Very informative - thank you. It's not just that heat pumps are expensive and impractical in Fairbanks - any place where the temp drops below freezing even for a few weeks each winter, it's foolish and dangerous to think you can depend on a heat pump - especially air to air, because even a few days with essentially no heat in freezing weather can kill old folks who aren't prepared for it. But they're still being pushed and touted and subsidized. In Sandy, Oregon, we heat with wood, but have an air-to-air Mitzubishi split unit heat pump. It's nice for a cple weeks AC in the summer, and for supplemental heat when outside air is above 40F, but if it's below 40, I don't even turn it on, knowing it will raise havoc with my electric bill. In a somewhat related topic, I wrote "We Still Need Coal" in my substack. We have a daughter in Anchorage and a friend in Fairbanks, plus a son-in-law who was raised in Fairbanks, so I was well aware it gets rather cold up there! LOL
I watch a podcast called Life Uncontained -- people building shipping-container home and now cabin. They live in Texas which doesn't get much in the way of winter. So they installed mini-splits and were thinking that would be all they need for their two days of winter every winter. Except their solar panels can't keep up when they have "winter", so now they're wishing they'd installed a woodstove. It really hard to modify a container once you've finished it out, but I suspect if they get another freeze like Texas got a few years ago, they're going to decide to undergo the hassle of installing a woodstove.
People don't know what they don't know, but when they learn better some of them still refuse to admit the truth.
Now if one's house was close enough to say Chena or Manley Hot springs here in Alaska, a water or ground based heat pump could work just fine. However old fashioned radiators, pipes and ifnecessary, pumps, would work better and cheaper.
Good to read something from someone with real experience. I don't know how many "get a heat pump and save the planet" arguments I have participated in.
Very informative - thank you. It's not just that heat pumps are expensive and impractical in Fairbanks - any place where the temp drops below freezing even for a few weeks each winter, it's foolish and dangerous to think you can depend on a heat pump - especially air to air, because even a few days with essentially no heat in freezing weather can kill old folks who aren't prepared for it. But they're still being pushed and touted and subsidized. In Sandy, Oregon, we heat with wood, but have an air-to-air Mitzubishi split unit heat pump. It's nice for a cple weeks AC in the summer, and for supplemental heat when outside air is above 40F, but if it's below 40, I don't even turn it on, knowing it will raise havoc with my electric bill. In a somewhat related topic, I wrote "We Still Need Coal" in my substack. We have a daughter in Anchorage and a friend in Fairbanks, plus a son-in-law who was raised in Fairbanks, so I was well aware it gets rather cold up there! LOL
Well, howdy neighbor!
I watch a podcast called Life Uncontained -- people building shipping-container home and now cabin. They live in Texas which doesn't get much in the way of winter. So they installed mini-splits and were thinking that would be all they need for their two days of winter every winter. Except their solar panels can't keep up when they have "winter", so now they're wishing they'd installed a woodstove. It really hard to modify a container once you've finished it out, but I suspect if they get another freeze like Texas got a few years ago, they're going to decide to undergo the hassle of installing a woodstove.
People don't know what they don't know, but when they learn better some of them still refuse to admit the truth.
Now if one's house was close enough to say Chena or Manley Hot springs here in Alaska, a water or ground based heat pump could work just fine. However old fashioned radiators, pipes and ifnecessary, pumps, would work better and cheaper.
Exactly. Anyone who has ever stayed at the Circle Hotsprings Hotel knows how well hotsprings water works for space heating.
Good to read something from someone with real experience. I don't know how many "get a heat pump and save the planet" arguments I have participated in.
Exactly. People get very simplistic arguments and think they're making a difference.