One of the issues with heat pumps is that there are very bulky and may require big installation work.
They could even be portable and/or just blow fresh air directly on the person instead of cooling an entire room.
Heat pumps consumes a lot of energy and have too much cooling power. I would live a fine life with an air around 23 or 25 celsius.
Anything above 19 C or so and I start to melt. I'm impressed by your ability to shed heat!
Actually here in the UK we're having a bit of a heat wave and it's currently 27C inside my house downstairs and hotter upstairs.
Air-based ones are quite bulky when you consider many people in the UK live in small houses or terraced houses where having to install the unit means they pretty much lose a lot of their yard, and they are still expensive.
The problem is that everything quickly becomes a sacred cow these days. Heat pumps are one these days. They may make sense in some situation but they also don't in others.
Some countries had been pushing for all electric at home for a long time, e.g. France. No heat pumps but plenty of affordable electricity off the grid (which also works equally well in a house or a flat). So why the change? Again the reality is that this is because of general issues with production and/or grids with investments lacking.
Frankly, from a British perspective, telling people to install heat pumps at the moment is a bit of a "let them eat cake" approach.
In the US it seems like a bottoms up effort, where homeowners and small businesses are gradually learning shout the benefits of heat pumps (especially air sourced mini splits) and voluntarily upgrading to them. Though in some states, energy efficiency rebates and new building codes do encourage them (especially for those communities targeting net zero).
You're right though that it's not right for every situation. Renters, for example, often have to live with resistive electric space heaters if the apartment has insufficient heating.
I recently did it on the outside of my brick apartment in NYC. No special equipment needed.
IMHO, the main reason heat pumps are pushed is that most countries are having big issues with their electricity production and grids. Indeed, the move away from ICE cars and gas at home means electricity production is struggling. Cynically: "Look we don't need to invest we can just tell people to install heat pumps".
Here in the UK for many properties heat pumps are either very expensive to install or they destroy the small garden/patio people have, or both so I can see people trying their best to avoid them, quite reasonably so because there are not well suited.
In the US there isn't a concerted push to disinvest in the grid for the heat pump lobby's sake. Our grid is old and frail and Texas is insane and California has way too much solar and not enough storage, but heat pumps aren't really a major factor there.
And overall, isn't higher efficiency good for everyone (for costs, climate, noise) even if we do upgrade power grids and production? It shouldn't be an either/or but both.
France used to push for all electric at home, with resistive electric heat because they had plenty of affordable electricity. I'm sure it's the same in countries with plenty of hydro.
Now, here in the UK the grid is already maxed out. Renewable projects cannot go forward because they cannot connect to the grid. So the government is desperate, taking into account the bloodbath that's coming with EVs and that they want us to get rid of our gas boilers as well. Heat pumps minimise impact on grid and push a lot of the cost to people.
I'm not saying that heat pumps should not be installed where a good fit, but in the real world there aren't in many situations and for many families's budgets. It's never black and white.
A maxed-out grid is an argument in favor of heat pumps, since they're more efficient than resistive - especially at the temperatures that prevail in the UK.
I am just saying that heat pumps are no panacea and are not always a practical/viable option so let's not create another sacred cow here.
If you're not going to provide any evidence, please stop making that claim. Heat pumps are not bulkier, noisier, or more expensive than any alternative that would suffice for most people. They are more efficient and environmentally benign, likewise. Using dogwhistles like "sacred cow" or insulting interlocutors is not going to carry the day for you.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1231906/residential-heat...
It's just funny that in the same country, two states suffer similar electrical outcomes despite polar opposite politics. Californians went all in on solar and their heavy regulated utility couldn't keep up, causing rolling blackouts and bankruptcies. Texas took a no shits given approach to their electric market and that backfired too, skyrocketing prices and killing hundreds.
I wonder how other countries deal with their grid upgrades. Judging by the GP's points, maybe not very well either?
I just signed a contract a few days ago for 100% renewable $0.10/kWh including delivery for another year after coming off a 3-year contract for $0.08/kWh delivered. I don't know that I agree with "skyrocketing prices". Prices did increase the last couple of years with natural gas prices generally going sky high (I was seeing contracts ~$0.14-16/kWh for comparison), but prices have fallen again back to levels they were pre-Ukraine and pre-deep-freeze. Given most other things have inflated a good bit, real electricity prices in Texas are actually down compared to a few years ago.
I wouldn't consider $0.10/kWh a "skyrocketing price". Average electricity prices in EU are supposedly €0.25/kWh which is what $0.27? 10 / 27 = .37, so my sky high electricity prices are a third of the average rate in Europe, so I guess theirs are considered astronomical? What are you paying for your electricity?
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
Had the majority of resistive heating sources converted to heat pumps before the deep freeze, it possibly wouldn't have happened as it would have greatly reduced the electricity demand. Also, if things like gas compressors and other gas infrastructure was properly tagged as critical infrastructure Texas wouldn't have shot itself in the foot turning off those circuits causing cascading gas power plaint failures.
I paid $0.08/kWh during the freeze. Very, very, very few people were on spot pricing plans. Like maybe a few thousand out of 10 million households. Griddy had a peak of 29,000 customers. They were urging customers to leave like a week or more before the freeze, so chances are they weren't still at 29,000. Even then, that's like 0.2% of households in Texas.
But those people showing their $20,000 home electric bills? Far outliers, way outside the norm. They had signed up specifically for spot price energy plans without realizing what that really meant. I do imagine a number of people probably really didn't understand their plans, as its really easy to change plans and Griddy did a lot of direct selling.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/17/puc-appeals-court-ur...
For a lot of people though there was confusion related to energy prices increasing after the freeze, which was correlated but not necessarily caused from the freeze. Global gas prices shot sky high, a lot of LNG capacity was added for export, a huge amount of Texas electricity is from gas, so electricity prices increased around that same time. Not necessarily from the freeze though, but most people weren't paying attention to the natural gas prices.
The only competitive alternative is gas powered heating. However, I believe it’s more energy efficient to use natural gas for electricity generation and use heat pumps for heating rather than piping gas to people’s homes and burning it there. The exception is when it’s so cold that heat pumps do not perform well (although modern heat pumps can work in very cold situations)
In places with mild climates, you might not need anything at all. If you're in a place where it gets hot, a heat pump is practically an exact drop-in replacement for an A/C unit except that it provides heat as well. In my area, you basically can't even buy a one-way A/C unit any more because it's so obviously inferior. If you're in a place where it doesn't get hot (or you've decided to forego cooling in summer), a heat pump is no more expensive, bulky, or noisy than a boiler/furnace setup. Some people don't notice because the old tech came with their house, but that doesn't make it actually good. Again, where I am gas/oil heating is "grandfathered in" for existing homes but forbidden for new construction. The only real competitor to heat pumps is resistive electric. That's cheap and easy to install, and quiet, but considerably less efficient (and does nothing for cooling).
"I don't need/want what a heat pump provides" is not a particularly compelling point when most people do, and even the people who say that often change their tune when they try to sell their now-considered-deficient house.
Again, nothing is black and white.. and commenters here seem to sugger tunnel vision syndrome.
Problem is to fill it with refrigerant gas.