Published Monday in the scientific journal Joule, the research found that heat pumps are two to three times more efficient than their oil and gas counterparts, specifically in temperatures ranging from 10 C to -20 C.
Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold::Published Monday in the scientific journal Joule, the research found that heat pumps are two to three times more efficient than their oil and gas counterparts, specifically in temperatures ranging from 10 C to -20 C.
They’re only two to three times more efficient if they aren’t frozen solid. Don’t know how it works in Canada, but my mini-split heat pump can’t handle a week of 10F let alone -20 C - sure it will put out some heat, but it absolutely needs to be supplemented with my wood stove. And I live in the South. Maybe there’s some new high tech heat pumps that cost a fortune and don’t freeze over in the insane temps of the great white north? EDIT: hey, folks, how about actually responding instead of downvoting me? If I don’t have a clue, please enlighten me. Fuckers.
My air heat pump has been ticking away happy for 15 years with no issues. It’s worked fine warming up the house when it’s -20°C in the winter and cooled nicely in the up to +30°C in the summer.
I do supplement it using electric heating and a fireplace though.
Thank you for responding and sharing your counter-experience. Greatly appreciated. What keeps your unit from icing over? Are they designed differently in northern climates?
Theres different technology but there are some that can function to -32° F and they often have a feature that allows them to detect when theyre frozen up and defrost and then automatically switch back to heating
Many parts of Canada will regularly see colder than -40F, so I can sympathize easily with a view that solely relying on them might not be safe in that environment.
As a Canadian who doesn’t live in the GTA it drives me nuts when people dismiss the rest of Canada as some kind of statistical outlier undeserving of acknowledgement.
Which would account for 5-10% of the Canadian population. Just the three metros I mentioned would account for 35% of Canadians. The record low for the coldest of those cities (Montreal) is -36F, but the average low in January is 7F.
70% of Canadians live south of the 49th parallel (the northernmost point of the Continental US) and 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border.
Why is it such a controversial thought to merely include and acknowledge the rest of Canada, rather than discounting them outright?
In case you’re wondering here the divide comes from: it’s this, and it’s you.
All Canadians matter, every Canadian experience is valid, and no Canadian is any less of a Canadian than any other. Erasure of Canadian experience outside of the GTA is an elitist and divisive attitude and serves ONLY to create friction where there need be none.
As soon as you erase a group from the whole, it’s INEVITABLE that they’ll seek to find their own independent identity. Considering your proximity to Quebec this shouldn’t be a foreign concept. Just feel free to extend the inclusive attitude west as well as east. It costs nothing to be inclusive of your fellow countrymen.
Because your comment suggests that heat pumps can’t work in Canada. It’s like an American dismissing heat pumps because Alaska is part of the US. For at least 70% (if not more like 90%) of Canadians, heat pumps work just fine. Obviously, if you are in the part of Canada that gets consistently below -40 degrees, don’t get a heat pump.
Also, I’m not from Toronto or Canadian so I’m not sure all that talk about elitism applies to me. I’m from a small city in the US where I experience weather similar to most Canadians.
Mine has a defrost cycle but it doesn’t work very well. But then again, it’s use case is primarily AC - it only gets frigid temps in my area every couple years. EDIT: yes, downvote me for stating my own personal experience, asshats.
Oh it does, it’s just that it the defrost cycle in 15F gets off just enough ice for it to barely work, and this was when it was brand-new and verified to be working properly. I now understand that it is just not designed for ultra-cold weather, and that some are better suited for such demands.
That does kind of imply it could need a recharge. These cheaper units don’t actually have active monitoring for ice buildup - they just do it on a schedule based on temperature (and sometimes humidity). If you are getting ice buildup, it’s either outside the rated performance envelope, or it is not functioning as intended.
I think this really highlights the crux of the issue, which is just that the “tribal knowledge” of how to operate the equipment isn’t there and it’s something that education would probably help.
Like, many people’s fathers have probably shown them how to relight the pilot lights on their furnaces and hot water heaters. And if not, the “handy person” on your block would know.
Understanding how to own and operate heat pumps effectively might not be as second nature.
Understanding how to validate the extreme weather functionality of your heating system is super important. Knowing the difference between “normal” and “something is fucked up”… especially before an extreme weather event is pretty important. I’m pretty handy, but absolutely nobody in my area runs heat pumps residentially…
… but that’s probably just because of a lack of uptake rather than a real economic reason. Solar is exploding in my area as a result of increasing power costs and a great environment for it.
As it’s adopted and as people learn how to use, maintain and troubleshoot them I expect problems like that will become more sparse.
Yes, there are cold weather heat pumps that can thaw the coils to keep operating. There is a point where they just can’t continue to operate.
When I design a heat pump system in cold climates, I always include a secondary hear source that kicks in if the heat pump gets overwhelmed. Might be a gas section in a furnace. Might be an electric heater in a fan coil. Might be electric baseboards or wall heaters.
Man they pitchfork mob came out in full force for this one. I also live in the south and during the freeze of 2021 it was a struggle for it to deal with those low temps.
That’s precisely the freeze that led me to experience the inability of my Senville mini-split heat pump to keep up. So glad I had a wood stove. Even then, my shower drain trap froze solid. I was living in an “insulated” yurt at the time - good floor insulation, and somewhat okay wall/ceiling insualtion.
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They’re only two to three times more efficient if they aren’t frozen solid. Don’t know how it works in Canada, but my mini-split heat pump can’t handle a week of 10F let alone -20 C - sure it will put out some heat, but it absolutely needs to be supplemented with my wood stove. And I live in the South. Maybe there’s some new high tech heat pumps that cost a fortune and don’t freeze over in the insane temps of the great white north? EDIT: hey, folks, how about actually responding instead of downvoting me? If I don’t have a clue, please enlighten me. Fuckers.
My air heat pump has been ticking away happy for 15 years with no issues. It’s worked fine warming up the house when it’s -20°C in the winter and cooled nicely in the up to +30°C in the summer.
I do supplement it using electric heating and a fireplace though.
Thank you for responding and sharing your counter-experience. Greatly appreciated. What keeps your unit from icing over? Are they designed differently in northern climates?
Theres different technology but there are some that can function to -32° F and they often have a feature that allows them to detect when theyre frozen up and defrost and then automatically switch back to heating
Many parts of Canada will regularly see colder than -40F, so I can sympathize easily with a view that solely relying on them might not be safe in that environment.
Tbf, most Canadians don’t live in those areas. Places like Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver rarely get that cold.
Edmonton Saskatoon Regina Winnipeg
As a Canadian who doesn’t live in the GTA it drives me nuts when people dismiss the rest of Canada as some kind of statistical outlier undeserving of acknowledgement.
Which would account for 5-10% of the Canadian population. Just the three metros I mentioned would account for 35% of Canadians. The record low for the coldest of those cities (Montreal) is -36F, but the average low in January is 7F.
70% of Canadians live south of the 49th parallel (the northernmost point of the Continental US) and 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border.
Why is it such a controversial thought to merely include and acknowledge the rest of Canada, rather than discounting them outright?
In case you’re wondering here the divide comes from: it’s this, and it’s you.
All Canadians matter, every Canadian experience is valid, and no Canadian is any less of a Canadian than any other. Erasure of Canadian experience outside of the GTA is an elitist and divisive attitude and serves ONLY to create friction where there need be none.
As soon as you erase a group from the whole, it’s INEVITABLE that they’ll seek to find their own independent identity. Considering your proximity to Quebec this shouldn’t be a foreign concept. Just feel free to extend the inclusive attitude west as well as east. It costs nothing to be inclusive of your fellow countrymen.
Because your comment suggests that heat pumps can’t work in Canada. It’s like an American dismissing heat pumps because Alaska is part of the US. For at least 70% (if not more like 90%) of Canadians, heat pumps work just fine. Obviously, if you are in the part of Canada that gets consistently below -40 degrees, don’t get a heat pump.
Also, I’m not from Toronto or Canadian so I’m not sure all that talk about elitism applies to me. I’m from a small city in the US where I experience weather similar to most Canadians.
My comment doesn’t suggest that, and the fact that you’re projecting that on me is your fucking problem.
And the fact that you’re not even Canadian makes it even more absurd that you’re explaining to me the nuances of the Canadian experience.
Mine has a defrost cycle but it doesn’t work very well. But then again, it’s use case is primarily AC - it only gets frigid temps in my area every couple years. EDIT: yes, downvote me for stating my own personal experience, asshats.
Your mini split probably doesn’t have a defrost function. This would all be specified in the users manual.
Oh it does, it’s just that it the defrost cycle in 15F gets off just enough ice for it to barely work, and this was when it was brand-new and verified to be working properly. I now understand that it is just not designed for ultra-cold weather, and that some are better suited for such demands.
That does kind of imply it could need a recharge. These cheaper units don’t actually have active monitoring for ice buildup - they just do it on a schedule based on temperature (and sometimes humidity). If you are getting ice buildup, it’s either outside the rated performance envelope, or it is not functioning as intended.
I think this really highlights the crux of the issue, which is just that the “tribal knowledge” of how to operate the equipment isn’t there and it’s something that education would probably help.
Like, many people’s fathers have probably shown them how to relight the pilot lights on their furnaces and hot water heaters. And if not, the “handy person” on your block would know.
Understanding how to own and operate heat pumps effectively might not be as second nature.
Understanding how to validate the extreme weather functionality of your heating system is super important. Knowing the difference between “normal” and “something is fucked up”… especially before an extreme weather event is pretty important. I’m pretty handy, but absolutely nobody in my area runs heat pumps residentially…
… but that’s probably just because of a lack of uptake rather than a real economic reason. Solar is exploding in my area as a result of increasing power costs and a great environment for it.
As it’s adopted and as people learn how to use, maintain and troubleshoot them I expect problems like that will become more sparse.
deleted by creator
Excellent. Now I know that there are different classes of heat pump. Mine is not for prolonged crazy-low temps, others are. Thank you.
deleted by creator
This is the most informative answer yet. Thanks.
Yes, there are cold weather heat pumps that can thaw the coils to keep operating. There is a point where they just can’t continue to operate.
When I design a heat pump system in cold climates, I always include a secondary hear source that kicks in if the heat pump gets overwhelmed. Might be a gas section in a furnace. Might be an electric heater in a fan coil. Might be electric baseboards or wall heaters.
Man they pitchfork mob came out in full force for this one. I also live in the south and during the freeze of 2021 it was a struggle for it to deal with those low temps.
That’s precisely the freeze that led me to experience the inability of my Senville mini-split heat pump to keep up. So glad I had a wood stove. Even then, my shower drain trap froze solid. I was living in an “insulated” yurt at the time - good floor insulation, and somewhat okay wall/ceiling insualtion.
My attic insulation needs work. I swear I’m gonna get that sorted this year now that the heat has (hopefully) calmed down.
We probably live in the same neighborhood or something. NC here.
Nope. hollars from tx
Oh Jesus. I’m sorry on so many levels. Unless you’re gung ho Texan. Then I don’t know what to say except enjoy watering your foundation.