market fit and people talking is probably where the push came from. That said HV…
I’ve been independently interested in heat pumps because I need to replace my old end-of-life system and I’ve been interested if a modern cold-weather mini split system is a better investment. There’s lots of conflicting info I’ve found on if heat pumps perform in freezing weather and at what kind of efficiency. I’m sure there’s others in my position.
Heat pumps require different system design than a traditional setup, where the cooling load is usually the driving force. You might need a bigger heat pump to handle the heating load in very cold weather accounting for the efficiency loss.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are not more energy efficient than burning gas. Edit: since i am getting downvoted to oblivion, let me fight back here. I genuinely wished heat pumps would be more efficient and in theory they can be. I would love to not generate heat and just use the outside heat energy and compress it down into a smaller location. But compressing and decompressing is not an energy efficient task. It takes a lot of work. Mechan…
They can be, natural gas is about 1000 BTU per cubic foot. An expensive high efficiency gas furnace might be 95% efficient (most normal furnaces are in the 80's) 1000 x 0.95 = 950 BTU/cuft A high efficiency natural gas power plant is 60% efficient and a modern high efficiency low temp heat pump can have a COP up to around 2.7 at 17F 1000 x 0.6 x 2.7 = 1620 BTU/cuft A 40% power pant is still more efficient than a 95%…
They're a no-brainer in every climate. Newer heat pumps can handle fairly cold temperatures (-13°F) pretty easily, there may be a loss in efficiency but in the majority of the world it doesn't stay that cold. A few days of lower than normal efficiency, and at worst plugging in a few space heaters if it gets extremely cold for a day or two, does not change the overall math of heat pumps being a better solution.
Hell, that's just me talking about air source heat pumps. No reason for new construction to not use ground source and get better efficiency and not worry about ambient outdoor temperatures.
I wish, wish wish there was a portable mini split (not a portable air conditioner). The closest thing is this: https://rollibot.com/product/mini-split-ac-room-air-conditio... but it sucks. I don't understand why these things have to be permanent fixtures of your house, necessarily.
I’m confused what you’re asking for (and why) but it sounds interesting.
For cooling this exists in many forms: there are the window air conditioners, and "portable" window air conditioners which have a duct that connects to the window. The problem with the latter is that they're loud and the ducts result in a lot of heat loss.
For heating there are some portable air conditioners that use a heat pump but they're subject to the same issue described above. More common is resistive electrical heat in the form of coils or an oil filled container that radiates heat.
A portable mini split, where it connects through the window would give you a similar advantage as a portable air conditioner, but with more efficiency and being less loud.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I assume in home that don't have ACs, that they also don't have ducts. Do these ductless homes filter their air, control home humidity, or bring in fresh air from outside?
"Ductless homes" usually circulate hot water through radiators. If you switch to a heat pump, nothing's stopping you from circulating cold water in the summer, though obviously there is a limit on the temperature delta (you can heat water much more than you can cool it). Bringing in fresh air is a manual process (open the windows), and filtering air or controling humidity is then left to seperate appliances, if done…
Condensation is - air conditioners have an integrated drip tray which drains to the outside, but if you ran chilled water through radiators they'd all make puddles of condensation on the floor. Retrofitting drains might be possible but I've never seen one and I can't imagine it'd be cost-effective vs installing mini-splits.
What is going on? Is there a global push to get everyone to switch to heat pumps. It seems that there is heat pump content everywhere. Clearly there is a push. I understand that its for climate benefits but it feels very coordinated. edit: didn't realize the attention I would get. Let me add someone answered my question -- a good product market fit and people talking is probably where the push came from. That said HV…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This hasn't been my experience. I can get an AC unit and gas furnace installed for something like 7k. But a heat pump unit that heats and cools is something like 13k installed. I obviously went with the former.
That's fascinating and I believe you were subject to some weird market conditions there. Look at the complexity of gas burners vs a reversing valve and electric heat strips and I think you will see what I mean.
What is going on? Is there a global push to get everyone to switch to heat pumps. It seems that there is heat pump content everywhere. Clearly there is a push. I understand that its for climate benefits but it feels very coordinated. edit: didn't realize the attention I would get. Let me add someone answered my question -- a good product market fit and people talking is probably where the push came from. That said HV…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m confused what you’re asking for (and why) but it sounds interesting.
A portable machine to provide heat and cooling via heat pump technology. For cooling this exists in many forms: there are the window air conditioners, and "portable" window air conditioners which have a duct that connects to the window. The problem with the latter is that they're loud and the ducts result in a lot of heat loss. For heating there are some portable air conditioners that use a heat pump but they're subj…