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They don't claim heat pumps are more efficient than plain AC at cooling. Their parenthetical remark about people should ideally get heat pumps, links to an art

They don't claim heat pumps are more efficient than plain AC at cooling. Their parenthetical remark about people should ideally get heat pumps, links to an article about why people should get heat pumps. And why? Because they can have lower ghg emissions than natural gas furnaces and resistance heating through efficiency and the ability to use renewable electricity. Seems pretty clear they understand heat pumps.

lolinder 2y ago
You're correct, but OP's misunderstanding stems from the fact that the parenthetical isn't just a tangent, it's a non sequitur. Humans tend to assume that an utterance is relevant to the topic at hand and in particular to the surrounding context [0]. This parenthetical was inserted arbitrarily in order to plug an article that has little relationship to the surrounding text, and OP understandably interpreted it as though the writer thought it was relevant. [0] See the Gricean maxims: "I expect a partner's contribution to be appropriate to the immediate needs at each stage of the transaction." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle
- wtallis 2y ago
  > stems from the fact that the parenthetical isn't just a tangent, it's a non sequitur. It's not a non sequitur to point out a superior alternative like that. If air conditioning is on-topic, heat pumps are either on topic or a tangent.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    > All the while, fiercer heat waves will require more energy-hungry air conditioning to keep people healthy. (Though ideally, everyone would get a heat pump instead.) Juxtaposed with "heat waves will require more energy-hungry air conditioning", heat pumps are a non sequitur. A nonzero percentage of those energy-hungry air conditioners are actually heat pumps running in air conditioning mode. "Everyone should get heat pumps instead" of what? Instead of a heater. As OP says, heat pumps save no energy during the summer, so they're entirely irrelevant here in a "though" clause.
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      > A nonzero percentage of those energy-hungry air conditioners are actually heat pumps running in air conditioning mode. Wouldn't that percentage be... 100%?
      - lolinder 2y ago
        Fair enough!
    - wtallis 2y ago
      > "Everyone should get heat pumps instead" of what? Instead of a heater. You almost understand. The author is saying that if you're installing or upgrading your air conditioning, you should take the opportunity to also replace any heating system that isn't a heat pump, rather than only upgrade half of your HVAC system.
      - lolinder 2y ago
        I understand that that's probably the connection the author was desperately reaching for, but what they were actually saying is "we have some other content over here that I'm obliged to plug, so here's a plug". And since the plug was the point, little effort was made to make the connection make sense.

lolinder 2y ago

You're correct, but OP's misunderstanding stems from the fact that the parenthetical isn't just a tangent, it's a non sequitur. Humans tend to assume that an utterance is relevant to the topic at hand and in particular to the surrounding context [0]. This parenthetical was inserted arbitrarily in order to plug an article that has little relationship to the surrounding text, and OP understandably interpreted it as though the writer thought it was relevant. [0] See the Gricean maxims: "I expect a partner's contribution to be appropriate to the immediate needs at each stage of the transaction." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle

wtallis 2y ago
> stems from the fact that the parenthetical isn't just a tangent, it's a non sequitur. It's not a non sequitur to point out a superior alternative like that. If air conditioning is on-topic, heat pumps are either on topic or a tangent.
- lolinder 2y ago
  > All the while, fiercer heat waves will require more energy-hungry air conditioning to keep people healthy. (Though ideally, everyone would get a heat pump instead.) Juxtaposed with "heat waves will require more energy-hungry air conditioning", heat pumps are a non sequitur. A nonzero percentage of those energy-hungry air conditioners are actually heat pumps running in air conditioning mode. "Everyone should get heat pumps instead" of what? Instead of a heater. As OP says, heat pumps save no energy during the summer, so they're entirely irrelevant here in a "though" clause.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    > A nonzero percentage of those energy-hungry air conditioners are actually heat pumps running in air conditioning mode. Wouldn't that percentage be... 100%?
    - lolinder 2y ago
      Fair enough!
  - wtallis 2y ago
    > "Everyone should get heat pumps instead" of what? Instead of a heater. You almost understand. The author is saying that if you're installing or upgrading your air conditioning, you should take the opportunity to also replace any heating system that isn't a heat pump, rather than only upgrade half of your HVAC system.
    - lolinder 2y ago
      I understand that that's probably the connection the author was desperately reaching for, but what they were actually saying is "we have some other content over here that I'm obliged to plug, so here's a plug". And since the plug was the point, little effort was made to make the connection make sense.