Earlier quoted context omitted.
-40C? That's an extreme situation. Heat pumps can be installed with backup heating as I understand it.
> That's an extreme situation Depends on where you live
It's an extreme climate that ever reaches -40.
Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
171–180 of 406 posts
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
This persistent myth just needs to go away. People use heat pumps all over Scandinavia, including in the arctic circle. They are extremely popular there. They were early adopters of this technology there decades ago. There are two popular varieties: - Ground source heat pumps. Those work pretty much anywhere; just dig below the perma frost and you are good to go on the northern tip of Canada, Alaska, Norway, or where…
Ditto Australia. We've been using 'reverse-cycle air-conditioners' for heating in Australia for decades. I'm puzzled as to why there is any debate at all on their use for heating. A heat-pump is far more efficient for obtaining heat than direct resistive heating using electricity. Many houses here use no other form of heating at all. And then at the press of a button, we get cooling in summer too. What's not to like?…
Yeah, as a Kiwi, watching all the debate happening here is just super weird.
Meanwhile, I'm annoyed that heat pumps that dump the waste heat into the hot water cylinder aren't standard.
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#173Isnt any a/c a heat pump though?
In a technical sense yes, outside of niche systems such as evaporative coolers.
Also all refrigerators contain a heat pump.
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
We have heatpumps in Seattle. They have integrated resistance heating (like baseboard heaters) for cold weather situations where the heatpump doesn't work well -- no need for a separate unit.
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#175My 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.
-40C? That's an extreme situation. Heat pumps can be installed with backup heating as I understand it.
You also get "hybrid" heatpumps that work alongside other sources of heat.
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#176My 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.
Heat pumps require more specialized techs to work on them too.
HVAC techs can work on Heat Pumps just as well as on dedicated ACs. They are not significantly different.
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
-40C? That's an extreme situation. Heat pumps can be installed with backup heating as I understand it.
> That's an extreme situation Depends on where you live
Its 48C down to -10C here. Some years get down to -18, but not enough to build for it. That extra 8C has a qualitative difference to the steps that need to be taken for people and structures. The problem this year has been high humidity at that high end, much more than normal. When you have over 40% relative humidity and its over 45C it makes air conditioners work extra hard due the specific heat of the water vapor they are cooling. There were some dessication technologies being talked about last year that would really help as they operated prior to cooling the air but I haven't seen them rolled out yet. I've heard anecdotes about EVs refusing to operate due to battery safety, and public transit shutting down due to insufficient cooling capacity.
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always went with this description too, though oddly a "heat pump water heater" only works one direction, yet "heat pump" is still in its name.
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
Re: Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the media has once again assigned a term their specific definition and created a meme out of it. I guess it makes sense if you have no preconceived notions of what a "heat pump" is. But yes, to anybody that knows an air conditioner is a type of heat pump, these articles read akin to "Personal cars create too many emissions. Companies have come up with an innovative way to reduce this problem: vehicles ". (wit…
It’s not the media doing this; “heat pump” has been industry lingo (in the US at least) for an A/C with a reversing value since at least the early 1980s. My parent’s house had a heat pump then and does so today (albeit much improved over the decades).
Yeah, that's the part of all the "heat pump" coverage that I find amusing and odd. I've lived with a heat pump for at least 40 years at this point. Every house I've lived in for the last 40 years has been fully electric actually.