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Comment by timbit42 | Hacker News Reader

What percent is using electric resistance heating? If those are replaced with heat pumps with a COP of 3 to 4, that could free up enough electricity for the oil furnaces to also be replaced with heat pumps that plug right into existing duct work. This might sufficiently reduce their need for heating oil to last this winter.

Of course, such quick acquisition and installation might be difficult or impossible, and purchasing and installing all those heat pumps won't be inexpensive, although it would save money over the long term. Perhaps the German government could provide financial grants or loans for those unable to afford it.

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They already provide financial help for heat pumps, but the problem is that

a.) there are not enough skilled workers that know how to deploy these. in fact it was just published in the news that due to boomers going in pension the workforce in this area already reduced over 10% in the last years and projected to sink even more. b.) most houses that are using Gas heating are not isolated well enough to make a switch to heat pumps financially viable.

Perhaps temporarily bring in installers from other NATO countries to help.

> a.) there are not enough skilled workers that know how to deploy these. in fact it was just published in the news that due to boomers going in pension the workforce in this area already reduced over 10% in the last years and projected to sink even more.

If this were the national emergency that everyone claims it is, this problem could be fixed in weeks, if not months, by the government training people in the basics of getting heat pumps installed. It's not brain surgery, it doesn't need a decade of schooling.

> b.) most houses that are using Gas heating are not isolated well enough to make a switch to heat pumps financially viable.

That same argument could be used to say that most houses are not insulated well enough to make gas heating financially viable.

you are right about point b.) but only at the current gas prices, it was totally fine with cheap russian gas.

> It's not brain surgery, it doesn't need a decade of schooling.

It's almost like that condescending attitude towards the trades is why so few young people are doing those apprenticeships anymore. That and the shit pay.

There's plenty of people going into trades, what there isn't is enough people doing a particular trade that can handle a massive demand spike caused by an acute political or economic crisis.

You're not going to solve that problem by making people feel warm and fuzzy about learning a trade that will only have that high level of demand for a few months, or a year, or even three years. You are going to solve that problem by treating it like the emergency that it is. But if you don't actually treat it like an emergency, it's not going to get solved.

The attitude I mean to project isn't one of condescension, it's one of 'just get the work done well enough to solve the short-term crisis.' When you're on a ship, and the ship's got a hole in the bottom, you're not going to get to shore if you start lamenting that you don't have a certified first-rate caulker on board. You may have to make do with having the third-rate one take a look at it.

Currently, the situation is that even if you have enough installers available, there are no heatpumps to buy - one of the bigger suppliers [0] has basically run dry since at least march...

[0] https://www.rjtec-shop.eu/de/luft-wasser-wp/monoblock/

I suspected as much. Selling new heat pumps from vendors in other NATO countries probably wouldn't help much but it could match Germany's installation ability and would be of some help.

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