Heat pumps use electrical power. They do not care where that electrical power comes from.
Reality check on electric cars
- Thread starter Stringfellow Hawk
- Start date
Heat pumps use electrical power. They do not care where that electrical power comes from.
Into the Night
Verified User
You just can't read, can you?
What is neat about heat pumps is that they can use anything that produces electricity. That is on top of them being several times better than 100% efficient, and delivering greater comfort.
T. A. Gardner
Thread Killer
Nothing is "100% efficient." Perpetual motion machines don't exist. Heat pumps are only good to about 40 F. Below that they become more and more inefficient and you have to add either electric heating strips (costly in terms of power consumption) or a gas pack to assist in producing enough heat to make them work.
Heat pumps are going to save the planet apparently according to the UK Government.
T. A. Gardner
Thread Killer
This from a country...
"We are not being groomed to go green, we are being groomed to go without"
Neil Oliver
No closed system is 100% efficient, so if you have a system, like a heat pump, that is 300% to 500% efficient, you know there is "cheating" going on. The "cheating" in the case of the heat pump is that the heat pump is not creating the heat. The heat pump is moving the heat that already exists from the outside to the inside, which is more efficient than creating the heat. So heat pumps have 300% to 500% efficiency, with "cheating".
But, as a home owner, I do not care if the heat pump cheats. It is all saving for me.
Maybe 50 years ago, but these days heat pumps work well down to almost 20ºF. At that point, you want to have electric heating. Electric heating is not very efficient, because it includes the loss of efficiency of the transmission lines. That said, in almost the entire lower 48 states, there is enough time in the year over 20ºF that heat pumps/electric heating are the most efficient heating solution...
Except for heat pumps where you grab heat from the ground. That requires a huge amount of piping underground, but as long as the average yearly temperature is above 30ºF, you are going to be able to use solely heat pump year round.
There is another cost efficiency hidden in there that electricity can come from whatever source is cheapest at the moment. The system really does not care. While most other heating solutions involve oil, natural gas, or some other specific source.
Heat pumps cost more to install than a conventional furnace, but less to install than a conventional furnace and central air conditioning. So you just get a more comfortable home year round, and lots of savings.
At the moment, Europe wishes it had switched more to heat pumps. If they had, they could laugh off any Russian natural gas shutdowns.
Saving the planet is a little of an overstatement, but heat pumps do allow more comfort, much less cost, more energy independence, and much less pollution.
Yes, from the country which created great comedy. Though their understanding of history is a little off. King Author would have been King of the Britons, a Keltic group that fought against the Germanic Anglo-Saxons/English.
T. A. Gardner
Thread Killer
You really don't know what you're talking about here. Most of Europe has gone to pellet stoves because heat pumps don't work and are not cost effective. Some geothermal (heat exchange from deep wells in the ground) heating has been tried, but in places like Germany the geology makes this dangerously impractical.
https://www.odditycentral.com/news/...rt-due-to-geothermal-drilling-gone-wrong.html
That's one example. So, geothermal is not always a possible solution.
https://www.nordicghp.com/2017/01/heat-pump-effective-temperature-range/
Geothermal also takes up more ground between installations, so it is impractical for use in a compact city setting unless you centralize the system (like they did in Germany to the detriment of the whole town).
https://cagleservice.com/what-temperature-range-are-heat-pumps-effective/
https://www.linquip.com/blog/what-temperature-is-a-heat-pump-not-effective/
So, experts agree with me (also an expert), below 40 F regularly means you need to add heat strips or a gas pack to your heat pump.
Wood pellets are a scam. The problem Europeans have with heat pumps is they require putting new ducts in a building, which is a pain in the neck for old buildings. Wood pellets use huge government subsidies to pretend to be green, but are literally a waste of time.
Not what it says. It says you need to start using additional heating at 25ºF, not 40ºF. It does say that it starts reducing efficiency at 40ºF. So at 40ºF you get 500% efficiency, and at 30ºF you get 300% efficiency... That is less than before, but still 3 times better a conventional furnace.
Tesla locks 80 miles of customer’s battery range for $4,500 ransom
https://electrek.co/2022/07/26/tesla-ransom-customer-over-80-miles-battery-range/
https://electrek.co/2022/07/26/tesla-ransom-customer-over-80-miles-battery-range/