1102 replies to this topic

[LJ]

New heat pumps don’t come with a backup electric resistance heater anymore. When people ask about them I don’t recommend them either. It adds about $1200 for exactly zero benefit.

New heat pumps are significantly more efficient, especially in cold weather, compared to what you have now. Unfortunately there’s currently no government rebates for heat pump to heat pump upgrades.

It’s like a car. An older one will require some maintenance to keep it on the road. At some point it might make more sense to buy new and enjoy the 12 year warranty and greater efficiency rather than forking out $600 to diagnose and top up leaking refrigerant or whatever every year…
For new heat pumps I do recommend a service at least once every few years, just to keep any potential problems at bay. Most companies will do this for about $200.

In your situation I’d look at doing a new heat pump using the Canada greener homes 0% loan if you wanted to upgrade. That’s probably the only gov subsidy you can access.

Or just put in a new gas furnace if your hydro bill is exorbitant. Get several quotes and make them compete for your business, you can probably get it done for $5k for a 96% efficient 2 stage furnace. Or much less if you buy a used furnace off Marketplace and pay a gas fitter to install it. Those things usually last 20+ years with very few issues.

Thanks for the info mb. What heat pumps come with a 12 year warranty? My BIL had a Samsung installed last year and has had nothing but trouble with it. What brands do you see with the fewest problems?

Is the air coming out of the registers warmer than the older ones? Mine comes out a few degrees warmer than the ambient air, my old gas furnace came out way warmer and could warm the house up in minutes.

In the summer is the output air cooler than an older unit?

[phx]

Government should be more actively subsidizing insulation, window replacements, etc.

...

Canada should become a global leader in insulation technology.

I remember when the feds promoted UFFI.

 

It did not end well.

[max.bravo]

Thanks for the info mb. What heat pumps come with a 12 year warranty? My BIL had a Samsung installed last year and has had nothing but trouble with it. What brands do you see with the fewest problems?
Is the air coming out of the registers warmer than the older ones? Mine comes out a few degrees warmer than the ambient air, my old gas furnace came out way warmer and could warm the house up in minutes.
In the summer is the output air cooler than an older unit?

Fujitsu, daikin, and Samsung have 12 year warranty if the company does enough installations to earn 12 yr warranty from the supplier, otherwise it’s a standard 10 year warranty.
I actually like Samsung units, haven’t had problems with them. Their appliances have a bad reputation but their hvac stuff I’ve found to be very reliable. Can’t go wrong with Fujitsu though.

You’re absolutely right that the air coming out of the heat pump is barely warmer than the room - that’s kind of the whole idea. Instead of blasting a flame to satisfy the thermostat, heat pumps work by moving a large volume of air around and conditioning it more slowly. It takes a bit of a mentality shift to get used to it if you’ve previously had a gas furnace. Basically you want to set it and forget it.

One upside to this arrangement is you get more even distribution of heat. Eg. bedrooms that are farther from the furnace (and therefore were colder than the rest of the house with a gas furnace) will now be warmer most of the time. This is because of the longer fan runtime - operating at a low blower speed, moving around all the air. It also helps with filtration.

Edited by max.bravo, 13 February 2025 - 08:29 AM.

[Mike K.]

Yes, circulating air is the key to winter heating.

It is recommended that homes use a simple fan all winter long to distribute heat throughout the house.

It’s a miracle worker for those of us who use wood stoves. The whole house is warmed up thanks to circulated air.

[Mike K.]

That circular solar array thing in the US desert is closing after only 11 years.

It happily took $1.6 billion taxpayer dollars, though.

https://illuminem.co...-after-11-years

[Tony]

 It was the world’s largest concentrating solar plant when it opened after receiving $1.6 billion in loan guarantees from DOE. That money has not been fully repaid.

 

Any information if any has been repaid or how much was repaid?

[Victoria Watcher]

It probably never was the best idea.

[Tony]

A link to info from an  ex CEO how and why so many bad decisions were made even when it was obvious to many that the project was not a good idea.

 

 

https://www.latitude...iled-to-launch/

[LJ]

Basically you want to set it and forget it.

 

My understanding is that you should set your heat pump to a desired temp and leave it there.

The government ads are telling me to turn my thermostat down to 17C when sleeping or away, no thanks.

[LJ]

China is doing it's part to help out...

 

https://www.carbonbr...r-high-in-2024/

[Victoria Watcher]

That circular solar array thing in the US desert is closing after only 11 years.

It happily took $1.6 billion taxpayer dollars, though.

https://illuminem.co...-after-11-years

 

This is a good recap:

 

https://youtu.be/V2U...dBLLnpSb-jrgcPE

 

It really just became redundant as photovoltaic panel prices have dropped so far.

[Victoria Watcher]

Historic Gemini Solar-Plus-Storage Project Now Fully Operational

 

One of the largest solar-plus-storage installations in the U.S. has entered commercial operation. Primergy Solar and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners on July 18 announced that the Gemini Solar + Energy Storage project, which will provide power to Las Vegas, Nevada, and other communities, is now fully online.

Gemini has 690 MW of power generation capacity and features 1.8 million solar panels. Officials said the installation will be able to supply about 10% of Nevada’s peak power demand. The project also includes 380 MW of four-hour battery energy storage that will provide 1,400 MWh of energy to be tapped during night-time hours.

 

 

[...]

 

 

Primergy and Quinbrook closed on a historic $1.9 billion in debt and tax equity financing for construction and development of the project. In October 2022, APG, the largest pension asset manager in the Netherlands, acquired a 49% equity ownership in Gemini on behalf of its pension fund client ABP. 

 

https://www.powermag...ly-operational/

 

 

 

 

So 690 MW of production and some storage.  For less than $2B build cost.   5,000 acres.

 

https://www.primergygemini.com/

 

 

 

 

Site C is 1,100MW and cost $16B.  23,100 acres flooded.

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 February 2025 - 12:29 AM.

[Matt R.]

How long will this last compared to site c?

[Victoria Watcher]

How long will this last compared to site c?

 

Well, the panels do have a shelf-life.   Probably the electronics too.  But the infrastructure like the frames can be re-used as you switch out panels.  And likely with more efficient and cheap ones.

 

But site C will require periodic upgrades and servicing or replacing of the generator units too.

 

 

 

 

The civil engineering infrastructure should last almost indefinitely provided it is maintained. The drive systems (gearboxes or belts) will require periodic oil changes/replacement along with bearings in all of the rotating machinery. Most hydro hardware manufacturers quote design lives of 25 years, though this is normally because they have to set a figure, and in many cases the same manufacturers have many turbines out in the field that are over 50 years old and still operating reliably and efficiently.

 

https://renewablesfi...r-systems-last/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 February 2025 - 12:50 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

Since then, solar generation capacity has grown incredibly quickly. By some metrics, solar PV has been deployed faster than any other energy source in history, going from 100 terawatt-hours of generation to 1,000 terawatt-hours in just 8 years, compared to 12 years for wind and nuclear, 28 for natural gas, and 32 for coal. In the US, solar PV projects are by far the largest share of planned new electrical generation capacity. Of the roughly 1,900 gigawatts of electricity generation projects in the interconnection queue, around 50% of them are some type of solar PV project.

 

https://www.construc...ng-solar-energy

[Victoria Watcher]

China to build world's largest hydropower dam in Tibet

 

https://www.bbc.com/...es/crmn127kmr4o

 

 

The dam, which will be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, could generate three times more energy than the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world's largest hydropower plant.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 April 2025 - 12:44 AM.

[Barrister]

Meanwhile we cant even agree that we need more pipelines built.

[LJ]

Meanwhile we cant even agree that we need more pipelines built.

You will remember when Trudeau said he admired China's dictatorship because they could really get things done.

[Mike K.]

And the results are in.

The federal government provided $2.6 billion for heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and other green upgrades to Canadians' homes through the Canada Greener Homes Grant. But what difference did that actually make?

A new report released this week by the non-profit Green Communities Canada suggests the program didn't do enough to meet Canada's targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That's because "the savings aren't deep enough and because we're not doing enough retrofits," said Kai Millyard, the group's energy manager and co-author of the report.

The verdict? Too many heat pumps installed. Too little insulation upgrades, that actually make a difference.

- https://www.cbc.ca/n...ebate-1.7502355

Whoops:

Only 29,000 of 600,000 retrofits by the end of 2024 were "deep retrofits" that cut energy use by 50 per cent. That typically requires doing three things: upgrading the building envelope with things like better insulation, electrifying heating and hot water, and adding renewable energy such as solar panels.

The new report argues that's what's needed to reach Canada's target of net-zero emissions by 2050, and it should be a priority in future greener home grant programs.

Canada also needs to step up the pace of retrofits, it says. While the Greener Homes Grant was designed to retrofit 100,000 homes a year, the report says it would take more than 100 years to retrofit all of Canada's 11 million existing homes at that rate. Meanwhile, 2050 is only 25 years away.

[Victoria Watcher]

Elon Musk, yesterday:

 

 

 

When you think of the the energy capability of a grid, it’s much it’s much more than, let’s say, say, total energy output per year. If is if if if a power plants could operate at peak power for all twenty four hours as opposed to being at half power, sometimes a quarter power at night, then you could double the energy output of existing power plants. But in order to do that, you need to buffer the energy so that you can charge up the something like battery pack at night and then discharge into the grid during the day. So this is a massive unlock on total energy output of any given grid over the course of the year. And utility companies are beginning to realize this and are are buying in our mega packs at scale.

 

So at at this point, a gigawatt class battery is quite a common thing. So we have many orders in the hopper for gigawatt and beyond batteries. And we we expect the energy the the stationary energy storage business to scale ultimately to terawatts per year. So very, very good numbers. 

 

 

https://www.investin...ll-93CH-3997161

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 April 2025 - 02:16 AM.