4 ms·

You live in the Bay Area, don't you? No, heat pumps (which take energy; duh) and "weatherizing" are not going to heat houses in Canada or Maine.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
One of my properties is in northern Illinois, no problems running off a heat pump almost year round. Natural gas bill is about $150/year for monthly service connections and rare use. I’ve never lived in California.
- roenxi 8y ago
  Your comment omits an important but interesting detail here - how common is "rare use" and what is it being used for?
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    Air source heat pumps become less effective as the temperature drops. At 17F, you lose about 25% of BTU capacity as compared to 48F. Hot water is another huge use — it’s really expensive to use electricity for that purpose.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      Heat pump water heaters exist. "Heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly. Therefore, they can be two to three times more energy efficient than conventional electric resistance water heaters. To move the heat, heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse." https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-water-heaters https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-w...
      - Gibbon1 8y ago
        > Heat pump water heaters exist. Yeah I just put one of those in, mostly because I didn't want to run a gas line. And feel a lot more competent running a 30amp circuit than cutting and sealing a hole in the roof. Works fine. Also friend in Florida says she has a heat pump with an air handler. It produces heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. Not the end of the world.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    Looking at the grafana chart of the data scrapped from my smart thermostat, less than 10 days this winter season. The use is for "emergency heat" when it's too cold for the heat pump alone to effectively heat the premises.
unforeseen9991 8y ago
I'm in eastern Canada and there are many heat pumps here. Our cold here is typically a "wet cold" due to the Atlantic ocean, rather then the frigid cold of a central province like Ontario. I suspect they would work fine in Maine for the most part as well, for the same reasons.

toomuchtodo 8y ago

One of my properties is in northern Illinois, no problems running off a heat pump almost year round. Natural gas bill is about $150/year for monthly service connections and rare use. I’ve never lived in California.

roenxi 8y ago
Your comment omits an important but interesting detail here - how common is "rare use" and what is it being used for?
- Spooky23 8y ago
  Air source heat pumps become less effective as the temperature drops. At 17F, you lose about 25% of BTU capacity as compared to 48F. Hot water is another huge use — it’s really expensive to use electricity for that purpose.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    Heat pump water heaters exist. "Heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly. Therefore, they can be two to three times more energy efficient than conventional electric resistance water heaters. To move the heat, heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse." https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-water-heaters https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-w...
    - Gibbon1 8y ago
      > Heat pump water heaters exist. Yeah I just put one of those in, mostly because I didn't want to run a gas line. And feel a lot more competent running a 30amp circuit than cutting and sealing a hole in the roof. Works fine. Also friend in Florida says she has a heat pump with an air handler. It produces heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. Not the end of the world.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Looking at the grafana chart of the data scrapped from my smart thermostat, less than 10 days this winter season. The use is for "emergency heat" when it's too cold for the heat pump alone to effectively heat the premises.

unforeseen9991 8y ago

I'm in eastern Canada and there are many heat pumps here. Our cold here is typically a "wet cold" due to the Atlantic ocean, rather then the frigid cold of a central province like Ontario. I suspect they would work fine in Maine for the most part as well, for the same reasons.