cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8503579
seize the means of production
this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2024
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Heat pumps are popular in VT where it does go down to -40 somewhat regularly. Most places still have a backup heat for the really cold days - either wood stove and/or oil.
heat pumps are great and i love the idea, but for places where it gets really cold your right that backup heat is still required.
I’m on oil (and a renter so it’s not like I have a choice) but a friend of mine is on a heat pump and loves it. She has backup heat too, a wood stove and I believe either heating oil or gas. But most of the time she runs the heat pump and the wood stove.
I have electric so if the power goes out it fucks up the climate control. in the winter it's not so bad because our building gets very warm without any heating, but in the summer its killer because you need AC running 24/7 for it to even be habitable, and sometimes you need extra on top of that.
Yeah, sounds like opposite environments. If you want to prep for that, you can buy a battery operated fan from one of the tool companies (dewalt, Milwaukee, etc) plus one or more of the larger batteries and then put it in front of a window with a tub of water and have the fan blow air from outside over the water into the house and it will cools things down.
Doesn't work when outside is humid.
I have one in Wisconsin, and this last week has had a few exceptionally cold days. Those days, the heat pump doesn't go at all, but most days, it does.
Here's what the usage looks like over the past week:
Dark red is the furnace, light red is the heat pump. Green line is outdoor temperature, and you can see we've had some wild swings over the past week. Yellow line is the 71F inside temp. You can see that even on a 25F day (Dec 6), it was predominantly using the heat pump. That tends to be a fairly typical temperature in a Wisconsin winter most of the time.
its picking u some slack that's for sure. are hydro rates fair out there?
Water is $0.0046/gal.
lol.....canadian/american language barrier. we call electricity hydro here. that's what i mean to say. sorry.
Gotcha.
Wisconsin only has a tiny fraction of hydro power. Mostly natural gas, followed by coal:
https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=WI#tabs-4
We have solar on our roof, though obviously that's very limited in the winter.
yeah the reason we call it hydro here is because it connects to hydro dams which we have alot of, but we also have alot of natural gas and then some nuclear reactors as well (Im not far from one)