Heat pumps twice as efficient as fossil fuel systems in cold weather, study finds
Heat pumps twice as efficient as fossil fuel systems in cold weather, study finds
Doubts about whether heat pumps work well in subzero conditions shown to be unfounded, say researchers
Makes sense. Heat pumps are one of the few heating systems that can achieve greater than 100% efficiency. (energy in vs total heat output)
As long as you can keep the evaporator above the evaporation temperature of your compressed refrigerant, you're golden. Burried lines are excellent for that in colder climates, but the space for it isn't always easy to find.
The study isn't wrong, but it's also not right, IMO.
This doesn't seem to mention the cost of the energy, just how "efficient" it is.... which, honestly, "efficient" can imply several things, and they don't seem to clarify what (at least from my first pass of this doc).
The issue is that even if you're getting 3-4 times as much heating/cooling as you could with something else, per jule of energy potential that is put into the system (in whatever form that is), if your energy cost for that source of power is high, it's going to lose the financial argument every time.
Sure, a natural gas furnace will consume "more fuel" and produce less effective heat than a heat pump, but if you're paying 10x the cost for electricity, then you're still going to end up spending more per degree of heating than with the cheaper fuel.
Where I am, electricity is pretty cheap, but natural gas is tremendously cheaper per jule.... so we can actually pay less by using the "inefficient" fuel for our home.
I don't think the numbers are dramatically different at the end of the day, but this study seems to completely ignore the core issue that most people will be concerned with.... which is: "will this save me money?" Which is arguably the more important metric.
No shit
A sticking point I encountered - the drop in efficiency as the weather gets colder means you need a unit sized to heat your home on the coldest days you expect to encounter. So you need to buy a heat pump that's larger than you need for 98% of the year just so you don't freeze that other 2%. In addition to higher cost an oversized unit is less efficient because it's cycling more.
So this is where "heating strips" or "backup heating" come in, and then I get we've come full-circle.
The only downside (in comparison to fuel burners) is complexity. Heat pump systems are extremely complex with a lot of parts that could get fucked up over time.
A gas furnace is as simple as it gets with almost no moving parts. Coal/wood furnaces are a bit more complicated if you don't want to blow 100% of the emissions into the air... you need good well maintained filter systems. But it's still far less complex than a heat pump.
So I understand the appeal of furnaces. Simpler systems are easier to understand, are harder to break and easier to repair/maintain.
I think that problem is tackled too rarely in these articles. If you can't take away the fear that people will have a higher upfront invest and higher maintenance costs and higher failure risk, that makes it too convenient to cling to what they know and understand.
Edit: oven --> furnace
Now if electricity was just less than 3x the price of gas, we'd be winning.
Unfortunately gas costs a lot less for the same amount of energy. So it's only going to save you money if you use simple electric heating.
For those of us on gas boilers, the prospect of a system paying for itself (maybe) in 50 years time isn't overly enticing.
Has not been updated for a while, but relevant link…
https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/residential-cold-climate-heat-pump-challenge
It still makes it more than twice as expensive than gas where I live. That's a pretty hard sell.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Heat pump uptake is rising in many countries as fossil fuel energy prices have soared following the invasion of Ukraine and as governments seek to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
France, for instance, installs 10 times as many heat pumps as the UK, where many people are unfamiliar with them and doubts about their efficacy have been widely publicised.
The authors said the findings showed that heat pumps were suitable for almost all homes in Europe, including the UK, and should provide policymakers with the impetus to bring in new measures to roll them out as rapidly as possible.
Dr Jan Rosenow, the director of European programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project and co-author of the report, said: “There has been a campaign spreading false information about heat pumps [including casting doubt on whether they work in cold weather].
The Guardian and the investigative journalism organisation DeSmog recently revealed that lobbyists associated with the gas boiler sector had attempted to delay a key government measure to increase the uptake of heat pumps.
The UK government is consulting on proposals for incentives to households to take up heat pumps, which at about £7,000 or more can cost two or three times as much up front as gas boilers.
Saved 57% of original text.