Gosh, my mom has used one of these for roughly 25 years. There weren't options then, but I wonder what she uses now. I'll have to ask. Dad has one now, also.
Heat pumps can be more than 100% energy efficient so you could be net negative to what you are doing now. Also genuinely curious that carbon neutral point. Wouldn’t net carbon output be a bigger issue? Like you could burn half the Amazon rainforest to heat your home and claim you were carbon neutral right? But really, you do you!
Burning wood releases CO2 -> trees use CO2 to grow and make wood -> Burning wood releases CO2 -> trees use CO2 to grow and make wood -> repeat ad-nauseam
I ran some rough numbers on this, please pick apart. It takes 10 acres of hardwood to heat 2k ft^2 sustainably. If all land was divided equally between all living humans there would be about 2 acres per person. Not everyone needs heating, trees do not grow on 100% of the land. Definitely appears to be a privileged point, but there’s some gray area.
As a temporary solution, while waiting for heat pumps to be competitive, and solar taking down huge swaths of trees, it could be rationalized to make sense, especially over oil heating.
In the area I’m located, most electric is generated by LNG at 40% efficiency, the avg daily temperature is 30°F, heat pump performs at ~1.25x. Burning wood at 50% efficiency appears to be more carbon neutral solution, when compared to all other solutions, even if you were to bury the wood taken down. At least temporarily, but when the renewable solutions are in place, it’s a no brainier, heat pumps win.
I don’t fully agree with the original comment, but it’s not a 0IQ thought, it’s best intentions, around an area of gray. There isn’t a right answer, it’s a moving target with a complex calculation and we need people who are trying to do the right thing, even if it’s good intentions gone wrong.
There are colloquial sayings related to cautioning against giving matches to children. “Like giving matches to a child,” used metaphorically to describe any reckless or dangerous act of enabling someone ill-equipped to handle a situation. This underscores the inherent risks and potential for harm in such actions, reflecting a common understanding that certain tools or privileges should only be entrusted to those who can handle them responsibly.
We have this baked into us, that things like matches shouldn’t be left to children. But for some fucked up reason, some adults think firearms and children mix.
This mother has no regrets about her parenting and wouldn’t change anything?! She’s kidding herself to sleep at night.
What a useless “feel good about us doing something” memorandum of understanding. Everyone is already heading this way and will hit the mark with no state assistance at all.
A/C+heatpump systems are already way cheaper to use than gas heaters. Doubly so as more and more people are getting solar. No one but rich people wanting to feel warm air from vents are still installing gas heaters.
A family member in rural MA talked to three different HVAC installers about converting from gas to heat pumps. All of them suggested leaving the gas system as backup for the coldest months for financial reasons, despite the MassSave whole house heat pump conversion $10k rebate. So, more legislative pressure would definitely still be a help to counter entrenched fossil fuel preference.
Like you said “keep as a backup”. In areas that get cold, you can’t just use a heat pump. Residential heat pumps are only good to about 20 to 25f. Once it gets colder than that you have to have a gas or an electric backup, and at that stage electric is less efficient than gas. So why install an electric backup system (coils that get hot in your blower unit) when you already have gas in place and set up? Running the electric backup coils like I have set up in my all electric house with heat pump uses a large amount of electricity when I have to use it. I have a heat pump that’s a bit older (2007), so it stops warming closer to 30 degrees.
Large scale commercial units (like 14 ton units, where residential is usually around 3.5 ton) can do more. Even down to around -3 f, but not residential, and where I’m at it sometimes get below those temps as well.
Our heat pump (Mitsubishi H2Hi) did fine regularly in single digits F last winter. I know there’s a limit (for efficiency more than function) but it’s definitely getting lower. We had one day -10F or so and no pipes froze (we were actually out of town which was nerve wracking so I don’t know if the house got colder than the thermostat requested).
We had 3 days of -10 to 0 ish in Colorado over MLK Jr weekend, my H2i kept 68F in the house no problem. It dropped to 67 a few times during defrost cycles, since I have no backup. It works great, im sure your house did just fine unless is severely undersized.
In areas that get cold, you can’t just use a heat pump. Residential heat pumps are only good to about 20 to 25f.
That was true a couple decades ago, but hasn’t really been true in a while.
A combination of inverters, variable speed compressors, vapor injection, and using slightly different refrigerants means there’s a number of cold climate heat pumps on the market that will heat down below -13°F.
Trilly? Not certain I like how this article wrote things. Regardless the article seems to imply there was a slight advantage for the younger generations that the older fifnt get to capitalize on. Wonder how thst contrasts to, what I understand to be, nearly constant stacking financial advantages the older generations get.
Agreed. Just on a basic level of writing, this article is really bad , especially for an organization like Axios. The title is downright insulting to imply that younger generations are in any way better off now than they were pre-COVID.
I’m just posting sources to back up my claims while everyone else just says stuff because they want it to be true. No need for sources when you can just say stuff… it’s like Republicans.
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