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The problem is that heat pump based heaters and cooling devices are still produced, marketed, and priced for the green and well off crowd, not the general publi

The problem is that heat pump based heaters and cooling devices are still produced, marketed, and priced for the green and well off crowd, not the general public. When I was growing up I lived in a suburban American house that was built in 1982 and had a heat pump. It was a middle class suburb and none of the adults were environmental activists. Every house in the neighborhood had a heat pump. I thought this was totally normal. With hindsight, I see that there was significantly more American concern about energy efficiency in the late 1970s and early 1980s than in the early 1990s, probably due to resumption of relatively low oil prices in the mid 1980s. It's sad that the attention to efficiency did not continue after the immediate crisis had passed.

bluGill 8y ago
The concern for energy efficiency died in the mid 1980s because there were a lot of badly done improvements. Many houses were insulated better - with a foam that had hazardous off gas problems. New homes were often insulated well and rotted away because the insulation trapped moisture. Heat pumps sounded good, but were useless on the cold days and so people paid huge power bills in January for electric heat. None of the above problems are inherent in energy efficiency, but they did give the whole field a bad name.
- _delirium 8y ago
  In the UK, electric heating also got a reputation for not really having working temperature control. Because it was expensive to heat using day-rate electricity, most UK homes with electric heating have some kind of heat-storage system that charges at night at the "Economy 7" rate. The apartment I lived in (built 1984) heated up something like 100 lbs (60 kg) of ceramic blocks, for example. You could sort-of regulate how fast this heat dissipated during the day by opening and closing a vent, but in practice the biggest usable knob was choosing how much to charge overnight. That meant you had to predict before going to bed how much heat you'd want the next day! One strategy is to go very warm and then open your windows to cool back down if you overshot. Another strategy is to somewhat under-heat and then have a portable electric space heater to add extra heat in your immediate vicinity (though this is a common source of fires).

bluGill 8y ago

The concern for energy efficiency died in the mid 1980s because there were a lot of badly done improvements. Many houses were insulated better - with a foam that had hazardous off gas problems. New homes were often insulated well and rotted away because the insulation trapped moisture. Heat pumps sounded good, but were useless on the cold days and so people paid huge power bills in January for electric heat. None of the above problems are inherent in energy efficiency, but they did give the whole field a bad name.

_delirium 8y ago
In the UK, electric heating also got a reputation for not really having working temperature control. Because it was expensive to heat using day-rate electricity, most UK homes with electric heating have some kind of heat-storage system that charges at night at the "Economy 7" rate. The apartment I lived in (built 1984) heated up something like 100 lbs (60 kg) of ceramic blocks, for example. You could sort-of regulate how fast this heat dissipated during the day by opening and closing a vent, but in practice the biggest usable knob was choosing how much to charge overnight. That meant you had to predict before going to bed how much heat you'd want the next day! One strategy is to go very warm and then open your windows to cool back down if you overshot. Another strategy is to somewhat under-heat and then have a portable electric space heater to add extra heat in your immediate vicinity (though this is a common source of fires).