Hacker News Reader

Comment by newyankee | Hacker News Reader

Given that heat pumps and other technologies have proven themselves quite well at this point it is not a bad idea for SF to lead the country on this one and shows that one can electrify most stuff (if not all stuff)

View on HN

Installing anything new in the bay is cost prohibitive. Qualified labour shortage as well, an example is when contractors that installed solar panels damaged roof pretty badly, like making see through holes and sloppy job around mounting brackets, just painful to watch. Also, last 2 years we had rolling outages, so I am actually not sure if the grid will fare well with the increased load. Insulation can greatly increase heating efficiency, and should be the first step when installing a heat pump anyway.

Years ago when I signed up for pge i chose community aggregates renewable energy source instead of buying from pge. Couple years ago it was more expensive to buy renewable + delivery charges then just buying from pge, even though pge had at least half of it coming from gas and coal. Yet renewable should be much cheaper. So i suspect right now cost of heat pump heating isn’t gonna be cheaper than gas, given upfront cost. Utilities can’t achieve renewable efficiency and maintain grid, yet its ok to push it on everyone else.

Heat pump however makes total sense if you have solar panel and battery. But again, upfront cost.

I hate my heat pump. Load as hell, makes the basement freezing in the winter, 50 gallon is really 45 gallon, time to reheat sucks, doesn't pair well with recirculating pumps, electric usage is more expensive than gas. Basically, get a size up compared to whatever you used for gas and you'll be good.

This is the opposite of my existence. I love my rheem heat pump water heater. Costs me less than old gas water heater. I heat to 140 and use a mixing valve to have safe temp at 120. I’ve never run out of hot water.

I think experience varies greatly by region. I wonder what regions you and op are.

I can’t think of a way to electrify launching a payload into orbit, but who knows what the future might think up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

You make fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide, water, and electricity. Like you would on Mars.

Yep, until the next earthquake or forest fire or another natural disaster happens and your power goes out. Then you are out of luck to cook, and/or warm yourself. Relying on one type of energy source is a single point of failure.

Good luck getting natural gas service after an earthquake severe enough to knock out power. Natural gas lines are far more at risk of breaking during such an event, and the gas utility will usually shut off gas supply until they are sure there aren't major leaks. After an earthquake, you are supposed to shut off your own supply at your meter with a gas wrench.

We had gas service after the 6.4 in northern california in December, but power was out.

They don't call these things "Earthquake Survival Tool" for no reason:

https://www.amazon.com/Ready-America-3333-Earthquake-Emergen...

I live in an earthquake prone place and gas canisters, that is what we have with a single burner portable stove for emergency. We had a 6.7 earthquake 4 years ago, power and water went out for 3 days. Our emergency kit that included bottled water and portable stove with gas canister what helped us. I can't imagine right now experiencing such an event when temperatures are -13C.

Does California want to ban camping stoves?

as long as the insanity doesn't come to my city, I fully agree with you.

What was that "n-gate" phrase "a city at war with it's citizens"?

what happened to n-gate by the way??

I wish i knew. I miss their take on the forum.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com