Peak Electric Usage

American ones typically don't, unless you have a heat pump.

Typical government paper bloat, not much useful information in there.

Same here. My tolerance range in the office is from 55F to 100F. However, I am married, so in the living quarters that won't fly.

Also, the computer complains after too many lengthy SPICE sims above 95F.

I just open a window.

In heating mode, because the condenser is inside and gets filtered air the more likely clog would be at the evaporator outside. This would not raise t he operating pressure of the sealed system and therefore would not raise th e peak load. it can still cost money by the unit having to run the compress or longer to satisfy the thermostat, but not peak load. However in cooling mode it definitely can.

Another thing that can affect the peak load in the absence of an actual hea ting coil is a motor run capacitor that is losing capacitance and/or gainin g ESR. But nothing is like that heating coil, if it is used.

between -10 C and +10 C."

Yes but with less of an efficiency advantage.

I am a big proponent of zone heating, even zone cooling in some cases.

Granted one might have trouble finding their balls if they go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but if the house is big enough, just how much money is it worth ?

It does in some places. In at least one area here if that peak reading goes up the per KWH rate goes up on all usage for that billing cycle.

True, but the major factor is the cost of electricity, not efficiency.

It sounds like you got it good with that cost, here, we don't.

Well I have enough lumber in the attic to build a new house in case this one burns down.

You can still do it by an interface between the outside sensor and the unit but most people can't do that, and you can't if there is any type of warranty on the unit, or you have one of those appliance insurance policies.

Only for bathing !

I is, it is the cost of the actual KWH that is the issue.

Not all that relevant. Most people her...

Nevermind.

wasn't allowed. "

Take a lesson from Bill Clinton - Don't ask, don't tell.

I wouldn't use the soapy water though unless you use all natural soap. That is if you're putting it on your food. Not so sure it would be good for flowers...

I live in a red state. The electric rate for those with electric heat is $.07/kWh, from October to April (or something like that).

Particularly the infrastructure costs.

That's certainly location dependent.

No. "Air Conditioners" are one-way. "Heat Pumps" are two-way. Heat pumps are somewhat less efficient and more expensive than AC units. If there is another heat source, there's no reason to have a heat pump.

Heat pumps that can heat or cool may be more expensive than cooling-only ai r-conditioners, but both contain exactly the same kid of heat pump, and bo th are going to be equally "efficient". Effectiveness is a different questi on.

When heating, you condense the refrigerant in the indoor unit to release he at there, and evaporate it in the outdoor unit (to soak up heat there, whi le when cooling the two locations are swapped. When cooling, condensation on the indoor cooling surfaces is a problem, and has to be drain away. When heating condensation on the outdoor surface may be a problem. If it's just water, it too can drain away, but if outdoors is cool enough you can get f rost formation (which is easy enough to melt off from time to time, but you do have to detect it).

The process of compressing the refrigerant to get it to condense is exactly the same in both modes of operation, even it happens in a different place.

I think you are wrong. First, the issue is not about "the country" as elec trical supply is not national, it is regional. The utility of heat pumps i s a local climatic issue and tracks will with regional supply areas.

So in the regions where heat pumps are the most economical heating method o ther than possibly gas which not available to most homes since they aren't on a pipeline, what I wrote was correct. It may not apply to your location with a different climate, don't know, don't care.

You really don't seem to understand anything I write. You said your heat p ump draws 4 kW and I said my heat pump draws 4 kW and you think there is so mething wrong with my heat pump??? This is about resistive heating which i s 12 kW.

I would expect CA to have a perfect climate for a heat pump. They work bes t when operating with a smaller temperature difference just like CA has. W hen the temps can get significantly below freezing a heat pump suffers a do uble whammy of needing to put out more heat and having it's capacity drop. That's why then can set the switch over to back up heat to a given outside temperature, the curve is pretty steep.

When they move heat in either direction they are called "heat pumps"... To do that requires a different arrangement of pump, expansion valve and the rest. They use a valve that is a bit like a double pole, double throw swit ch called a reversing valve.

Rick C.

A thin outer skin on the building with a venitlated air gap behind. Cunning ribbed constructions that are self shading in summer like cacti.

There are starting to be selective materials that are black in the thermal IR and mirror finish in the visible band. They self cool when exposed to sunshine in a clear sky since they absorb comparatively little of the incident radiation and radiate efficiently at ambient temperatures. They were an exotic novelty made by thin film deposition until recently but someone has a manufacturing process now.

How well it stand up to getting dirty remains to be seen.

Actually if they are evergreen they will reduce the loss of heat by radiation to the even colder clear sky. Animals take shelter in forests for the same reason. It is warmer if you can see less sky directly.

Evergreen climbers like ivy work even better since in summer the leaves cool themselves by transpiration and shade the wall behind them.