Heat Pumps are Not Hard: Here's what it will take to start pumping
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends the series as an enthusiastic, entertaining deep dive into residential heat pumps whenever heating or climate threads arise.
What it is
Technology Connections' long closing video in his heat pump series, arguing that adopting heat pumps is well within reach. It explains how they work and what it takes to start using them.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2022 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec sushiburps · 2023-02 · on “200-year old heat pump technology is back”
Highly recommend the YouTube channel 'Technology Connections' videos on heat pumps: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [this video]
Recommends mtlmtlmtlmtl · 2022-06 · on “DOE announces breakthrough in residential cold climate heat pump technology”
Technology Connections on Youtube has a great video series on how heat pumps work, why they're important environmentally and what kind of power cost savings they can bring. The second video is a longer guide for people who want to get a heat pump. [LINK] [this video]
Recommends pfdietz · 2022-09 · on “Sierra Club, environmental groups petition EPA to ban natural gas for heating”
Yes, apparently there have been huge advances in the efficiency of heat pumps since then. And this is why ground source heat pumps are less of a thing these days: you don't need the help of that underground temperature as much. This guy gets really excited about heat pumps: [LINK] [this video]
Recommends the-alchemist · 2022-12 · on “US companies are producing heat pumps that work below -20F(-28C)”
If you want an (entertaining) deep dive into heat pumps, I can recommend Technology Connection's [this video] and its followup, [LINK]
Recommends nayuki · 2023-01 · on “Do heat pumps work in cold climates?”
He made several excellent videos explaining residential heat pumps: [2021-02-28] [LINK] "Heat Pumps: the Future of Home Heating" (35m14s) [2021-04-01] [LINK] "Ground Source / Geothermal Heat Pumps and Other Info" (28m03s) [2022-03-26] [LINK] "Why Heat Pumps are Immensely Important Right Now" (21m02s) [2022-04-13] [this video] "Heat Pumps are Not Hard: Here's what it will take to start pumping" (46m32s)
Cites LordDragonfang · 2022-04 · on “Why Germany won’t keep its nuclear plants open”
Heat pumps have gotten very good in the past couple of decades, especially in the east Asian markets, and even older homes have fairly drop-in options available, assuming the market demand is there. [this video] Yes, it's a solution that requires a significant investment in (individual) infrastructure, but so does almost every other solution to anthropogenic climate change. If the solutions were totally easy, we'd have done them by now. Moving to heat pumps is on the easier end of the spectrum, though.
Cites rasz · 2022-04 · on “We must ban boilers to force public to switch to £10k heat pumps'”
Split systems are more efficient than ducted air anyway. Heat Pumps are Not Hard: Here's what it will take to start pumping [this video]