>

Solar + heat pump is the dream. 
Corporate PR is powerful but personal costs are much, much more convincing.
They’ll pitch a fit but when people see it’s possible to permanently escape utility bills, the oil lobby stands no chance.
Nice, these just became standard building code for new construction single family homes in Washington state. >

They basically have built in AC which this state is sorely lacking. >

That's funny that you phrase that that way. I've always thought of them as A/C that can run backwards and provide heat. >

Californian. They're ACs with a heater in my mind, too. >

Eastern WA.  Same.  A/C with benefits. >

I’m in Wisconsin and my cold weather heat pump cut my winter power bill in half. The oil industry can kiss my butt on both sides. >

I'm also in Wisco. Can you give me an idea what your setup is? >

If you’re in Milwaukee area I can tell you the guy who did it for me, he was 1/3 less than the other contractors and did a freaking phenomenal job. I don’t remember the name of the company that built the pump, I was thinking hard about a Mr Cool but this one was a better fit for us.
The setup is a condenser outside that looks like an AC unit but is way, way quieter (it’s just outside a bedroom), that feeds into the internal pump that’s where the old furnace was. It does ac in the summer, heating in the winter, and we pay less for both than before we switched. Whole thing was about $12k and he did the paperwork for the rebates for us.
We were fortunate in that our old system had duct work and wiring in place that meant installing the new system had lower labor costs than usual, but the whole thing took two days and that included a bad part that he had to spend half a day picking up a replacement for in Madison. >

Wait, air source? In Wisconsin?  Do you know the make/model?  My understanding was they'd switch to electric resistance below 30F or so. >

The new models have dc powered modulated compressors that can create a greater refrigerant pressure and lower operating temps, like to -20F. They use more electricity though the colder the temp. >

archive link

“Our power grid is not equipped to handle the demand that is now being put on it,” Charles Summers said in a radio interview. Summers said he and his fellow industry group leaders in New England had sent letters to their governors “asking that states pushing so hard toward electrification, pushing complete conversion to heat pumps, just tap the brakes for a few minutes.”


Charles Summers, eco villain

"The Maine Energy Marketers Association, or MEMA for short, is a non-profit 501c(6) trade association representing more than 300 members, including 125 heating oil, propane, biofuels and motor fuels providers as well as convenience store owners."
Heat pumps are hot and cool. Sorry, Charlie, summer is coming. >

Let the market decide - not the fear based lobbying of corporate leaders. >

Energy Industry - "We need to let the free market decide things!"
Also Energy Industry - "Wait, not like that!" >

You can already feel the propaganda warming up.  Just today I had someone try to sell me that heat pumps were an "early adopter" technology where all the kinks hadn't been worked out yet, while condensing boilers were "an old and proven design."  These two things couldn't be further from the truth.
Their propaganda is really funny if you know anything about this, but to the uninformed consumer it's really hard to separate out their blatant lies. >

That's pretty funny, for sure. While I'm not in the north, this house has had a heat pump since 1995 or so. Early adopter, indeed! >

My folks had one 40 years ago. Needed the resistive heating loop a few times when it was too cold.  They are better now.
If you can afford a geothermal ground loop, you’ll be set since it is always 50 degrees 100 feet down.  50 is great for dumping heat in the summer and warmer than ambient in the winter. >

Maine gets 67% of its power from renewable sources, and there are lots of solar farms popping up everywhere, and if they keep raising electricity rates like they have recently, its going to be cheaper to have personal solar soon anyway.  The oil/gas/energy companies are doing this to themselves.  Eff em.