Biden-Harris Admin: Bipartisan Infrastructure Act Offers $26M Project to Show How U.S. Grid Can Run on 100% Clean Energy
Kenya elections: Electric mobility, utility-scale battery storage, energy efficiency and green hydrogen feature prominently
Biden-Harris Admin: Bipartisan Infrastructure Act Offers $26M Project to Show How U.S. Grid Can Run on 100% Clean Energy
Maine has started a campaign to educate residents about heat pumps, who can now heat their homes even in the winter.
Heat pumps are incomprehensible to many.How can something that looks like an air conditioner keep someone warm in winter?Maine is looking to install 100,000 heat pumps over the next 3 years and is off to a good start.Last year, Maine residents installed 27,000.About 60 percent of Maine homes currently use oil furnaces for heating—one of the highest percentages in the nation.All these furnaces mean a lot of carbon emissions.
Maine may not have the harshest winter in the U.S., but it will certainly come close.Mainers used to like to say their weather was “10 months of winter and 2 months of damn bad sledding”.Outside cities like Portland, whose residents are often skeptical of new ways of doing things, that silence extends to heat pumps.
To address these concerns, Efficiency Maine conducted an experiment last winter to see if heat pumps could keep Maine homes comfortable even as outside temperatures dropped to -20º F.Many people who own a heat pump these days also have an oil furnace, under the theory that the heat pump cannot produce heat when the temperature drops below zero.
Efficiency Maine knows that this myth has to be busted if state residents are to switch to heat pumps as their only source of heat.Last heating season, it replaced the oil stoves in 19 houses (10 mobile and 9 traditional wooden houses) with heat pumps.The results for homeowners have been very positive.According to Energy News, homeowners praised the uniformity of heat and said their heat pumps kept them warm even when it was freezing outside.
“We reiterate our expectation that they work in colder climates and keep you comfortable throughout the winter,” said Michael Stoddard, executive director of Efficiency Maine. “We want to see heat pumps fully utilized.”
Efficiency Maine also conducted a case study evaluating the performance of 10 homes already using heat pumps as their primary heat source.They come in all sizes and ages and use a variety of heat pump technologies.They also have a range of backup system types including oil, wood, electricity, propane and kerosene.Participating homes were metered between February and June 2021, so researchers could see how much energy was used, how well the system was performing, and how the indoor temperature changed when the temperature outside dropped.
During the study period, 7 out of 10 households did not need a backup heating system.As the outdoor air temperature rises and falls daily, the indoor air temperature is kept within a narrow range, avoiding the temperature spikes and dips associated with fossil fuel furnaces.All participants reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the performance of the heat pump system during the study period.
George Hardy and his wife Katherine, from Dexter, Maine, were among the satisfied customers.”Here, it’s 21 lower than last winter,” he said.”I was a little worried about the heat pump, but they stuck with it. They kept us warm.” When they joined the pilot program, the Hardys had already installed a heat pump in their home, built in the 1890s.They received a second heat pump to replace their previous oil forced hot air system.
They said they didn’t have a single negative thing to say about their experience.From November to April—the most heating-intensive months of the year—they paid a total of $1,000 in electricity bills.By comparison, heating a home with an oil stove cost more than $3,000 for an entire year, even when heating oil prices were much lower last winter.
Their heat is even and reliable, and now they can also enjoy air conditioning during the warmer months.”I wouldn’t hesitate to continue using it in the summer because I knew it would cost us almost nothing,” says Catherine Hardy.
The eagle-eyed reader will note that electricity usage is measured over a 6-month period, while fuel oil costs are estimated over a 12-month period.As a result, there will be some bias when comparing the two heat sources head-to-head.But keep in mind that Hardy’s utility bill includes all of their electricity usage, not just the electricity used to run the two heat pumps.Data shows that when it comes to heating, using new technology can save homeowners a lot of money.
Maine Home Builders and Remodelers Association executive Melanie Merz told Energy News that while interest in heat pumps and other alternative heating arrangements has definitely increased recently, she doesn’t think the market is ready for mass adoption of heat pumps. not yet.Consumers are still unsure about adopting the new technology and are concerned about the performance of heat pumps in the harsh Maine winter, she said.
Builders are often concerned about making their homes attractive to buyers, and while there is evidence that heat pumps can save money in the long run, the higher upfront cost of heat pumps could be a deterrent, she added.“Conceptually, we all know the investment will pay off in the end, but are we willing to sacrifice using a proven product?” Merz asked.”I don’t think we’ve reached any inflection point in the market yet.”
While Maine seems likely to hit its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps over the next three years, whole-home adoption needs to become more common to truly reduce the state’s home heating emissions.Getting there will mean educating consumers and convincing more contractors to encourage customers to use heat pumps, Stoddard said.
He added that there was evidence that some movement in the new home market was already underway.About two in 10 new homes in Maine are now fully electric, he said, but more must be done to convince buyers and builders that heat pumps are environmentally and economically sensible.”It’s human nature for them to stick to what they know has worked in the past. It’s a cultural shift,” he said.
Those of us familiar with the electric vehicle revolution know all too well how difficult it is to change attitudes.Many of us have never been on a plane — until we did.We’ve never used a microwave – until we did.We’ve never used a cell phone — until we did.Many of us watched TV on cable before streaming services became available.
Chances are, new home buyers in Maine will need heat pumps long before builders realize the shift in attitudes.Who wants to buy a new home and be locked into paying more than necessary for heating for the next 20 years?Has anyone insisted that contractors save a few bucks by not using insulation, or using old single-pane double-hung windows with sash weights?of course not.
The conversion won’t happen right away, but once word comes out that heat pumps are working in Maine’s winters and saving homeowners huge heating bills, it will happen faster than Melanie Merz and Maine’s homebuilders Much faster than imagined possible.
Steve’s home in Florida and Connecticut or wherever else the Singularity may lead him to write about the interface between technology and sustainability.You can follow him on Twitter, but not on any social media platform run by an evil overlord like Facebook.
The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 96 percent of the world’s oceans — at a rate of 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit per year…
Renewable energy gets a big boost in the Reducing Inflation Act, and clean energy investments have new long-term stability.
Governor Newsom’s new goals will accelerate the deployment of ultra-efficient heat pumps to help people avoid extreme heat while reducing energy…
President Biden has included energy-efficient electric air source heat pumps in a series of action steps to address the climate emergency, including…
Copyright © 2021 CleanTechnica.Content produced on this site is for entertainment purposes only.The opinions and comments posted on this site may not be endorsed by, and do not necessarily represent, CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates or subsidiaries.