Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- A cigarette compamy really has a higher ESG score than Tesla. That's how you know ESG scores are garbage.
- The rise of heat pumps have quietly done more to lower climate change than almost anything.
- Home Depot joins the Tiny Home carze with a $45k kit home. Count me as a sucker for these tiny homes.
RE: heat pumps - frequently gone unnoticed is what happens <+38F with air-to-air (ATA) heat pumps - as outside temps drop heating demand rises and for ATA heat pumps the efficiency falls off because while ATA HPs extract heat from the air (which is present in decreasing quantity all the way down to 0 Kelvin) the generic ATA HP both reduces ho wmuch heat it can extract from the air AND theheating demand from the house rises as the temp falls. Double whammy.
ReplyDeleteThe "fix" is - usually - electric resistance heat as backup. So, while the ATA HP contiunes to churn away trying to extract heat from the air and not extracting enough to meet house heat demand the gap is filled with electric resistance heat. More double whammy because electric demand goes up with the resistance activation AND the ATA HP is still drawing full juice to extract what heat it can.
New ATA HPs - almost all in ductless system designs, NOT generic ducted full-house systems - can now extract enough heat all the way down to +5F that elec resistance backup heat often doesn't activate until ~+20-25F. Still a double whammy, though.
It was the backup electric resistance heat surge from ATA HP systems that killed Texas 2 years ago when temps dropped into into the 20s and the wind/solar BS couldn't meet demand, so what was left of the "reliable grid" failed.
In mild / moderate climates (Florida, south Georgia, California, Arizona, etc.) ATA HPs work fine. They still do require a "reliable electric grid" because there will be random temp extremes that drive ATA HP systems into elec resistance mode.
Interesting to know. Was not aware of this science. Would heated floors still be the best opton for a greenfield build in New England?
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