38 ms·
To answer my questions: 1 Not to my knowledge; housing policy reflects the desire for segregation. 2 No, Hawaii is nice. 3 No, it's physics. Until very recen
by coryrc 5y ago
To answer my questions:
1 Not to my knowledge; housing policy reflects the desire for segregation.
2 No, Hawaii is nice.
3 No, it's physics. Until very recently even a heat pump would burn more hydrocarbons using the grid than direct heating and cost a lot more.
- orwin 5y ago1: True 2: Big oil did push to keep the plane fuel low (or rather inexistant) worldwide though. But true. 3: What? No. Unless recently is everything after the 70s. Heat pump was more efficient than gas heating since the 50s (at least), but was hard to control, that was the main issue. My friend grandad learned to work with heat pumps during the Franco-Algerian war (54 i think) and installed one in his home (on Oleron Island) in the 70s (first that were home-sized). I think they were built in Sweden. His career was made on this tech.
- coryrc 5y agoOur electrical grid was mostly coal which is more carbon intensive than gas, requiring an efficiency not possible for heat pumps to emit less carbon than burning natural gas directly. Additionally they did not work below freezing well or at all. Of course, insulation is and was the most carbon-efficient investment.