- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@derp.foo
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@derp.foo
Heat pumps can’t take the cold? Nordics debunk the myth::By installing a heat pump in his house in the hills of Oslo, Oyvind Solstad killed three birds with one stone, improving his comfort, finances and climate footprint.
Hell yeah, we’ve got a heat pump and we’re in Canada where it can get to -40°C (which is coincidentally also -40°F) and that thing works like a beast. Fortunately we also have the cheapest electricity in North America so the decision was easy.
Electricity monopoly in the US = they can price gouge, and this is literally the only reason I installed a dual fuel system with a less efficient heat pump. The Eversource electricity price hikes last year probably would have meant I couldn’t afford to heat my home in the worst parts of winter here in Massachusetts.
This is how policies are killing the planet. Socialize electric utilities, upgrade the electric grid, subsidize the use of electric heat pumps so they’re actually affordable for all end users, and of course more people would adopt them.
As it is, I run my heat pump as much as I can, which is like 9 months a year. Better than only having gas heat at least.
What’s your heat pump? I’ve been looking into them and I can’t find one that’s willing to say it works past about -15.
The Mitsubishi Hyper heat can work down to -13F, The absolutely best resource I’ve found for heat pump research is the NEEP database which will you give you actual BTU outputs at various ambient temperature readings: https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product_list/
 Also worth considering a geothermal heat pump depending on your geography, as then you have a guarantee of efficiency all year round
Thanks for the website!
What’s NOT cheap in Canada? Genuine question.
Housing, food, car insurance and alcohol are all pretty expensive in Canada
So…living. Got it.
Cellphone plans, internet plans, seriously look into the cost of living in Canada.
Telecoms have a stranglehold here, our cell phone and internet prices are some of the highest in the world (if not THE highest).
They also own some news and media companies which only makes it harder to bring about change
Wine and cheese, damn it’s expensive compared to Europe!!!
Electricity is also pretty expensive everywhere in Canada other than quebec
Linus (tech tips) said Vancouver BC has cheap electricity bc it’s all hydro.
Yep, BC and Quebec are both hydro
https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/biggest-sources-of-electricity-by-state-and-province/
This seems accurate, but I haven’t verified
May vary by municipality but BC is the 3rd cheapest in Canada
…And it’s like 50-75% more expensive than Quebec
Manitoba has some of the lowest rates in the country
Yeah, it’s the 2nd lowest, but Quebec is still dramatically cheaper
Tim Horton. It’s cheap, but not cheap.
Can you just start saying “America” that way it includes south America and Central America, also?
When the context is involving climate, electricity rates, and money, there is little overlap between all of the Americas. It makes sense to tighten it down to the top half (more similar climates, etc) or bottom half (electricity rates for example). Canada has the wealth and the electricity rates to make heat pumps extremely viable, and for the most part climate too. The USA shares a lot of this. The Central/South Americas do not overlap like this with Canada.