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If you can't heat your water with gas, gas won't be brought in to the property. Electric water heaters are responsible for ~30% of electricity usage and if you can't switch that to gas, there's no point.
It's effectively a ban on all gas appliances.
That’s not true where we live. We have a natural gas furnace and stove and an electric water heater and AC unit. House was a new build….natural gas lines were run to the house w/o issue. Maybe it is different in CA.
That’s not true where we live. We have a natural gas furnace and stove and an electric water heater and AC unit. House was a new build….natural gas lines were run to the house w/o issue. Maybe it is different in CA.
Most common arrangement in CA.
Forced-air natural gas furnace
Natural gas water heater
Electric or natural gas dryer
Electric or natural gas stove
Electric air conditioning
New homes lean towards electric, but there's way more existing homes that use gas.
This. Electric heat pumps not exactly a light bulb. And frequently work best supplementing existing heating systems. But to take the entire load. Not that California is Alaska but some people use heat when temperature drops below 60 outside.
I just put in a single head 18,000 BTU heat pump for a 1,000 square foot house with 10 foot ceilings. It is rated to work until -5. They do lose efficiency as it gets colder but saying it can't do below 60 is such a wild exaggeration that it is simply dishonest. It also works as an ultra efficient air conditioner and this would certainly be ideal for a climate like California where you want heat and air. It is almost a no brainer.
That said banning other heat sources is crazy. I have a ventless propane heater. This also gets very opinionated comments when discussed. Evidently my house is thoroughly dampened and I should be dead by now. I also use wood which is also as evil as it gets.
There is no need to diss mini splits because of your ignorance in regards of how to apply the technology. I would give my propane heater of the same BTU in a heart beat if that was the choice. Of course one costs $129 and the other $2,000 installed. They barely use any electricity r compared to conventional, electric air con and furnaces.
If they were rational they would first try to swap out over time older and inefficient air conditioners which would be a net gain in power savings if replaced with mini splits. Start with all the piece of crap window unit air con units and replace with mini split that uses 1/4 the electricity. Leave the LNG alone as people said you really want to have some redundancy for heating. If you cou"d replace enough old furnaces and air con units in that way you might take a big burden off the grid. But they wont. I am telling you don't blame mini splits for Californias stupidity.
I just put in a single head 18,000 BTU heat pump for a 1,000 square foot house with 10 foot ceilings. It is rated to work until -5. They do lose efficiency as it gets colder but saying it can't do below 60 is such a wild exaggeration that it is simply dishonest. It also works as an ultra efficient air conditioner and this would certainly be ideal for a climate like California where you want heat and air. It is almost a no brainer.
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Not saying the heat pumps can't do below 60 but the grid might not when people start turning them on en mass. And many who buy/ have bought them with supplementing their primary source of heat so they might be undersized in many cases. Some only use them during the day or above a certain temperature to help control their gas bill for example.
New construction will account for full time use but those who have to replace or retro fit cost will be a factor as will the size unit they can buy.
It' wouldn't like using them in Chicago or Canada but for an already strained grid the pumps, electric stoves and dryers especially used at night for example when people are home could cause grid issues
Last edited by anononcty; 09-24-2022 at 10:50 AM..
Ironically I heard it was illegal to install a heat pump in a residence until very recently due to a fuel switching law in CA. Which is why up to today they were extremely hard to find in a residential home in California and limited to a hotel/motel or office. As well as homes in many other southern states as well as in other parts of the world i.e Asia. Most everyone had a natural gas furnace and a separate a/c if they have it at all.
Though another idea is hybrid system which can switch between natural gas and heat pump depending on energy usage and how much it needs to work. Ie heat pump can be used to maintain the heat midday when its warmer or above freezing.
I strongly believe the movement to greatly limit use of grocery bags reduced its manufacturing from waste products of natural gas production resulting in a new issue that those must be burned or disposed off with greater environmental risk which causes a new unintended consequence which would likely result in an avalenche of natural gas bans.
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