WA building council votes to require heat pumps in new homes and apartments | Hacker News Reader

WA building council votes to require heat pumps in new homes and apartments

seattletimes.com

12 points8bitsrule14 comments

Would these homes otherwise have not had installed AC? The past few years have shown a few heatwaves in the area and heat pumps can at least provide some relief from summer heat. But yeah, heat pumps need help once it gets below 40. I grew up with one in Virginia where the “emergency heat” mode kicked in under 35 degrees or so. You could certainly smell and feel the warm air after that. I don’t remember it having a major impact on the power bill. Sure would now.

Mandating buildings can sustainably regulate internal temperatures is a good policy, but I think mandating heat pumps in new builds is a bad way of doing that. There are other strategies that may be more effective, both in terms of cost and emissions, such as the use of district heating or designing buildings for passive heat management. Building codes should allow these to be used as an alternative.

Wa heat pump user chiming in.

6 months ago, we bought a house built in 95. Heat pump installed 5 years ago. My impression is "meh"

This is the first month I'm using it for heat, but man we are cold. I have the thermostat set to 69. The upstairs is struggling to maintain 65 and the heat pump is running 14 hours/day (I track it in home assistant)

Weather is L30-H42 this week

I'm nervous to get my bill this month

What’s your insulation situation? Heating source is irrelevant if the envelope leaks like a sieve (Cheap, plentiful fossil gas has papered over poorly insulated homes historically).

Recommend an energy audit, air sealing, and getting your attic up to at least R-38 (ideally you want to get to R-60) if not already there. Cost should be low four figures depending on what’s already up there (batts, blown fiberglass or cellulose, etc) for a retrofit, and there are typically some combination of utility, local, and state incentives. Get three quotes.

https://www.energystar.gov/campaign/seal_insulate/identify_p...

https://electrek.co/2022/08/19/us-tax-credits-rebates-climat...

I assume it is fine. The attic was reblown when the heat pump was installed. Rooms don't feel drafty.

I would like to do whole house air sealing. I plan on doing as much as I can myself. (Sealing can lights, outlet covers, etc..)

I recommend confirming. If your heat pump can’t keep up (“The upstairs is struggling to maintain 65 and the heat pump is running 14 hours/day (I track it in home assistant)”), either it’s undersized, your house is leaking conditioned air too quickly, or both. High level, having a heat pump in of itself isn’t the problem. High quality heat pumps (Mitsubishis for example) will happily extract heat from -30F outdoor air.

(I have a 4 ton heat pump and it will get my 2600 sq ft 40 year old house to temp called for in about 15-60 minutes at extreme ambient outdoor temperatures).

I have an older central forced air heat pump which in the south vancouver island environment runs around a CoP of 3.5 in the shoulder seasons and around a CoP of 2 which is still half what I'd pay for electrical resistive heat (or natural gas).

From todays numbers (with temps around 0 to 4 C, 32 to 40 F) the heat pump is cycling on every half hour or so. When it gets colder (eg. -10 C) it cycles every 20 minutes or so. The thermostat is set at 22 C (~ 72 F) and stays within a degree (C) or so.

Over the past 25 yrs it has certainly paid for itself in reduced electrical costs.

Unless there's a buried coolant loop, an air exchange heat pump isn't going to be anywhere near as quick to warm up a house as a furnace in northern climates.

Air exchange heat pumps are a stepping stone, I think.

If I could get a buried loop heat pump, I'd jump on it. I need to up our insulation a bit from the 1920s era first.

Why not just make it so expensive to build that nobody will bother. Wa state has so much energy is not really a problem at all

Have to protect the house prices somehow. Making new construction inherently inferior and also more expensive helps

I mean heat pumps are great but no need to require them. Gas is cheap too and when it gets expensive heat pumps will be even better

Heat pumps are okay, though less reliable than gas furnaces, but they have also begun banning new homes from being plumbed for gas kitchen appliances, and electric cooktops are infinitely inferior -- no serious cooking happens on electric. That shiny new "chef's kitchen" isn't going to be desirable when you have to cook on coils.

Gas stoves are great, but gas or heating coil aren't the only choices any more. Induction works really well for everything that's not a wok. edit: sorry, on all compatible cookware that's not a wok. That can be somewhat of a sticking point, but it's workable.

If I wanted a kitchen for showing off, I'd get a gas hob again. For simply preparing food, I'm very happy with having switched to induction. Regardless of anything else, cleaning is dramatically easier.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com