3 ms·
I never claimed heat pumps don't work in cold weather. The point is about non-electric redundancy, not heat pumps having resistance coils. I'm well aware of the
by endisneigh 5y ago
I never claimed heat pumps don't work in cold weather. The point is about non-electric redundancy, not heat pumps having resistance coils. I'm well aware of the functionality of modern heat pumps.
Even in a house with foam insulation - the highest "normally available" insulation - freezing to death is just a matter of time without heat. When considering city-wide infrastructure it's something that needs to be considered. I'm not saying it's necessarily going to happen, but you'd be dumb not to think about redundancy measures, hence my top-level comment.
This type of redundancy is why many commercial buildings have gas generators, for example.
- jabart 5y agoA gas furnace would require electricity. You need electricity to ignite and exhaust most natural gas heating. There are vent-free options. Not common for those to be installed and back to having your own option for backup power. Which can be propane or gasoline.
- endisneigh 5y agoThe amount of electricity a gas furnace requires is trivial and not really relevant to this discussion. A heat pump requires many orders of magnitude more electricity. A 10kwh battery could power a gas furnace and a water heater electrically for a year.
- jabart 5y agoNow this natural gas house has a 10kwh whole house battery backup too? Hope your refrigerator can also last a year off that battery pack (oh wait it's a ac compressor too!), Heat Pump for heat, Heat Pump water heater is the future for new home builds. Buy a portable generator, a 10kwh gasoline generator is <$1,000 USD and 1/10th the price of a 10kwh batter pack. Problem solved.
- endisneigh 5y agoI don’t disagree. My point is that what’s nyc doing for redundancy?