Any building or house that uses a central air system for air conditioning probably uses a heat pump for heating. Heat pumps work great when it's 40F outside, but not when it's -7F - to heat at this low of temperature they need a lot of power.
I keep hearing the question of why do Texans have enough power to cool their homes in the summer but now don't have enough electricity to go around for heating? - heat pumps are a lot of the problem.
A heat pump will still provide heat at those temperatures, just not enough of it to keep a house comfortable for humans (but likely enough to keep the pipes from freezing). Once you go below 20F or so, assuming you have a decent heat pump, you are going to need resistive heating to supplement (this is based on my own observations running a heat pump in a cold climate). It also doesn't help that houses in Texas likely aren't all that well insulated despite it being beneficial during hot summers too. A tight building envelope keeps heat in AND out of a structure.
Don't mock heat pumps, they are one of the most efficient sources of home heating (being that that move it from outside to inside) and recent tech advances make them viable in cold climates. Their primary downside is the "fuel" is more expensive then straight burning natural gas.
But ground source heat pumps work like a gem in this type of situation. Drilling holes in Texas is pretty well understood work too, so you can easily have 3,000BTu/h of heat pump that will perform better through all environmental conditions, and can even be better secured in a hurricane.
My heat pump is sized to function without auxiliary heat down to -20F or so. Maybe -30F if there's no wind, and nobody uses the showers because it also provides hot water. I probably wouldn't have bought such a heat pump if I lived in Texas, though.
This should not be voted 0 while parent is voted 5. The parent's information about heat pumps is obsolete (modern heat pumps don't have this limitation) and misleading/inaccurate (heat pumps aren't widely-used enough in Texas to be related to this problem).
Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time
as the strawberries, knows nothing about grapes.
-- Philippus Paracelsus
Central air doesn't help (Score:-1)
Any building or house that uses a central air system for air conditioning probably uses a heat pump for heating. Heat pumps work great when it's 40F outside, but not when it's -7F - to heat at this low of temperature they need a lot of power.
I keep hearing the question of why do Texans have enough power to cool their homes in the summer but now don't have enough electricity to go around for heating? - heat pumps are a lot of the problem.
Re:Central air doesn't help (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't mock heat pumps, they are one of the most efficient sources of home heating (being that that move it from outside to inside) and recent tech advances make them viable in cold climates. Their primary downside is the "fuel" is more expensive then straight burning natural gas.
Re: (Score:3)
But ground source heat pumps work like a gem in this type of situation. Drilling holes in Texas is pretty well understood work too, so you can easily have 3,000BTu/h of heat pump that will perform better through all environmental conditions, and can even be better secured in a hurricane.
Re: (Score:2)
And ground source is even better for air conditioning in the hot ass Texas summer...
Re: Central air doesn't help (Score:2)
My heat pump is sized to function without auxiliary heat down to -20F or so. Maybe -30F if there's no wind, and nobody uses the showers because it also provides hot water.
I probably wouldn't have bought such a heat pump if I lived in Texas, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Our heat pump has gas as the backup heating. Due to market conditions and sizing for the climate, below 45F the gas heat is used.
Re: (Score:1)
This should not be voted 0 while parent is voted 5. The parent's information about heat pumps is obsolete (modern heat pumps don't have this limitation) and misleading/inaccurate (heat pumps aren't widely-used enough in Texas to be related to this problem).