4 ms·
It's not that black or white. I only need a backup for my heat pumps for perhaps a week each winter. The heat pump still saves me 40% on my heating costs throug
by timbit42 4y ago
It's not that black or white. I only need a backup for my heat pumps for perhaps a week each winter. The heat pump still saves me 40% on my heating costs throughout the year.
Also, Norway doesn't get as cold as you might think. They get some heat from the gulf stream in the Atlantic ocean like the UK does. Russia and Canada get a lot colder in their northern parts, like -40C quite often and sometimes even as low as -50C. Heat pumps aren't very viable below -25C, but work is ongoing to make the more efficient at lower temps.
- acdha 4y agoI’ve been wondering where the break-even points will be for ground source systems, too. I was talking with an architect a couple weeks ago who has looked into that for several projects and didn’t find the number close to working out, but that was in Boston where the winter climate is nowhere near that extreme and the labor/land costs are very high and space issues meant they’d have to do the most expensive vertical boreholes.
- timbit42 4y ago10 years ago the average heat pump had a CoP of 3. Today they are 4 or a bit higher. Some ground source heat pumps have a CoP over 5. I saw one unit with 5.3. Of course, with a ground source heat pump, you can actually get that CoP when the outside air is -50C.