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Decarbonization isn't just about cars. Currently, many homes have a furnace that burns fossil fuel, which can run from a small generator during a power outage.
by p1mrx 4y ago
Decarbonization isn't just about cars. Currently, many homes have a furnace that burns fossil fuel, which can run from a small generator during a power outage. That generator could even use the same fuel as the furnace.
Switching to heat pumps means that our electric grids need to become a lot more reliable, both in terms of weather resistance and generation capacity.
- aidenn0 4y agoI have lived many places with gas furnaces, and one with an oil furnace. None of them have worked when the power was out. The only place I have lived that had central heat when the power went out was an apartment with steam radiators. All of the "currently need electricity" furnaces can be replaced with heat pumps without improving reliability of the grid. And if that is X% of the furnaces, we get X% of the total benefit by doing so. With IPv6, as long as each person accesses a single server node that is IPv4 only, then each person needs an IPv4 address.
- citrin_ru 4y agoOne can run a gas boiler using an UPS (battery) to power it. In places where power outages are common people have them. A battery with the capacity enough to run a heat pump for at least several hours would be prohibitively expensive.
- aidenn0 4y agoAgain, if we replace every single furnace without a battery backup with a heat-pump, we get the majority of the benefit without any loss of utility. IPv6 transition has significant network effects, decarbonization has relatively few (with refueling being the primary one)