You sound informed, more so than I. The heat pump thing confuses me, and I’ve seen it a lot lately.
I was under the impression that the vast majority of homes were using a heat pump system. Seems like a no-brainer? Is this not so?
Comment on Biden Administration Is Said to Slow Early Stage of Shift to Electric Cars
jmiller@lemm.ee 7 months agoThey are too expensive. But only because auto manufacturers are only making midsized and larger suvs or luxury cars. The average price of an EV has dropped over 50% in China since 2015. That would have been tough for us to match, mostly because of batteries, but we could have made much more progress than we have.
The electric grid isn’t nearly as unprepared as people say. Sure, we need to build out more charging stations, but the grid as a whole far exceeds current needs. In fact, nationwide electrical usage is actually trending down in the US because of efficiency gains. Better building codes, heat pumps, LED lighting, if it uses electricity newer stuff is more efficient. If we had sold 8 times as many EVs in 2023 than we did, electricity usage would have stayed about flat.
shalafi@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Tak@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
It’s technically a heat pump but it only cools and can’t switch to heating the space. It’s a fucked up way the American HVAC system has done things for decades.
dragontamer@lemmy.world 7 months ago
No.
Typical gas / coal plants are ~40% efficient. That means that if you do natural gas -> electricity -> heat pump, you only have 40% of the energy available to you. Yes, Heat-pumps then multiply that 40% energy out into “energy movement” rather than heating, but its a huge efficiency break.
If you instead run a pipe from the central source of natural gas and then burn the natural gas inside of a home, you have something like 95% efficiency (5% lost in the chimney).
Its only in the most recent decades have heat pumps actually become more efficient than burning natural gas inside of homes, because you have to factor the inefficiency of the power plant in your conversion. So today we’re finally in a position where modern, advanced, efficient heat pumps are worthwhile. But go back just 20 years ago and the math still pointed towards burning fuel inside of our homes as the most efficient solution.
jmiller@lemm.ee 7 months ago
A increasing percentage of new construction gets heat pumps. Some replacement HVAC units make the switch, but there is still a large portion of people who won’t because of misinformation and/or stubbornness.
But, unfortunately, most existing residential systems do not use heat pumps, under 20% in the US I believe.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Nope. Burning gas and direct electric heat of some sort are still the most prevalent forms of heating in the US, and often have separate cooling systems.
New building almost all use heat pumps because they were a no brainer, but a house built 60yr befofe the technology existed may still be using a very old heat source. Many people do not have the 20k+ to retrofit their current home with new technology even if it can save hundreds/month on their power/gas bill.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.world 7 months ago
As a renter, I have no way to charge an electric car nightly. The availability of charging infrastructure outside of private homes will be more and more of an issue, unless battery tech significantly improves to be at parity with gas (e.g. I spend 10 minutes at a public charger as if I were filling a gas car).
cyd@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Here’s the story as I understand it. US automakers want to make expensive premium cars because those sell for high margins. The big breakthrough in the EV market over the past few years has been China EV makers figuring out how to make cheap and “good-enough” EVs, which are catching on in many places across the world. This is clearly the direction in which the market has to move (whether via Chinese or non-Chinese automakers) to spur mass EV adoption. In the US, however, the established automakers can rely on protectionism to block imports, this keeping the US market limited to big expensive cars that remain using ICEs.
Tak@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
It’s really just a matter of time till Chinese manufacturers set up in Mexico and the US will have to accept Chinese EVs because of NAFTA. The US also has lots of range anxiety about EVs that I don’t see as much in other markets. Being 120v and sprawling with limited government willingness to build infrastructure, with no requirements for rentals to add chargers makes a perfect storm for that fear.
IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 7 months ago
They just announced that’s the plan actually
reuters.com/…/chinas-byd-plans-new-electric-vehic…
Pika@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
it sounds like maybe they should, idk? work on making their own garbage cheaper then? Ghat soley sounds like a competition problem not a consumer problem.
phillaholic@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Japan did it. Korea did it. China is doing it.