Electric vs Gas in homes (Fayetteville, Springdale: house, water heater, live)

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

...
It's hard to make sense of people who think that hedging with intermittent power production is a good thing. Griddy customers were severely burned by hedging the electric market to save money.

Thankfully, Texas got rid of half of the problem by removing the woke ERCOT members who didn't even live in the state, and caused the problems by cutting corners. Now, it they can find replacements that actually care about Electric reliability they will eventually be better off.

Once a heat pump goes into emergency heat, it's a dressed-up traditional electric resistance furnace. Can't shake off that demand as it's deemed essential; which contributes to the large imbalance of supply and demand of the near-blackout here in Texas last year.

There are systems that marry a heat pump to a gas burner, but otherwise you are right.

Gas heat is common in Houston, but apparently it's not common in the rest of Texas anymore from Department of Energy stats. Also read on another site that somebody's heat pump ran dry in their inner-city Houston condo because of the low water pressure after temps got warmer and electricity came back on. They had to wait a few more days for heat on top of the power outage!

They must have had a very fancy system (or one assisted by a tankless gas waterheater). Normal systems don't have anything to do with water.

I wouldn't put stock on CO2 emissions causing climate change. The period of the Industrial Revolution should have been much hotter than now with the coal being burned.

Only climate change lunatics think any man made phenomenon has anything to do with climate change.

[vcvs]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

Also read on another site that somebody's heat pump ran dry in their inner-city Houston condo because of the low water pressure after temps got warmer and electricity came back on

How would “low water pressure” impact a ‘heat pump’? A heat pump operates on a closed refrigerant system. The system doesn’t need water to operate.

[Take a History Class]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

More than likely Bella Vista housing is much newer and significantly influenced/built by coastie homebuilders than the terrain issue. (Noticed that I-49 is finished through the area--finally can try to bypass the Kansas Turnpike passing through K.C.!)

The Bella Vista Bypass is glorious! You should totally try it.


The people of Bella Vista should be super happy about it. Diverting all the truck and interstate traffic has made 71 through Bella Vista downright pleasant to drive on.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

More than likely Bella Vista housing is much newer and significantly influenced/built by coastie homebuilders than the terrain issue. (Noticed that I-49 is finished through the area--finally can try to bypass the Kansas Turnpike passing through K.C.!)



I saw that on CBS 2 L.A. People burning wood for heat during the power outage counterintuitively contributed more carbon than natural gas. Luckily it wasn't summertime during a heatwave (and cooking over wood or charcoal grills), otherwise there are wildfires all over--and more carbon!



I would never go electric, resistance or heat pump, with the consumption and the cost. I switched my appliances to gas to reduce my dependence/demand on the ERCOT (Texas) grid. Ever since the storm last year, electric rates have doubled. Thanks to the closure of baseload coal plants in favor of peaker NG plants, the price of NG across the U.S. skyrocketed after the Texas storm.

It's hard to make sense of people who think that hedging with intermittent power production is a good thing. Griddy customers were severely burned by hedging the electric market to save money.



Once a heat pump goes into emergency heat, it's a dressed-up traditional electric resistance furnace. Can't shake off that demand as it's deemed essential; which contributes to the large imbalance of supply and demand of the near-blackout here in Texas last year.

Gas heat is common in Houston, but apparently it's not common in the rest of Texas anymore from Department of Energy stats. Also read on another site that somebody's heat pump ran dry in their inner-city Houston condo because of the low water pressure after temps got warmer and electricity came back on. They had to wait a few more days for heat on top of the power outage!

I wouldn't put stock on CO2 emissions causing climate change. The period of the Industrial Revolution should have been much hotter than now with the coal being burned.

Here is An interesting detailed look at the ratepayer disaster stemming from last year in Oklahoma:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/winter-ga...110009347.html

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

Here is An interesting detailed look at the ratepayer disaster stemming from last year in Oklahoma:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/winter-ga...110009347.html

In the grand scheme of things, not much of a disaster, but it does point out the problem with insufficient planning. Frankly I think the board should have dealt with it on a much, much, shorter term note.

[ILTXwhatnext]

Thanks for the replies! It's a lot to digest. Sorry to read confirmation that basements are not a thing in NWA as well. When you talk about heat pumps, is this burying pipe to a depth where the temp is constant (58F?) and heating that rather than the much colder ambient air outside?

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by ILTXwhatnext

Thanks for the replies! It's a lot to digest. Sorry to read confirmation that basements are not a thing in NWA as well. When you talk about heat pumps, is this burying pipe to a depth where the temp is constant (58F?) and heating that rather than the much colder ambient air outside?

No. That is geothermal, but there is a heat pump involved, to remove the heat from the ground or groundwater, to heat the home, so I can see where you would be confused.

Unless "geothermal" is stated, a heat pump extracts heat from the outside air. This works well, from about 35 or 40 degrees, on up. Once the outside air is below 35, the heat pump can't really do its job.

This is where geothermal is superior, since ground temperate climates rarely drops that low. The only reason it isn't used more, is installation cost.

[jadeu19]

For me, I prefer electric gas for safety reasons. We seldom to never get electric problems in our area so having an electric range in our homes won't be a problem after all.

[Snaple4]

Originally Posted by ILTXwhatnext

Thanks for the replies! It's a lot to digest. Sorry to read confirmation that basements are not a thing in NWA as well. When you talk about heat pumps, is this burying pipe to a depth where the temp is constant (58F?) and heating that rather than the much colder ambient air outside?

Walkout basements are very common here. True basements exist but are not a frequent. Big reason basements are so much more common up north is b/c you have to go so far down with your footer you might as well just make a room down there. Here walk out basements are common b/c of the hilly terrain.

A heat pump is just a regular air conditioner that is able to reverse the flow based on the season. Geothermal is the type that uses water/glycol in pipes in the earth or body of water outside. Hydronic heating is the type that uses your hot water for heating.

[CCCyou]

Originally Posted by TRex2

a heat pump extracts heat from the outside air. This works well, from about 35 or 40 degrees, on up. Once the outside air is below 35, the heat pump can't really do its job.

That is true of old/1st generation heatpumps(R22),
but even 2nd generation/R410 heatpump systems (been around 20+ years)work quite well even at 20 degrees F outside,
with 3rd generation heatpumps (inverter driven) working well to 0 degrees F outside,
and the newest 'hyper-heat' inverter(overdrive) systems can make 100% of their btu rating even at -13 degrees F !

Hyper-heat systems don't require electric heatstrips nor propane/gas backup, unless you live somewhere where it regularly falls below minus 13 degrees F!

Mitsubishi's patents on hyper-heat (overdrive) recently expired,
so this feature is now showing up on just about all new inverter heatpump systems from all mfgr's,
both mini-split and central inverter-heatpump systems.