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GAIA Host Collective
"resistive" !!!
It is absolutely moronic to use ANYTHING but heat pumps for heating, no matter what the primary fuel for the heat pump is, you could even build wood powered heat pumps.
Nick is right on this one.
Another place where a good understanding of thermodynamics makes a LOT of difference.
Not necessarily so, an air-to-air heat pump is just air conditioning in reverse.
Plus you rely on "resistive heat has [got] cheaper per BTU than NG or heating oil" which is speculative.
For instance, if the electric car takes hold the market may balance the prices the other way around (for a while at least), the EV still keeping the advantage of better efficiency.
"If the electric car takes hold" strikes me as a much more tenuous speculation than that, given the the resource and cost requirements for fleet replacement over the probable timeframe for the requirement. Electric cars will only become popular in North America if they are perceived to have the same utility at lower cost than their FF brothers. They may start to penetrate the market to some degree over the next 5 years, but only if the majors decide to support the idea. So far that committment is sorely lacking. What that suggests to me is that EVs will only take off once depletion has set in and caused at least a doubling of fuel prices. Once we're in that situation, we may already be in a recession, and that alone will make the fleet replacement costs a severe problem, not to mention maintaining the production, distribution and support systems the new fleet will require. We're much more likely to simply see people drive their existing cars much less.
Again, I believe that whatever new electrical capacity is brought online as oil depletes will be used for many purposes, at many different efficiencies. Trying to define the prospects for specific technologies in that environment is an exercise best approached with extreme caution and nice wide error bars.
As you might have guessed, I have no (zip, zero, nada) faith that technological solutions are either possible or appropriate. I think the scale of the looming crisis is going to utterly swamp any remediation efforts we can put in place, at least down to the community level.
An air source heat pump is used in conjunction with a back-up heating system. During the coldest periods it is more efficient for the back-up furnace to provide the heating.
And:
Compared to electric resistance heating, an air source heat pump may save you up to 30% on your annual heating bill
It's obviously a useful technology, but I'm not turning cartwheels yet. When the cost/Btu of NG and heating oil passes 70% of the cost of resistive electric heat they will become more attractive.
Again, there are lots of nice gizmos out there that people in developed nations can and will take advantage of. However, absent a true disruptive technology that addresses more than one element of the problematique, we are left with population reduction as the only medium term "solution".
"During the coldest periods it is more efficient for the back-up furnace to provide the heating." is misleading. A heat pump is always more efficient. What they mean is that the backup is cheaper because the heat pump heat gain becomes relatively low - this of course depends on the backup fuel being much cheaper, which is the kind of thing you've been talking about.
"Compared to electric resistance heating, an air source heat pump may save you up to 30% on your annual heating bill"
What they should say is that your overall lifecycle cost will be lower. Your monthly bills will fall by much more than 30%.
An air source heat pump is used in conjunction with a back-up heating system. During the coldest periods it is more efficient for the back-up furnace to provide the heating.
And:
Compared to electric resistance heating, an air source heat pump may save you up to 30% on your annual heating bill
It's obviously a useful technology, but I'm not turning cartwheels yet. When the cost/Btu of NG and heating oil passes 70% of the cost of resistive electric heat they will become more attractive.
Again, there are lots of nice gizmos out there that people in developed nations can and will take advantage of. However, absent a true disruptive technology that addresses more than one element of the problematique, we are left with population reduction as the only medium term "solution".