Interesting to see heat pumps come up more and more these days. As a lot of comments here point out, heat pump technology is already pretty good, even in cold climates.
It seems to me a lot of the barriers to adoption in the US are lack of awareness from consumers and widespread support from installers. The equipment for a heat pump shouldn’t be much more expensive then an air conditioner since they share so many parts, but that isn’t the case in practice.
I think government regulations that encourage heat pumps manufacturing and installation are part of the solution. For examples, Biden administration recently issued orders to use the Defense Production Act to produce heat pumps [0] or NYC banning new natural gas hook ups for heating [1].
The other part of heat pumps adoption is making them exciting for consumers. It feels like if you get the right combo of all of that, heat pumps could be the next electric vehicle.
I only recently learned about heat pumps and found it difficult to understand how they worked and potential benefits. Towards that end, I started hacking on this tool for others to get that info: https://www.heatpumpswork.com
It seems to me a lot of the barriers to adoption in the US are lack of awareness from consumers and widespread support from installers. The equipment for a heat pump shouldn’t be much more expensive then an air conditioner since they share so many parts, but that isn’t the case in practice.
I think government regulations that encourage heat pumps manufacturing and installation are part of the solution. For examples, Biden administration recently issued orders to use the Defense Production Act to produce heat pumps [0] or NYC banning new natural gas hook ups for heating [1].
The other part of heat pumps adoption is making them exciting for consumers. It feels like if you get the right combo of all of that, heat pumps could be the next electric vehicle.
I only recently learned about heat pumps and found it difficult to understand how they worked and potential benefits. Towards that end, I started hacking on this tool for others to get that info: https://www.heatpumpswork.com
[0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-action...
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/15/22837799/new-york-city-b...