Technology

59622 readers

2950 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

819

Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold (www.nationalobserver.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

178 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold::Published Monday in the scientific journal Joule, the research found that heat pumps are two to three times more efficient than their oil and gas counterparts, specifically in temperatures ranging from 10 C to -20 C.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then you're looking at the wrong models.

The Mitsubishi H2i has a COP of 2.88 at -15 C (5 F).

There are also models with COP above 2 at -30 C.

Yes, a typical A/C isn't designed for subzero temperatures. But you gotta get the right heat pump for the right climate.

For cold climates, it does get more expensive and less efficient and at some point it will always be cheaper to just burn wood or fossil fuels. But with the right heat pump, even very cold climates can get most or all of their heating cheaply with a heat pump.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hah look at the downvotes, you can’t have civilized discussion these days.

Your last paragraph and my last sentence is the whole culprit for me. The money I have to pay here for good heat pump with COP 2 at -30 and the associated electric bills have currently no chance here to ever be cheaper than burning gas either nor more friendly for the climate where my government burns coal to produce electricity.

And no, I cannot install enough solar to power this heat pump in the winter or offset the cost of electricity during summer (inverters already turn off in the summer, no electricity is produced as too many neighbors have solar and voltage rises above shutdown threshold in the grid)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Solar in winter for high latitudes is never gonna work, fully agree on that.

But at some point a hybrid system will be cheaper for part of the year than a pure gas system, at any latitude.

Whether it justifies the investment is indeed a cost/benefit analysis.

Downvoting on Lemmy is toxic, fully agree on you there. It really stifles healthy discussion. It seems Lemmy is engineered by communists who only want agreement lol. 😂