I _really_ need a haircut. Edit: ARRGH!! I just noticed, you get *warm* beer at the tap without the glycol unit. Golly gee.

@BBtech0251

3 жыл бұрын

You need a couple cut!

@Nah_Bohdi

3 жыл бұрын

...beatnik...

@ShotecMusic

3 жыл бұрын

It's the 80's! Digital! Drum machines! Big hair! (use your imagination)

@Jehty_

3 жыл бұрын

Get your hair clippers and go for it. I just did it today. 12mm feels so nice.

@DeviantOllam

3 жыл бұрын

Tarah and I solved our haircut needs by learning to do each other's hair... Then when she left for England I further solved my needs by starting to lose my hair and switching to clipper cuts, hah. So that's one way to go, I guess? 👴

Future topic suggestion: insulation. I believe that's much more important than what technology you use to heat/cool.

@sunspot42

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed. It's like a corollary to reduce, reuse, recycle.

@HelloKittyFanMan.

3 жыл бұрын

What houses are built without it nowadays?

@WoLpH

3 жыл бұрын

@@HelloKittyFanMan. What's the mileage of your current car, is that the same as the average car 50 years ago? The same goes for insulation, there are many types with greatly varying capabilities. Even though the building codes in many locations already have some insulation requirements, much more can be achieved beyond that (i.e. cooling through natural convection is a thing even in very hot climates).

@SuperVstech

3 жыл бұрын

Insulation is not NEARLY as important to a home as the air sealing and exchange...

@sunspot42

3 жыл бұрын

@@SuperVstech Most people consider that part of insulating a home.

This is the most pedantic channel on KZread and I love it.

@HelloKittyFanMan.

3 жыл бұрын

Not guaranteed, actually.

@SueBobChicVid

3 жыл бұрын

Oh, Oh, Oh, pedantic you know Never believe it's not so Pedantic you know Never believe it's not so

@AdaDenali

3 жыл бұрын

@@HelloKittyFanMan. lol good one

@HelloKittyFanMan.

3 жыл бұрын

@@AdaDenali: "Good one" of... what?

@AdaDenali

3 жыл бұрын

@@HelloKittyFanMan. I liked your joke

Here landlords were able to collect the government rebate on all the heat pumps they put in their buildings if they were replacing oil heat. So pretty much every building that previously had a central boiler and hot water heat now has a heat pump on the side of each unit and the tenants now pay for the heat via their electrical bill. Since most of the landlords didn't lower the rent, it was literally a free upgrade for them that increased their profit margin.

@HyperSpify

3 жыл бұрын

I wish we could do that here. In Arizona many buildings don't have gas/oil lines because the winters almost never go below freezing so it's hardly worth it. Such buildings have electric as the only energy source. Which means the shitty apartments have resistive electric heat. And Arizona is fairly politically conservative, so there are no such government incentives to install heat pumps afaik. It's extra dumb when you consider landlords are required to provide AC (rightfully so given our swelteringly hot summers), and our AC units tend to be super powerful cause our summers get up to 115F and sometimes hotter. Add a reversing valve and you have a super powerful heat pump which is actually massively oversized for our winters and is more than adequate to get the job done, and will get excellent COPs with our relatively mild winter temperatures. Also this is one of the best places in the world for rooftop solar cause we get a LOT of sun. So this is perhaps one of the MOST perfect places in the world for heat pumps. But without laws requiring reversible ACs, it's never happening except for homeowners who decide to install such a system themselves. Same with rooftop solar here. Apartment buildings never have them, even though they should..

@wobblysauce

3 жыл бұрын

yep, it is still down to the building.

@Meton2526

3 жыл бұрын

@@HyperSpify I'm also in Arizona (Phoenix area,) and honestly I almost never use central heating. Granted I live alone, but a resistive space heater in the one room I'm occupying is vastly more efficient than heating up the entire house even with a heat pump. I'm not going to say that applies to everyone, not even close, but the added costs of reversible heat pumps, even if not very much relative to the cost of an AC without it, still takes a long time to break even in Phoenix because of how mild our winters are. That's a cost that really doesn't make sense for Landlords to eat. It would make even less sense to mandate at a government level that houses and apartments have heat pumps, since that just makes housing more expensive for everyone.

@mxecho

3 жыл бұрын

economic options usually lag behind the fancy new stuff. With all options of new gas heaters and air conditioners being far more efficiency than the ones people grew up with ; people are reasonably comfortable with the "run of the mill model". Personally my heating bill is a fraction of the cooling bill, & we had 3 feet of snow sitting around for a month

@ThomasBomb45

3 жыл бұрын

Landlords suck. But at least this is better for the environment

that "yep.... bye" at the end was actually perfect lol thank you for that. very in depth breakdown of everything though!!

@Schwarzorn

3 жыл бұрын

I was prepared to be sad if he didn't say "Yep! Bye!" lol He did not disappoint.

4:15 Your elevator towards the ground floor has just arrived.

@lasinhouseinthetrees1928

3 жыл бұрын

I thought it sounded like the fasten your seat belt sound on a plane

@vk3hau

3 жыл бұрын

sounds like flightRadar24 app

@thomasphillips885

3 жыл бұрын

Elevators make two dings at the same pitch

@JohnDangcilGeekWere

3 жыл бұрын

Caption: bing bong

@baksatibi

3 жыл бұрын

​@@thomasphillips885 Not always. Schindler elevators in particular often do it like this.

There are also refrigerant/water heat exchangers to use the waste heat from your AC to heat your pool.

@chazable

3 жыл бұрын

The ultimate combo could be combining that with hot water and a "Tesla Octovalve" style heat pump exchanger that can literally send refrigerant in any direction selectively or all together to the evaporators and condensers that are the inside fan, outside, fan hot water tank and pool.

@skmo7105

3 жыл бұрын

But where can you get them. I've been searching, and am yet to find a supplier.

@FrancisKoczur

3 жыл бұрын

@@skmo7105 you could buy a brazed plate heat exchanger of the right size and have a HVAC/refrigerate tech hook it up inline before the outdoor condenser, and then plum the water lines to the pool pump.

@skmo7105

3 жыл бұрын

@@FrancisKoczur how would that hold up against chlorinated water, though?

@punkdigerati

3 жыл бұрын

@@skmo7105 you could use an in between tank, so a heat exchanger with a circulating pump into a tank, with another set of coils that run through that tank which recirculates the pool water, making sure the coil with the pool water is adequately corrosion resistant.

I’m pumped by all the heat this series has generated.

@force311999

3 жыл бұрын

nice pun

TC, 2018: These new turn signals are weird. TC, 2021: Carbon tax or we all die.

@daanwilmer

3 жыл бұрын

I'm pumped!

@bragr_

3 жыл бұрын

I mean he's not wrong.

@ozzymandius666

3 жыл бұрын

@@bragr_ Because more money in state coffers actually drops carbon usage.

@bragr_

3 жыл бұрын

@@ozzymandius666 I think you are being sarcastic but that is pretty much how it works in places with carbon taxes. Carbon gets taxed to reflect the cost of externalities (pollution, climate change, etc), which incentivizes energy sources with fewer externalities, and in the meantime there's a revenue sources to address environmental problems. Its pretty win win.

@fredtaylor9792

3 жыл бұрын

@@bragr_ Poor people always suffer when their cheap energy becomes expensive.

Gosh I love technology connections, I would fall asleep if they tried explaining this in school

@Sonic6293

3 жыл бұрын

I did, and I somehow ended up with a degree in it!

20 years ago I had a coworker roll the cost of a geothermal system into their mortgage. They rarely paid more than $100/mo in electric (for the whole house) and after accounting for the extra monthly mortgage cost, still saw a positive cashflow from Day 1.

@epiccollision

3 жыл бұрын

Access to low/no interest borrowing is a great motivator for geothermal due to the capital investment. We do need to bring those cost down.

@checksum00

3 жыл бұрын

@@epiccollision There no such thing as no interest borrowing.

@bbgun061

3 жыл бұрын

@@epiccollision Interest rates in the USA are about as low as ever.

@xVolta

3 жыл бұрын

@@checksum00 How so? Here in MA I can get a 7 year HEAT loan for certain efficiency improvements, 0% APR, $0 closing costs. That sure seems like no interest borrowing to me. Factor in inflation and you effectively get free money to buy now pay later.

@checksum00

3 жыл бұрын

@@xVolta someone is always footing the bill for the interest, you are either putting the responsability of your debt and all buyers of that product, or entering into an agreement that has so stiff penalty that the lender still make money. No one loan money for free,b because no one can get loan for free, not even governments. Looking at your example (mass save) without digging in 22 pages of documentation, it look like these loans and interests would most likely be backed and paid for by governmental program. It's not because YOU don't pay the interests that there's no interests. You are simply offloading your responsability on the back of someone else, in that case it would be all MA tax payers. That's the case usually for things like home improvements. The rest of the cases are usually covered by inflated product costs, or with very steep penalties if you ever make a mistake during the loan.

Camp Yawgoog, a [Boy] Scouts USA property in RI once had a heating system for the nature center building that moved air through rooftop panels, feeding it down below the floor to a bed of gravel that acted like a thermal battery. Heat demand was satisfied by circulating air from the living space through a ducting system where it could pick up heat from the gravel. It all worked amazingly, but was seldom used tech for a summer camp and so fell into disrepair and was decommissioned in the early 2000's.

@davidchsw

3 жыл бұрын

That type of system fell out of favor because of radon.

@marcberm

3 жыл бұрын

@@davidchsw Hadn't considered that! Definitely a common occurrence here in the northeast so I guess not surprised.

My thermodynamics teacher was an angry resentful french chemical engineer hired by the university to bring in research money. I might have learned how to use a steam table from that rat bastard but this set of videos really got me interested in thermodynamics.

In Sweden total cost (drilling, heat pump, installation etc) is around 120-180k SEK (14-20k USD).

@sparqqling

3 жыл бұрын

And labor is not cheap in Sweden!

@haapamies

3 жыл бұрын

Same in Finland. Basically nobody builds a new house these days without geothermal here.

@mabs503

3 жыл бұрын

I had a quick look, just as a comparison, and the heatpump itself is around 50-90k SEK (6-10k USD) sized for a one family house.

@markhaus

3 жыл бұрын

And we have district heating for most of our big cities on top of that

@misham6547

2 жыл бұрын

That's interesting, I also see quite a bit of solar heating there, I wonder how much is the electricity cost?

"I'm going to silence [my phone]." Me: secretly wishes he wouldn't

@hmartim

3 жыл бұрын

fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the talk

My dad was watching something on HGTV today where they installed a geothermal heat pump in some house as part of a renovation. So the word is spreading!

@force311999

3 жыл бұрын

those people always build stuff that no one can afford just like the old bob vella shows

@5roundsrapid263

3 жыл бұрын

@@force311999 Yep, the show subsidizes those installations.

@GuiSmith

3 жыл бұрын

@@5roundsrapid263 If there’s one tiny good that does, it gives people the ability to see these things go in and be aware they might be an option.

@andreycham4797

3 жыл бұрын

In poor countries people make their own geothermal heat pumps for less than $500

Liquid-Liquid heat exchangers are used in planes too, they use the hot oil in the engine to warm up the fuel before it get's into the engine (this system getting ''frozen'' fuel has lead to plane crashes)

Woohoo, the "backlight" is active and is animated! Nice!

Even more heat pumps, yay!

@alexschubert

3 жыл бұрын

Neat

@consubandon

3 жыл бұрын

Heat pumps to COOL THE HEAT PUMPS!

@craigfonger985

3 жыл бұрын

Pump, pump, pump it up!

@jdatlas4668

3 жыл бұрын

@Demonitized Boi How about bidirectional? :P

@nitehawk86

3 жыл бұрын

Would you say you are... pumped... for this topic?

These follow up videos are very appreciated. I get the feeling a bunch of people voiced their concerns which drove this video. The idea of treating your home as a thermal battery is a really good idea. I might try this myself and spend this summer working on improving the insulation of my house. Kinda daunting considering it's my first home and I live by myself.

Complicating things, the electric and gas utility in my area (National Grid US/Rhode Island) tend to impose temporary rate increases on gas in the summertime, and especially electricity in the wintertime. I suppose it all encourages renewables at least indirectly, but on the surface it would almost seem to discourage the use of electricity-fueled winter heating solutions in my middling northeastern climate.

I love that you broke your promise on the other video “being the last one”. Actually, you can go on and on about anything and I will still love it! Edit: okay, more on topic, I live in a “high” building (24 floors) in Amsterdam and all apartments use geothermal heat pumps. So this is in fact feasible, in contrast to what you said in the main video. Of course this is a new building with the best insulation properties, thermal glass and solar panels, but the entire building is 100% emission free because of it!

@justin.booth.

3 жыл бұрын

Of couse this is in Amsterdam lol, I can't wait to visit the Netherlands once we can travel again

@TechnologyConnextras

3 жыл бұрын

Ooh! So like, where does the ground loop go? Is it a bunch of boreholes directly under the building?

@YounesLayachi

3 жыл бұрын

That sounds amazing !

@SuperVstech

3 жыл бұрын

Imagine a 36Story condo home unit being modernly built in this century (2007) without ANY heat pumps installed in it... entirely consisting of AC units... and STUPIDLY no wiring ability to change to heat pump... resistive heat ONLY installed in every unit... 210N. Church St. Charlotte, NC... mind boggling.

@DevinGates

3 жыл бұрын

Where I live, there's an experimental heating/cooling project on the waterfront where they use many boreholes drilled into bedrock to store winter ocean water for summer cooling. I refined the search, it can be found with 'Alderney Five Project'.

Thanks to you I now have a mini split in my basement. I was running a space heater in winter (NY) and a window AC in summer. After seeing your videos on the topic I had a 12k BTU unit installed and love it. No more trips to the fuse box. The temperature more consistent and a lot less noisy. No regrets! Can't wait til summer. The window unit was so loud and inefficient. It would reach temperature, turn off, then turn right back on 5 minutes later.

I love your quirky sense of humor, and the way you provide factual information while being entertaining. The blooper reel at the end you put in all your videos is also pretty funny, and shows you're human, too... Keep up the great work!

Yes, you are right. In an ideal world, the heat pump reversible system would be fitted as standard in all domestic apartments and housing. I like the way you present the argument. Thanks.

Today is my lucky day! I was having a craving for a new TC video and was greeted by TWO! 😍😍

This video, along with your heat pumps and other energy efficiently related video's, have really made me more aware of how importat it is and will be moving forward. I'll definitely keep this in mind when I'm to the point of home ownership

Solid video!! Don't get nervous about learning different aspects of how somthing works. I've always loved the raw nature of your videos.

got a heat pump ad working in Grand Forks ND. heat pump operating with the outdoor temp -24 F. indoor temp 70F

I toured a campus back in the 90s that used a glycol loop through the entire campus. All heating/cooling traded from this source. that included refrigerators and freezers. It greatly reduced the heat and cooling input needed overall. Heat pumps have become much better, and cheaper. There are materials issues that make it more difficult to change for the coil on a furnace type commonly seen in homes with central air. As most homes are built by contractors, the initial cost drives this market. as they are looking to maximize their profits by building as cheaply as possible.

@My_HandleIs_

2 жыл бұрын

Here in Sweden, we tossed out oil burners in the 1970s and 1980s. Today heating is done by * District heating (hot water circulated in cities, heated by burning non-recyclable materials, so we have only landfills for porcelain, concrete and such, not the ones full of plastic items you see all over the world), and VERY advanced cleaning of the exhaust gases, including removal of the dioxines (extensive studies was done in the 1980s and 1990s). * Air-to-air heat pumps, they now have SCOP (Seasonal COP) up to 5+ (~4 in Cold climates) and SEER around 8-10. * Geothermal with heat pump, and a complete installation (drilling 70-100+ meter), the heatpump etc, provided you have water based radiators to hook it up to which most houses have, cost, with labour and all, * Newer houses, starting some 15 years ago, are extra insulated, very airtight using plastic about 5 cm in from the wall papers, and use a heat pump for the ventilated air, to put that heat energy back in the radiator water loop and into the hot water reservoir. Our house, built 2012, is like that, and over 10 years, we have used 61 000 kWh for heating + hot water. An avg of 6,1 MWh per year. In snowy Sweden, with up to 1 meter of snow for many months of the year, and here we have temps down to -30C for weeks on end some winters. Most winter days hover around -5 to -15C in this area, from Nov to April... So that is a VERY good number. We're looking at building a second house, they are EVEN MORE insulated, 40 cm in the walls and 60 cm in the ceiling, plus heat pump tech. - Some also just burn wood and have electric radiators, but those are mostly converted to heat pump tech when the owner gets older and can't cut firewood the entire summer... * Solar is coming strong here too! My house is net zero, including two battery electric cars, that we drive as much as we can, because it is so fun! :) *Triple glazing is a standard since the 1980s or earlier. Unbelievably to see foreign builds with 1 or 2 panes only, with full aluminium frames, that just GIVE AWAY the energy (also in hot climates)... Oh, yeah, insulation of houses, again, is very important. As is shading in warm/hot countries, to avoid that heat coming through the windows. But houses must be insulated cleverly, to avoid moisture inside the walls, due to the Dew Point! The best kWh is the saved kWh!

Heat pumps are all the rage here in Denmark at the moment. The government heavily subsidises (installation of) them and we get considerable discounts on electricity prices once we've got one installed. Us being powered heavily by wind power, this of course makes sense. But watching these videos is really what makes me appreciate not just the environmental impact, but also the efficiency of and engineering miracle that is the heat pump. My house is heated through natural gas (unfortunately we're not attached to the decentralized heating that a large proportion of our country is), so I've been looking into upgrading to a heat pump mainly because of the financial incentives of the government subsidies. But now I just want one because they're sooooo cool! Thanks for explaining the ups and downs so thoroughly and entertainingly. You've got a new subscriber :)

I discovered your channel about a month ago. You might notice a spike in traffic to your "why does a switch click and clack" episode. I've pointed 4 cohorts of teenagers to your episode and having them discuss (to me as an evaluation) WHY a switch makes a snapping noise. Bravo, sir. I'm hoping your applied science will inspire them to explore other mundane (yet fascinating) engineering topics.

I hope people noticed it, but the background (TVs) changed pictures once in a while. That's very cool, and I hope you can make it have a different one for each square.

@killerbee.13

3 жыл бұрын

He did a whole video on the setup, actually, and he can do different pictures for each square, it just requires him to actually go and stitch them together manually

@KorbenTheFireX

3 жыл бұрын

@@killerbee.13 that's true. I'm just saying that I hope he does it where it changes to something else over time (like it just did in this video), but each square would have its own image/color. I did see the setup video already btw.

@1701Wren

3 жыл бұрын

This video he just switched them on & did nothing with them - they were on the usual Chromecast screensaver photos

@KorbenTheFireX

3 жыл бұрын

@@1701Wren They're screensavers from the Chromecast!? This is what I get for not owning/using one at all. xD I was aware that the TVs were hooked up to Chromecasts (he mentioned it in the video), but I didn't know they had screensavers.

@1701Wren

3 жыл бұрын

@@KorbenTheFireX with Chromecast you can have the default photos or your own as the screensaver controlled by the Home app

Simon Whistler gave ya a bit of a shootout on BusinessBlaze, talking about DivX. Tho he was referring to your video on Flexplay (disposable/ self-destructing DVD)

@ve2vfd

3 жыл бұрын

Smash that dislike... ;)

@crazyeyez1502

3 жыл бұрын

Legends

@OtakuUnitedStudio

3 жыл бұрын

Allegedly

@TheKnobCalledTone.

3 жыл бұрын

I guess this means WatchMojo's Top 10 Technology Connections Videos video is only a matter of time.

@RiplashII

3 жыл бұрын

*shoutout

Very, very good talk. There are many points here worthy of further discussion. Thank you.

This was excellent. Long-time watcher. Thanks for the effort!

Dang that's a great point about the decision making of the landlord. It's worthwhile consideration for not just the heater, but all around expenses that they might see no benefit from given a shallow look.

Your phone notification sound is making me miss air travel :(

@smittyt414ify

3 жыл бұрын

Brace for impact!

In America we build cheap and run expensive. I totally agree with your policy views, you are on the right path. I''m in the remodeling biz, and it is an uphill battle to get homeowners to spend now on future savings.

Dude, your channels are perfect. Keep at it bro

For those wondering, the reason nuclear is considered a base load is that when reactor power is drastically reduced in a short time, neutron-absorbing isotopes build up and prevent the reactor from restarting for about 3 days. If you try to force it (say by removing all the control rods) then yes it will restart, but it will be pretty unstable (think Chernobyl).

@Kitsudote

7 ай бұрын

Nice addition! I also wanna add something: If you did this, yes, there is a good chance you end up with a molten core, but unlike Chernobyl, everything would be contained. All you did at this point is ruining a 5 bn dollar asset 🙃

@marc-andreservant201

7 ай бұрын

@@Kitsudote Yes obviously engineering standards have improved since Soviet times. Meltdowns do not occur, and even if they did, they would "turn a Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island", to quote the Simpsons. Also the neutron economy of the reactor is constantly being monitored by a real-time computer system. It will not let you override the control rods manually if the reactor is in an unsafe state, the computer will just say "nope" and refuse to even attempt to start the reactor in an unsafe manner.

@Kitsudote

7 ай бұрын

@@marc-andreservant201Unfortunately many people still don't know this.

Just a quick tip: would be very useful to have an overlay on the video with your numbers and calculations when you are saying them. It would be much easier to follow, especially for non-native speakers. Sometimes, I struggle to parse the English numbers and calculations in my head in real time. Anyway, thanks for your dedication to the topic!

@EndOfLineTech

3 жыл бұрын

Looks like somebody doesn’t get the premise of this channel, even though it was clearly stated in the first sentence

@kndztr

3 жыл бұрын

@@EndOfLineTech Maybe. I consider video editing a "postparing" and not preparing. And there are already text overlays sometimes in the video (4:42)

@EndOfLineTech

3 жыл бұрын

@@kndztr he’s saying in general (and this is where knowing native English comes into play) he’s putting as little effort into it as possible. If somebody says they are not going to prepare for something do you really think they are going to try hard 🤔 no

From where I sit you are very much an expert... and good at explaining it too...

Really enjoyed this, and all your videos, real food for thought. I looked at air heat pump in the uk about 2 years ago, could not get the numbers to stack with the upfront costs factored in. The UK market for heat pumps is in its infancy.

I've had a geothermal heat pump installed in Northern Colorado recently, paid about $45K for the whole deal (new home construction). The external heat pump was about $21K, in part due to the extra pump components to build up the head pressure needed to get the exchange fluid moving through lines that drop 300-ish feet down and back up. There were cheaper options, but those came with more noise and/or lower reliability (which is what I infer from the much shorter warranties - like 1 to 3 years for the cheaper options compared to 50 years for the one I bought).

@My_HandleIs_

2 жыл бұрын

Very expensive. That's strange! Here in Sweden, we tossed out oil burners in the 1970s and 1980s. Today heating is done by * District heating (hot water circulated in cities, heated by burning non-recyclable materials, so we have only landfills for porcelain, concrete and such, not the ones full of plastic items you see all over the world), and VERY advanced cleaning of the exhaust gases, including removal of the dioxines (extensive studies was done in the 1980s and 1990s). * Air-to-air heat pumps, they now have SCOP (Seasonal COP) up to 5+ (~4 in Cold climates) and SEER around 8-10. * Geothermal with heat pump, and a complete installation (drilling 70-100+ meter), the heatpump etc, provided you have water based radiators to hook it up to which most houses have, cost, with labour and all, * Newer houses, starting some 15 years ago, are extra insulated, very airtight using plastic about 5 cm in from the wall papers, and use a heat pump for the ventilated air, to put that heat energy back in the radiator water loop and into the hot water reservoir. Our house, built 2012, is like that, and over 10 years, we have used 61 000 kWh for heating + hot water. An avg of 6,1 MWh per year. In snowy Sweden, with up to 1 meter of snow for many months of the year, and here we have temps down to -30C for weeks on end some winters. Most winter days hover around -5 to -15C in this area, from Nov to April... So that is a VERY good number. We're looking at building a second house, they are EVEN MORE insulated, 40 cm in the walls and 60 cm in the ceiling, plus heat pump tech. - Some also just burn wood and have electric radiators, but those are mostly converted to heat pump tech when the owner gets older and can't cut firewood the entire summer... * Solar is coming strong here too! My house is net zero, including two battery electric cars, that we drive as much as we can, because it is so fun! :) *Triple glazing is a standard since the 1980s or earlier. Unbelievably to see foreign builds with 1 or 2 panes only, with full aluminium frames, that just GIVE AWAY the energy (also in hot climates)... Oh, yeah, insulation of houses, again, is very important. As is shading in warm/hot countries, to avoid that heat coming through the windows. But houses must be insulated cleverly, to avoid moisture inside the walls, due to the Dew Point! The best kWh is the saved kWh!

I live in a location where air conditioning is a 'nice to have' and some home heating is needed in the winter. I have an in-ground pool, which rarely gets above 23C, and some pool heating would also be nice to have. I have been toying with using a reversible heat pump that can cool my house and heat the pool in the summer, and draw heat from the pool water to heat the house in the winter. In the winter, the days are warmish (20C), so the pool warms up during the day (and I dont care how cold it gets at night because I don't use it). There are heat pump systems available to do either job, but the combination does not exist. My main sticking point is the length of the refrigerant lines, but the math seems to indicate that it would work. I could keep the refrigerant lines short with an intermediate water or glycol circuit, but that adds pumps and additional electrical cost. I think such systems have been done on an industrial scale, with lakes.

@Gorgula

3 жыл бұрын

I had the same thought. There is a system from hotspot energy that claims to work with heat pumps (not just AC units). In theory, it would work in winter how you describe but they don't lay out that scenario clearly.

@Fredman2410

3 жыл бұрын

@@Gorgula Thanks - I saw a video of this system on "This Old House", but their link to the product was broken. They had an unusual layout, with the pool pump very close to the AC condenser. I think most installations would need an intermediate water or glycol circuit. Our winter is starting soon - I will monitor normal changes in the pool temperature to give me some data for the winter operation.

What this video is making me realize is that I'd love to see a video from you about utility pole-based electricity grid for residential purposes versus the underground electricity systems. I've always wondered about those and how complex the 2 systems are, and how they compare. It would be a great video.

Loved this, and what a great ending too! 👌

yeah the "100 companies" argument is... difficult. For example aluminum and fertilizer production are both very energy intensive and make up like 3% of global energy use each. Concrete production is up there as well. But, we need those materials, and they use the most efficient processes we know, this isnt evil megacorp dumping poison into he water

I was waiting for this video so I could get to work on my smart thermostat

When I was a kid, I remember we lived in a relatively uninsulated brick house. The thermal mass meant it was well into the summer before it got hot in the house, but as soon as it started to get warm, all the windows were open at sundown and got closed at dawn.

I live in an apartment, and we have a shared waterborne heat system. It used to be run by a central oil furnace, but the city phased in regulations heavily taxing fossile fuels used for heating a few years back, so the association upgraded to air to water heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps and converted the furnace to run on biofuels for the coldest days. Regulation works. My parents have waste heat from a garbage disposal station. Only downside is I don't have an air conditioner for those few days each year when it'd be really nice to have one.

For geothermal, your typical residential sizes are 4 and 5 ton. The most expensive have variable speed compressors, Waterfurance is around $18k, hydro-temp is around 12k. Most geothermal HVAC units have a desuperheater to preheat domestic hot water, a dedicated or integrated water to water unit can provide 100% of the hot water. During air conditioning, it's like free with DHW. I agree, the units are likely overpriced when considering the air sourced units have the same components. Maybe it is production volume. The next efficiency gain, after variable compressors, for modern heat pumps will be utilizing Turbo-expander-compressors, replacing adiabatic expansion with isentropic expansion.

60 cents? LOLOLOLOL $9.99 during the texas cold spell. It would have been cheaper to go to Cancun for the week... I think some people actually did that.

@tangydiesel1886

3 жыл бұрын

Not from Texas, but I was glad I had our propane booked and a full stock of firewood. Kansas, the gas and electric bills went up pretty high as well.

@ChrisCaramia

3 жыл бұрын

It wasn't his fault; he had to chaperone his daughters! :P I hope the dog left bits of displeasure all over the house.

@hyperlexis

3 жыл бұрын

Usually here in Illinois the residential hourly-rate option pricing is 1 to 15 cents a Kwh before fees and taxes. During the Texas debacle I saw it jump as high as 30ish cents per kwh which I had never ever seen in >15 years on the rate plan. Nothing as horrible as the $9.99 kwh rates in Texas thankfully. Sometimes, rarely we even have -negative- pricing for brief periods, when there is overcapacity(?) in the grid. A few cents or tenths of cents negative prices, literally paying you to use the electricity. (Thankfully all the added fees and tariffs mean even negative Kwh prices will still cost me something....).

Thank you for mentioning windows! I have two large bay windows that get the morning sun. In winter, it changes by about 10 degrees right by the windows, I have blinds, but don't use them a whole lot. I do use the extra heat to grow plants, as long as I remember to take them out of the window at night. My dad has a system where it can take heat from different parts of the house and put it to other areas so he uses the windows to his advantage, opening the curtains in the day and taking that heat into cooler rooms. It's really cool, but he sells those systems, so he knows a lot more about it than I do and how to make the most of the space. I'm in a smaller, older, house, that also happens to have insulated floors...

You can also add more thermal storage to your house for offset A/C and Heat by adding water tanks around the house. The water in the tanks will act as very high capacity storage vs just air and wood. Putting a tank/bucket of water in the garage will also keep it from freezing as quickly in winter.

Suggestion: add water-to-air into this conversation. I had water-to-air in Jacksonville, Florida. I had my own well, so it was very inexpensive to run the system.

@FrancisKoczur

3 жыл бұрын

That is an open loop ground sourced (geothermal) system, you should have a second well to dump into since it's a lot of wasted water.

@fryloc359

3 жыл бұрын

I've considered that for cooling, but I don't want to run my well pump all the time. As far as the used water, my downspouts run underground to a stream out back.

Me, minding my own business watching videos; "There's a long line of hoes between where the kegs are kept".. My girlfriend chiming in out of nowhere: "That's what she said."

By this time I've watched several of your videos and I share your commitment to heat pump technology particularly geothermal. Your videos are among the very few that discuss the subject intelligently. In this particular video I wanted to suggest that when you present a calculation it would be a good idea to use a whiteboard or similar so that your audience can see all the numbers. Keep up the good work and hopefully the public will eventually get the message. 👍

I freaking love these two channels

Tenants don't calculate operating costs into their monthly expenses. THAT'S the problem. What's a landlord supposed to say? "You see, even though I charge higher rent, you'll spend less because my apartment is very efficient. Trust me."

@laurencefraser

3 жыл бұрын

Replace "trust me" with a simple but accurate explaination of why this is so, and encourage them to actually look into it while shopping around (emphasising that they'll have more money left over to spend on other things total, because if that's not true you're an idiot) and it should work out most of the time... Except, of course, this is the USA we're talking about,where people can't seem to grasp that "higher taxes that cover healthcare" is less money than "lower taxes that don't cover healthcare plus super expensive health insurance (that then refuses to actually pay for most things)"... Sometimes even with the numbers right in front of them, so...

@GerardPinzone

3 жыл бұрын

@@laurencefraser Let me know how that works out when dealing with people who can't afford a house.

0:10 That background change made me just jump, and don't hug me, I'm scared.

@punkdigerati

3 жыл бұрын

Green is not a creative color

I live in NW Iowa and during the peak of the polar vortex we hit -28F (-33C) two nights in a row not including windchill. In fact the "warmest" we hit that whole week was -3F with lows in hovering in -15 to -20F range. Aside from events like that I do think a heat pump would absolutely cover the needs for heating and likely cooling during spring and fall and could certainly handle many of the milder winter days and supplement on the nasty ones.

I like your concept of making your home a thermal battery, I'm going to start doing that! Cheers 👍

@Croz89

3 жыл бұрын

There are limits to what you can do, otherwise things would get uncomfortable.

@cedricpomerleau5586

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah the range he talks about in his video is really high. Half of that range, maybe.

The equipment doesn't need to cost a much as they charge for it. It's just that people will pay for it, so why not charge high for it

@TechnologyConnextras

3 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty confident there's some price fudging because, being so generously subsidized and so far a niche thing, it's too easy to do.

@fr8trainUS

3 жыл бұрын

Companies do it all the time. They charge different prices for the same item depending on what device the item is put into. Case in point, porter cable makes a power tool for sanding drywall called a power sander. The electric motor in it cost anywhere from $200-300 to replace. The exact same motor was in a electric drill you could buy for $79. These prices are a few years old and I think they stopped making that drill.

@quintessenceSL

3 жыл бұрын

Something you see often is companies (although I see it more with repairs) factoring a portion of the cost savings into the price. If a thing has a cost of operation of $100 over its lifespan and the nearest competitor is $1000, they will charge $700 for the thing and tell you you are saving $200. Wot a bargain! I am often amazed at how the cost of repairs often comes around 15% less of buying the thing used. Generally this means there isn't enough competition in that market segment.

@IndianaTony

3 жыл бұрын

I think I remember reading somewhere that a surprisingly small number of companies actually produce the equipment (like 2 or 3), and then everyone else dresses it up and rebrands it. So that could lead to higher supply prices. Car batteries are like that too.

@BeefIngot

3 жыл бұрын

Imagine how good the world would be if every company was hard capped at 15% profit (of course with laws to deal with edge cases and risk). Like of course the laws wouldn't be perfect and there would be loopholes, but what a change in the world we would see.

The phone notification, was that a fasten seatsbelts sound from a plane 😁

I discovered the "building as a thermal battery" from watching Sir David Attenborough talk about heat management within termite mounds. I tried the same system to cool my house in summer and it worked with just convection. (Just had to open specific windows at high and close them in the morning.)

Great video! Three notes. 1. Nat gas $/therm can be 33% higher than the bill claims once you factor in the monthly service fee (that you pay every month, even in summer when you only use a couple therms). Electricity has a monthly service fee too, but you can’t really shut off electric service to your home, you can electrify and shut off gas so the fee should be factored into the $/therm. 2. Some gas systems charge by CCF, but it’s almost the same as therms. 3. For home heat batteries you should really look into phase change materials (PCMs). These are waxes or salt solutions that melt at a comfortable temperature (say 79 F). You “charge” them by melting them in winter or freezing them in summer. Then you turn off your HVAC and let them freeze/melt and keep your home near their melting point temperature as they do. That way you don’t have to get too hot/cold to charge your house, and the energy stored/released by changing phase lets them store a lot more energy in the same amount of mass. Would love to see you research them and do a great video on them.

more heat pump videos! nice

I know these are supposed to be easy to make, but having the formulas on screen would help (me) follow along.

@TechnologyConnextras

3 жыл бұрын

This is well outside my wheelhouse, unfortunately, and I have no idea how energy might be billed in other places. Luckily, Google's gotten pretty good at letting input something like "2.3 therms to kWh" and spitting out an answer, so hopefully that tidbit can help you.

@jasonreed7522

3 жыл бұрын

The most important formula for heat pumps and similar thermodynamics devices is the efficiency and Carnot (ideal) efficiency. Note that cop is just efficiency allowed to be greater than 100%. For heat pumps: COP = Qh /(Qh - Ql) (actual) COP = Th / (Th- Tl) (ideal or max) Q is heat measured in BTU or kWh or kJ. T is temperature in Kelvin or Rankine (need to have 0 at absolute zero). L and H refer to the cold and hot sink respectively. Basically the smaller the temperature difference you are maintaining the hogher the cop, and hence why in cold climates air source heat pumps can struggle. Real heat pumps suffer from inefficiencies which makes the actual cop less than the ideal or carnot value, but the ratio of actual / ideal is how good your device is in general. (Ex 66% / 67% is basically as good as you can get) As far as deciding break even points you convert your price of fuel from $/(unit fuel) to $/(kWh) or any common base. Then your break even point is COP ≥ ($/kWh electricity) / ($/kWh fuel) So if electricity is twice as expensive as fuel for the same amount of energy you need to have a cop of at least 2 to break even. I hope this helps.

@dorvinion

3 жыл бұрын

Formula for natural gas, though keep in mind, that even the best heat pumps will struggle to have COP >= 4 when the outside air is about 45F. Drop down to 32F and you are looking at COP of around 3 for the very best as far as I know. Cost of electricity per kwh / (cost per therm / (29.3 * FurnaceEfficiency) ) = COP In my case $0.135 / ( $0.65 / (29.3 * 0.90)) = 5.47 COP So, a heat pump (air source, or ground source) will always cost more to operate, regardless of outdoor temperature. My furnace is 19 years old (hence the 90%) so when its replaced in the next 3-5 years it will likely be a 97% efficiency or higher furnace making the minimum COP for a heat pump to be viable for a mere 8-12% of my heating load (I have data to support this) even more unattainable. Best thing for me to do is when I re-side my home (50yrs old and due for siding). - add 2inch eps to the exterior, add house wrap, upgrade the handful of windows that are still original, and most importantly, install exterior thermal shutters, preferably some that can shut themselves at night, though AFAIK such things aren't really commercially available.

@radiosification

2 жыл бұрын

@@TechnologyConnextras In case you're curious, in the UK natural gas piped to the home is charged by the kWh.

My house in summer has infinite efficiency, outside there might be 35°C (95°F) and inside we’re still very comfortable, in fact we don’t have any air conditioners, and if we had them, they would always be off. It's a very old farmhouse with a big porch facing south, so it’s shaded all day, and 70cm (27 inch) thick walls made of stone and cement. This eliminates the need for AC. They knew how to do it in the old days

Always love the video's. Your channel is one of the handfulls i will watch even when i dont have time. Though if could give some feedback: I liked the old solid color backgrounds way more than i do the images. i especially dislike the fact they change during the video, its really distracting which is a shame because your video's always hold on to my attention so well. Still lots of thanks for the content you produce :)

So can we get the the parts that were interrupted by too deep varnings as extra videos too? 🥺

@jasonreed7522

3 жыл бұрын

The too deep warnings are atleast an hour long tangent each, as they require lots of background involving policies and their effects. While he could probably keep it interesting, at that point he might as well just make a documentary.

@lilith6072

3 жыл бұрын

I'd love that. technology connextras^2: technically political but objectively better solutions

Until the prices come down there NEED to be good government programs to defray significant chunks of the cost. Bottom line is money (like you said). It's an effort that needs to be lead by regulation but that's an uphill battle. Though we need look only to Europe to see how it's completely and utterly successful.

Electricity market nerd here. We’re both in PJM interconnection (at least I think you are if you’re reasonably close to Chicago) and a sizable portion of the eastern RTO does use electric heat. So our prices do take note of cold snaps when resistive heaters come into play

You are an extremely logical and analytical top down thinker, and while your solutions or suggestions work. They do remove a least a bit or more of individual choice. People might for a variety of reasons not want the smart grid to heat up their "home battery" or cool down their "home battery" at the will of an algorithmic arbiter.

So I'm a landlord and the reason why I don't install high efficiency systems is that people won't pay for them. I can't recoup my costs through higher rent because people really aren't that interested in them. People will pay for granite counter tops but not for ground source heat pumps. Even Section 8/HUD won't pay more rent for higher efficiency appliances. At best, my local energy co will give me $50 for paying an extra $1000 for a hybrid water heater. If there was a fairly simple to advertise energy costs and tenants actually gave a shit about them, it might help.

@tangydiesel1886

3 жыл бұрын

That is true, a fair amount of people won't pay an extra 50 a month even if their energy bill will be 1/3 of a normal rental. I do get what he's saying though that it may decrease the amount of "non-payees" with lower utilities, however, you'll always get the scammer.

@epiccollision

3 жыл бұрын

You’re gonna love carbon taxes, they were made exactly for you, have fun dealing with the consequences!

@reasonitician

3 жыл бұрын

@@epiccollision I think carbon taxes are great. They optimize for taxing negative externalities and will be very useful for tackling climate change. The tax burden will fall on my tenants, not me though. People overwhelmingly don't shop for TCO unless it's made painfully obvious.

@TheRaven7

2 жыл бұрын

Rent is paid indefinitely. You will always eventually recoup fixed costs.

@reasonitician

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRaven7 Uh... no. Just because you have an income stream does not mean you will recoup your costs. The most obvious problem is that all these things require replacement periodically.

I like you. I also like how you clearly have been starved of a haircut like the rest of us non-elite/connected people. Even though you aren’t an electrical engineer and I happen to be, almost everything you say makes perfect sense. Especially with regards to heat loss, heat transfer, storage and U values per watt loss etc. So you seem to really make out in lamens terms the electrical work required in order to exchange hot air for cold air and viceversa That complicated thermodynamics yet at a rudimentary basis it can be explained and you seem to be exceptionally well at explaining things like this well and digestible to your average western citizen. So I only can offer you praise - sure I have criticism like this stupid freedom units you use for measurement rather than metric but over all that is minimal. So I say go on educating the knowledge hungry masses amongst your audience.

@EndOfLineTech

3 жыл бұрын

Must not be from America. We’re back to such normality the media is back to “white people bad” whereas we heard almost none of that last year even though homicide rates were actually up. I…it’s like criminals dont follow laws and rules or something…. Let’s ban their guns that are already mostly illegal

I personally was pretty interested when LTT did his whole upper floor in a multiple unit mini split. Seems like a really good way to heat/cool a house.

For a short explanation of the maths: 1) Any unit of energy can be converted to any other unit of energy (BTU, Joule, and KW-hr are all examples; conversions can be found quickly with Google) 2) Over a given amount of time, a building will require some amount of energy to maintain temperature. a) If you know how much fuel was used, you can calculate that energy 3) Once you know how much energy it takes to heat your building, you can use that to calculate how much it will cost to heat each year using any heat source. Example: A house uses 500 gallons of propane each year to heat the home. [Volume Used] Each gallon of propane contains 91,502 BTU (26.82 KW-hr or 96,539 KJ) [Energy Density] [Total Energy Use] = [Volume Used]*[Energy Density] = 500*26.82 [Total Energy Use] = 13,410 KW-hr [Energy used by heat pump] = [Total Energy Use]/[Coefficient of Performance] = 13,410/4 (assumes COP of 4) [Energy used by heat pump] = 3,352 KW-hr Cost comparison: 500 gallons of propane @ 2.00 $/gal ---> $1000 to heat house with Propane 3,352 KW-hr @ 0.15 $/KW-hr ----------------> $502 to heat house with Heat Pump Take the initial cost of a heat pump, divide it by $500, and that gives you the number of years for the Heat Pump to pay for itself. Replace the values with those for your fuel type (energy density, cost/volume, volume used), and you should be able to come up with an estimate. If you're not sure, checking your units can help find mistakes! Many people don't realize that you can multiply and divide units just like numbers. [Energy] = [Energy Density] * [Volume] [BTU] = [BTU/Gal] * [Gal] -------------------> The [Gal] cancels out, and both sides match! If you track your units in this way, you can be pretty sure you're getting the right result.

I don't mind the no effort, but I do mind the changing backgrounds. Maybe even less effort is needed and keep them static, lol.

@jimurrata6785

3 жыл бұрын

I think Alec should try doing one of those lava lamps as the WHOLE background. Or some sort of constantly shifting amorphous blob(s) An ameoba from 'Journey to the Microcosmos' might be a good start.

And welcome back to the 82 part series on heat pumps, how they work, how efficient they are, and how much it's going to cost, monetary and climate.

@verttikoo2052

3 жыл бұрын

I have watched them all and now I am waiting for the season 3 🥳

Lots of interesting thoughts here.. thank you.

Love your videos, love your opinions. I see the benefit of trying to cater to peoples' wallets with your arguments towards heat pumps and im all for that. I converted my garage to heat pumps from fuel oil fired heat as soon as we moved in two years ago. We could only afford to convert either our garage or the house at the time and the garage is the larger space. As soon as i am financially able to put the initial investment into it, i will change the house over, too. I personally don't only think people should make the change based on month to month energy costs, but on overall environmental impact. I also believe we should be striving towards more new, safe nuclear power generation as well as natural renewable generation as geographically feasible. I'm a Canadian through and through, and it pains me to see how fossil fuel focused most Americans are.

Always buy a heat pump to help us avoid entropy.

@PainterVierax

3 жыл бұрын

stars burning are way more contributing to entropy than our human activities. Think smaller and only care about mitigating climate changes.

Imagine how much energy could be saved if Google just shut down reCAPTCHA now that it is clearly well beyond the original intent of scanning books.

100000% Yes!!! It's driven me crazy for YEARS that they still make AC-Only units. Adding heat pump functionality is such a tiny cost compared to the rest of the machine. And while he didn't specifically say this, but I'm talking about all air conditioners. Central Air, mini split, vehicles, RVs, window units, portable air conditioners, boats. ALL of them! Even if they weren't more efficient very often, from a public policy perspective, it makes us more resilient in the event of various disasters, shortages, or energy crises.

I kept unbuckling my seat belt and felt free to move around the cabin... Seriously this is an excellent run-down. I think it would be useful to do a video that compared the costs and benefits of various approaches to home heating and cooling. Today, I believe most (not all) people are better served by insulating the homes rather than investing in new infrastructure, particularly if you can wait 5 years to upgrade a your HVAC (as costs come down and efficiency goes up).

Lockdown day 741: Had to cut my own hair as I started tripping over it when walking in the house.

@litigioussociety4249

3 жыл бұрын

Unless you're scared to go outside, then no one is stopping you. It's sad, if you're one of those people.

@SignalStealer

3 жыл бұрын

@@litigioussociety4249 My point is all barber shops are closed where I live, it's not a matter of being scared to go outside.

@litigioussociety4249

3 жыл бұрын

@@SignalStealer My point is the "lockdown" is a myth. Also, I don't know where you live that they're closed. You must live in one of the hellholes like New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles.

It is still hard to wrap my mind around the concept of wanting to make the inside of your house hot.

@laurencefraser

3 жыл бұрын

No no, you don't want to make it hot. Heating or cooling, the Target is in the 18-26 degrees c range (normally, anyway, specific use cases may call for other temperatures) It's just, you know, some people live in places that drop substantially bellow 0c in winter. Others live in places that can exceed 40c in summer. Neither is a desirable temperature for your living spaces.

@theJellyjoker

3 жыл бұрын

@@laurencefraser still, the idea of increasing the temperature in you house on purpose is hard for me to process.

@TheKb117

3 жыл бұрын

@@theJellyjoker only during winters...

@bridgetthewench

3 жыл бұрын

Is winter unfamiliar to you? Some of us live in places where it gets well below freezing at parts of the year, it's miserable being that cold.

@theJellyjoker

3 жыл бұрын

@@bridgetthewench I live in Central Florida, summer lasts 13 months out of the year.

You are right on the mark about systems being basically the same, the compressors are the same. The expansion valve needs to be a bi-directional type and you have to add a reversing valve and defrost board to convert a unit from straight cool to heat pump. Also for better efficiency you should add a check valve to isolate the subcooling loop on the outdoor coil when in heat pump mode. I have seen a system converted to heat pump before with about 6 hours worth of work, that was reworking an existing system. If this was the standard for all systems the price difference would be negligible from current prices of straight cool systems. Other problem with current market is not many people look at the long run payback of air source heat pumps/ground source heat pumps, they just buy what's cheapest right now.

We just installed a Mitsubishi Zuba system in Ontario Canada. The installer also does geothermal. He said with the advent of the zuba he is steering people towards that rather than geothermal. For the efficiency gain it’s not worth the extra price. Also the system is designed for Canadian winters and shouldn’t need to use the resistive heat strips - but because of the building code they must be installed. I was pretty pleased because, while not cheap, it wasn’t that much more than the quotes we got for a decent gas furnace with A/C. Apparently it is a mix of control technology and indoor/outdoor units purpose built to work together rather than the more modular approach to heat pumps and air handlers. That said - to my eye it just looks like an electric furnace with a heat exchanger and a typical outdoor unit.

13:48 It's not that point of use is not a part of the problem it's that those companies actively discourage sweeping changes like that.

@TechnologyConnextras

3 жыл бұрын

Well, of course they would! But that doesn't change anything.

I found a company that was silently taking all of the government subsidies and still charging their clients full price. If I had disposable income I'd have found a lawyer to charge them with crimes against humanity.

@mathieunouquet1928

3 жыл бұрын

This need to stop, soon pissing out in the wrong spot will warrant you the fucking execution squad...

I have natural gas in my apartment in Arizona and you’re right, the term is Therms, my bill is always very low since only my stove and hot water tank use gas.

The usual polished format is informative and entertaining, thank you. But, I do like this more informal format as well. I guess it depends on the subject.

@lewisfilby2394

3 жыл бұрын

the informal, unscripted, error-filled and constantly-interupted nature of this video made me think it was an April fools joke. I was wrong.. I think?

How about you actually go interview some AC manufacturers about why they don't make AC units reversible so we can hear more than just you pontificating in a weird little bubble constantly wondering, but never going out and asking - let alone making that journey part of your content. Just some friendly constructive advice!

As a landlord who barely scrapes by.. no.. just no.. I understand the logic but that's with the assumption every landlord is a land baron. Some of us are just trying to not lose our home we have after marriage or family death.

@RossLGould

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly, General. Everybody assumes that all landlords are filthy rich. I was a landlord too, and not rich enough to weather the economic storm of 2008.

In 2001 it cost us $500 more to install a heat pump vs. cooling-only, so for us it was a no-brainer. We used it as our primary heat source down to about 40 degrees because our gas hot water system's large-diameter iron pipes meant over an hour of running before the radiators were hot - not very practical on mild days when we needed to take the chill off. As a bonus, the heat pump saved us from frozen pipes twice when our boiler failed while we were away.

I love your channels! People in general, don't think about the economics of their energy consumption. They don't spend the time to learn about how they can budget their energy use. Most people are just trying to make their way through the simple act of living, and making a life. That said, I wish people did pay closer attention to the energy economy, because they would then understand how they are being manipulated into falling for policies that claim that if we allow for market driven pricing, we can all have lower energy costs. It's pretty much a lie, because the majority won't engage in the complicated economics. It is the greed of a few that push underhanded polices.