"the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in central California has adopted some of the country’s most aggressive rebate incentives for heat pumps, as much as $3,000 on heat-pump space heaters and $2,500 on heat-pump water heaters.... Sacramento power burns no coal, and runs roughly 50 percent carbon-free, thanks in large part to hydroelectric power. Blunk calculates that a new-construction home on the grid might reduce its carbon output from 2.5 to 1.1 tons of carbon a year...."
Sounds like a great plan ... if only CA can solve it's PG&E problem. I once lived where I heated from a propane tank. In early March an ice-storm hit and the ice-laden wires snapped hundreds of power poles. I had plenty of propane, but no furnace blower for 3-4 days. An electric heat-pump wouldn't have helped.
There are also absorption heat pumps which use an external heat source (Wood Fired, Propane, LPG, Diesel, Geothermal) to cool or heat alternatively. They are usually only used on RVs for refrigeration. But yeah, grid powered heating in a freezing climate will get uncomfortable pretty often. I've always wanted to be able to cool my house using a bag of charcoal or firewood pile.
There is a really cool video by Tech Ingredients where he builds a solar thermal absorption heat pump to cool his shop. Instead of ammonia absorbed in water he used a solution of calcium chloride to absorb water.
People seem to really like to talk about how we should change the way we heat and cool our homes...based on what works in places that don't get hot or cold weather.
"Unless you’re a contractor or an HVAC nerd, you probably don’t think much about your heating and cooling systems."
Or...a homeowner?
"Nobody knows what furnace or water heater they have."
Are people who don't know in a position to install a greener one?
3 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 18.2 ms ] threadSounds like a great plan ... if only CA can solve it's PG&E problem. I once lived where I heated from a propane tank. In early March an ice-storm hit and the ice-laden wires snapped hundreds of power poles. I had plenty of propane, but no furnace blower for 3-4 days. An electric heat-pump wouldn't have helped.
There is a really cool video by Tech Ingredients where he builds a solar thermal absorption heat pump to cool his shop. Instead of ammonia absorbed in water he used a solution of calcium chloride to absorb water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_g4nT4a28U&ab_channel=TechI...
"Unless you’re a contractor or an HVAC nerd, you probably don’t think much about your heating and cooling systems."
Or...a homeowner?
"Nobody knows what furnace or water heater they have."
Are people who don't know in a position to install a greener one?