I am so mad I didn't do the research prior to replacing my system 2 years ago.
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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I was just reading an article on heat pumps in Norway; in 2004, only 4% of households had a heat pump. In 2023 that number had risen to over 40%, which probably equates to almost all homes that aren't apartments.
Heat pumps have become very efficient, and as a bonus you get an airconditioner, too.
Afaik they became less efficient. Because we banned some gasses.
I might be a bit confused, but aren't all air conditioners heat pumps? What other mechanism is there?
They are, but are designed to only cool the building. "Heat pump" in this context typically means a device built using the same mechanisms as and AC unit, but capable of both heating and cooling. The big advantage they have is that they're able to move more heat than they consume, making them an incredibly energy-efficient means of providing heating.
That makes it clearer, thank you. But is this new technology? I always assumed it was the norm. It's possible I'm misremembering, but when I visited Japan over 20 years ago, every house had an AC that could both heat and cool (a necessity since the houses were basically uninsulated and could get quite chilly in the winter.)
It's been around for some decades, but the ones which were commercially available in the US became incredibly inefficient when outdoor temperatures drop below freezing until a few years ago.
TIL America's future is the technology from a decade ago 😂
Cold weather heat pumps have only become commercially available in the US in the past few years. Warm-weather ones have been used in some parts of the country for a long time.
This is just nonsense. I live in Canada and we've had them for decades, I refuse to believe that just next door they weren't "commercially available". It's also way colder here, the weather argument is a bit ridiculous. Norway was apparently installing them in 2004.
Try talking to contractors in the US. 2/3 don't have experience installing heat pumps, and will try to discourage you from doing so as a result, or charge a huge premium for learning how.
Oh so now it's not the weather, or the commercial availability, it's "the contractors" and "the experience", or "the premium". Like these other countries didn't have to overcome these challenges with monetary incentives.
This all still means the US is decades behind everyone else lol
You can get them now, albeit with effort. You couldn't get them 15 years ago in most of the US — the manufacturers didn't have distribution.
So you mean the US is more than a decade behind other developed countries
What a roundabout way to come back to my original comment
Oh wait they don't understand roundabouts either 😂
They've been a thing in the Alps for over a decade too. Not sure why the yanks are disagreeing with you oh wait see my original comment 😂
Crazy to think they're so far behind modern countries
Yeah I found this article weird too. I'm in Canada and have had heat pumps for decades. The only likely reason for the US not having them is too little electric generation and too much oil and gas lobbying.