Can Heat Pumps Still Save the Planet from Climate Change? (msn.com) 310
"One technology critical to fighting climate change is lagging," reports the Washington Post, "thanks to a combination of high interest rates, rising costs, misinformation and the cycle of home construction. Adoption of heat pumps, one of the primary ways to cut emissions from buildings, has slowed in the United States and stalled in Europe, endangering the switch to clean energy.
"Heat pump investment in the United States has dropped by 4 percent in the past two years, even as sales of EVs have almost doubled, according to data from MIT and the Rhodium Group. In 13 European countries, heat pump sales dropped nearly in half in the first half of 2024, putting the European Union off-track for its climate goals." "Many many markets are falling," said Paul Kenny, the director general of the European Heat Pump Association. "It takes time to change people's minds about a heating system." Heat pumps — essentially air conditioners that can also work in reverse, heating a space as well as cooling it — are crucial to making buildings more climate-friendly. Around 60 percent of American homes are still heated with furnaces running on oil, natural gas, or even propane; to cut emissions from homes, all American houses and apartments will need to be powered by electricity...
In the United States, experts point to lags in construction, high interest rates, and general belt-tightening from inflation... [Cora Wyent, director of research for the electrification advocacy group Rewiring America] added, heat pumps are still growing as a share of overall heating systems, gaining ground on gas furnaces. In 2023, heat pumps made up 55 percent of all heating systems sold, while gas furnaces made up just 45 percent. "Heat pumps are continuing to increase their total market share," she said.
Homeowners may also run into trouble when trying to find contractors to install heat pumps. Barton James, the president and CEO of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, says many contractors don't have training on how to properly install heat pumps; if they install them incorrectly, the ensuing problems can sour consumers on the technology... In the United States, low gas prices also make the economics of heat pumps more challenging. Gas is around three times cheaper than electricity — while heat pumps make up most of that ground with efficiency, they aren't the most cost-effective option for every household.
The Post also spoke to the manager for the carbon-free buildings team at the clean energy think tank RMI. They pointed out that heating systems need to be replaced roughly every 15 years — and the next cycle doesn't start until 2035.
The article concludes that "even with government policies and subsidies, many parts of the move to clean energy will require individual people to make changes to their lives. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of heat pumps will have to triple by 2030 to stay on track with climate goals. The only way to do that, experts say, is if incentives, personal beliefs, and technology all align."
"Heat pump investment in the United States has dropped by 4 percent in the past two years, even as sales of EVs have almost doubled, according to data from MIT and the Rhodium Group. In 13 European countries, heat pump sales dropped nearly in half in the first half of 2024, putting the European Union off-track for its climate goals." "Many many markets are falling," said Paul Kenny, the director general of the European Heat Pump Association. "It takes time to change people's minds about a heating system." Heat pumps — essentially air conditioners that can also work in reverse, heating a space as well as cooling it — are crucial to making buildings more climate-friendly. Around 60 percent of American homes are still heated with furnaces running on oil, natural gas, or even propane; to cut emissions from homes, all American houses and apartments will need to be powered by electricity...
In the United States, experts point to lags in construction, high interest rates, and general belt-tightening from inflation... [Cora Wyent, director of research for the electrification advocacy group Rewiring America] added, heat pumps are still growing as a share of overall heating systems, gaining ground on gas furnaces. In 2023, heat pumps made up 55 percent of all heating systems sold, while gas furnaces made up just 45 percent. "Heat pumps are continuing to increase their total market share," she said.
Homeowners may also run into trouble when trying to find contractors to install heat pumps. Barton James, the president and CEO of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, says many contractors don't have training on how to properly install heat pumps; if they install them incorrectly, the ensuing problems can sour consumers on the technology... In the United States, low gas prices also make the economics of heat pumps more challenging. Gas is around three times cheaper than electricity — while heat pumps make up most of that ground with efficiency, they aren't the most cost-effective option for every household.
The Post also spoke to the manager for the carbon-free buildings team at the clean energy think tank RMI. They pointed out that heating systems need to be replaced roughly every 15 years — and the next cycle doesn't start until 2035.
The article concludes that "even with government policies and subsidies, many parts of the move to clean energy will require individual people to make changes to their lives. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of heat pumps will have to triple by 2030 to stay on track with climate goals. The only way to do that, experts say, is if incentives, personal beliefs, and technology all align."
Problem identified (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Insightful)
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Here in Califtopia, gas is far far more reliable than electricity.
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Here in Califtopia, gas is far far more reliable than electricity.
It is. I can't remember the last time my gas stopped working. Problem is, that's fine for running a stove (if I don't mind not venting it) but that's about it.
Oh, unless I plumb a generator to run from the gas line, which I'm seriously considering. It's 20% of the cost of installing a battery backup.
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Most gas furnaces also need electricity to operate though.
Answered with a NO due to likley unconvincing data (Score:2)
Based on Betteridge's law of headlines - headlines ending in a question should be answered with a NO since the article is most likely unable to provide convincing evidence to answer yes to the question
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist who wrote about it in 2009, although the principle is much older.[1][2] It is bas
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Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Informative)
The nordic countries are leading in heat pump installations. Are they doing something wrong? https://www.euronews.com/green... [euronews.com]
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Add to it that 15 year old heating systems in the Nordic countries are more or less just considered to be broken in.
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https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
So the CoP of 2 factor doesn't matter. Using a heat pump will effectively reduce emissions by 100% regardless of efficiency.
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The nordic countries are leading in heat pump installations. Are they doing something wrong?
Norway is a global outlier that benefits from absurd amounts of hydro. People in Norway moving from resistive heating to heat pumps in no way reflects the energy mix and realities other regions face.
Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Interesting)
The main benefit is going all-electric. If you eliminate your gas bill and add solar you can come out ahead if your totalized electric rate is over about $0.12/kWh, $0.10 if you are on propane.
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Your argument seems backwards. How can it be cheaper to go all-electric as the price of electricity rises above the threshold you gave? If breakeven is at $0.12/kWh, then somebody paying the New England average [eia.gov] would pay more than twice as much for that electricity.
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Try running resistive aux heating on solar and batteries. I had 3 heat pumps and all three (replaced ~2020-21) would actually continue to produce heat down to the mid 20s F, but then the resistive kicked in and ..ugh the electric bills made me long for summer AC.
The alternative in that house was burning wood. Which doesn't seem more environmentally friendly.
Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair I would imagine most places are on a mixed grid today, coal and gas are currently less that 60% of the national grid. We have to also take into account the fact that grid is only going to get cleaner over a heat pumps 10-20 year lifespan.
Also with regards to emergency strips as my AC unit recently breathed it's last breath I have been quoting and seraching for heat pump units to swap in my home. Even the cheapest of units operate to 10F which I would say at least half of the nation never experiences maybe ever and most places likely experience for 5-20 days over an entire winter. Think of much of the Southern US, sunbelt, Southern CA, millions of homes where a heat pump can easily provide 100% of heating through a winter and that's before youa ctually start considering actual "cold use" models.
heat pumps don't produce as comfortable of a climate.
What does this even mean? It's the same climate as your central AC, just warmer. It's the same system. Having a forced air gas furnace isn't a great winter climate either in my personal opinion.
You are proposing a tax that forces people to use something
Yes, this is perfectly valid economics. We do this for lot's of things already.
Pigouvian Tax [wikipedia.org]
Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Informative)
- It's quieter than the old gas furnace
- It doesn't dehydrate our air as much in the Winter
- It doesn't need an exhaust vent, so it's not sucking outside air into the house which is great in the Summer if there's a lot of wildfire smoke in the air
- It cools the house in the Summer (we never had AC before)
Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Informative)
Gas is cheaper than electricity because it's more efficient!
It is not.
A heat pump with a CoP of 2 would produce exactly the same amount of carbon as a gas furnace. A heat pump that has a CoP of 4 would, in theory, use half as much gas.
The best new heat pumps reach 5.
It doesn't take having the emergency heat kick on very often for heat pumps to be at similar overall efficiency to a gas furnace.
You can work it out. On a whim I looked up Butte, MT (apparently the coldest city) for December and Jan 2023 (the coldest months). Assuming a modern heat pump which can operate well at -13F (-25C) (these exist), there were a grand total of 5 days where the resistive strips might need to come on at night and 0 where the resistive strips were needed all the time.
So, you hardly need any even in the coldest months.
And your logic only applies of course if the gas is used to fire power stations. Heat pumps run of fungible electricity. They can run off nuclear, solar and wind turbines just as easily as gas.
Re:Problem identified (Score:5, Interesting)
Gas is cheaper than electricity because it's more efficient! Combined cycle gas (the source of electricity in most places) only gets about 60% efficiency. With transmission losses and such, lets make it 50% to keep the math easy. A heat pump with a CoP of 2 would produce exactly the same amount of carbon as a gas furnace. A heat pump that has a CoP of 4 would, in theory, use half as much gas.
I don't know about Europe, but at least in California, that's not the reason gas is more expensive. Most power is not produced with gas. The problem is not the efficiency of the technology. It's the efficiency of the bureaucracy around that technology, resulting in electrical prices that are nothing short of extortionate.
In California, I'm paying 50 cents per kWh for most of my power. A 4 COP heat pump produces 4 watts of heat per watt of power consumed. 1 kilowatt hour would produce 4 kWh of power, or 13652 BTUs. The standard unit for heat is a therm, which is 100,000 BTUs. So with a 4 COP heat pump, I would pay $3.66 per therm.
When I replaced my air conditioner last year, I stuck with a traditional air conditioner, rather than spending negligible additional money to get a reversing valve so that I could use it as a heat pump. Why? Because my furnace uses natural gas that costs $2.59 per therm.
The most staggering part of this is that if I didn't mind torturing my neighbors and ignored the whole "don't use this continuously" rule for backup generators, it would cost me less than 38 cents per kWh to create my own power from natural gas, even when buying natural gas at retail prices. That's lower than the PG&E baseline rate.
If our electrical rates were 10 cents per kWh like they are in Tennessee, nobody would use gas, because it would be 7 times as expensive as a heat pump. But because our electrical rates are downright extortionate, everybody uses gas, because it costs almost one third less than electricity.
Want to get people to adopt heat pumps? Convince the state of California to buy all of the power grid operators and the generating companies and combine them into a single nonprofit. Take profit out of the equation, take huge CEO salaries out of the equation, etc., and run power production the way it is run in civilized countries. Cut power costs to 15 cents per kWh. In fifteen to twenty years, when everyone's air conditioner has failed and been replaced, you'll see close to 100% adoption of heat pumps.
As long as power production is run by for-profit corporations, there are perverse incentives to drive the cost up to what the market will bear, and this almost inherently results in heat pumps losing out to gas.
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You have several bad assumptions there.
1. It's a choice between burning gas for heat or burning gas to produce electricity. Where I live, most of the electricity is from renewables. That makes heat pumps much much more efficient. The same is true in a lot of places. Globally the share is 30% [ourworldindata.org] and rising quickly. Assuming all electricity comes from gas makes your conclusions invalid.
2. You assume a COP of only 2, which is unrealistic. For household heat pumps, it's typically around 4 [iea.org].
3. You assume you'l
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all due to entrenched upper class interests, this is the inevitable result of classism
greed and irresponsibility will be our undoing once again
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We don't even have to tax it more, we can just stop giving those industries free stuff. Though of course we should have carbon taxes on industry, we should have started them already so that we could start them very small but it's kind of late to be fooling around now. The so-called and alleged invisible hand isn't going to correct anything unless it's motivated. Private industry can solve these problems but will not unless forced.
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42% of our electricity comes from gas, so taxing gas will have an effect on the price of electricity on the same order of magnitude as it would on heating directly with gas. It might also prompt a renewal in coal fired electricity.
Really you need an overall carbon tax which matches the economic externalities of fossil fuel use. This will enable the free market to find the optimal mix of energy sources considering *all* costs.
The reason this hasn't happened is its effect on low to moderate income people.
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Re: Problem identified (Score:2)
The especially sweet spot is new construction. No need to hook up to a gas line if you using heat pumps.
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That would be rational and forward-thinking. Have you looked at US politics recently? It is all about hate and fear and keeping things as they are.
Efficiency [Re:Problem identified] (Score:2)
"Gas is around three times cheaper than electricity"
That's your problem right there.
Gas is about three times cheaper than electricity because the largest source of electricity is natural-gas-fueled generators, and, including transmission losses, it takes about 3 Joules of heat energy to produce 1 joule of electrical energy.
Re:Problem identified (Score:4, Interesting)
Established nuclear plants aren’t even profitable without government subsidies. Are these plants the welfare queens you keep talking about?
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the real solutions are passive and active solar, R60 insulation, battery, mass and solar walls, communities developed around solar orientation, reverse smart meters, shallow geothermal, earth banked, green roofed, with grey water systems. Mostly we need to develop non-classist integrated communities that don't involve commuting in the first place. And stop letting rich and powerful developers corrupt our governments and stop letting them build unsustainable crap solely for their windfall profits.
just sayin
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Windows [Re:Problem identified] (Score:2)
And live in a coffin with tiny little windows to peer out?
Double-paned windows aren't major heat losses. If the rest of your house is so well insulated that the windows become a major component of the remaining heat loss, there are ultra high-efficiency window [architectmagazine.com].
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the real solutions are .
A heat pump is a nice complement to many of your suggestions (well, other than you need heat in winter and at night when solar panels aren't doing much). It also has the huge benefit that it's an easy and relatively inexpensive upgrade if you happen to be replacing your furnace or AC. It's a lot easier than re-plumbing your laundry room for grey water or digging up your yard for shallow geothermal.
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houses can be retrofitted, however corruption is endemic
Because retrofitting is so inexpensive, anyone can do it. It costs peanuts.
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houses can be retrofitted, however corruption is endemic
Because retrofitting is so inexpensive, anyone can do it. It costs peanuts.
Styrofoam peanuts, to be precise.
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No, houses ca not be retrofitted to the extent you are talking about. I looked into that with my 1957 house. It's far cheaper to tear it down and start over.
The windows were upgraded, and the ceiling has the current recommendation for insulation. R-19 in the walls is not happening. The heat pump might be breaking even if the compressor holds up a few more years.
short term solution (Score:2)
The long term problem is we are using more and more and more energy, converting it into waste heat you can't use except to sweat a lot
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Re: short term solution (Score:3)
Heat pump water heaters are a thing. And would do exactly that.
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Heat pump water heaters are a thing. And would do exactly that.
And if you're lucky it will even last long enough to achieve a breakeven ROI. Seriously, read the reviews on those things, they're not exactly shining beacons of reliability compared against traditional electric or gas-fired storage water heaters.
Prior to cramming small heat pumps into water heater tank housings, another way to recover heat was running hot water lines to a heat exchanger outdoors near the home's central air conditioning condensing unit. While they're still available [hotspotenergy.com], they're labor intensi
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Firstly, I'm specifically referring to single-family storage tank water heaters, the kind you'd typically find in the garage or basement of a residential home in the US. They're used for washing and bathing hot water needs, and not for providing any sort of comfort heating for the living spaces inside the home.
Secondly, heat pump water heaters do work, I never said they didn't. They just aren't as reliable as traditional water heaters, and when something does break outside of the warranty, they're signifi
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You can solve that problem with UV.
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Easier to just heat up the water further after the heat pump stage if it's an issue or get a heat pump that's able to bump up the temperature appropriately.
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Some regulation changes needed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Use a wood stove for backup heat.
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That is _really_ messed up. Heat pumps are not less reliable than traditional heating by now.
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NG boiler at full run with the pumps moving hot water at full speed uses 200-300W. My battery backup gets charged off one of the generator every 48 hours if the solar is covered in snow to keep the house alive at -10F. That system on its own is dirt cheap and I use another 200W to keep starlink, security, fridges, deep freeze and cable modem alive.
Stop telling peopl
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That I can understand. The heat pump occasionally fails to successfully complete a defrost cycle and turns itself off. If I wasn't home to reset it things could easily become expensive.
There is also the case of the extra cold weather when the heat pump can't keep up. Then the resistors come on. That was three days last winter.
So backup is still needed even if infrequently.
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If the idea is to just get around insurance requirements, electric resistive heat as a backup should be fine, and that's super cheap (just not to actually use).
In Florida, most homes do have heat pumps since heating needs are minimal here and even the crappiest heat pump is good enough, and there's always a resistive heat strip in the air handler as a backup. The heat strip is also activated while the heat pump is doing a defrost cycle, which somewhat reduces the comfort issues associated with essentially
In my state promised IRA rebates are 6 months away (Score:2)
Oh, and a new refrigerant is about to be phased in (and the old one out). Another reason for consumers to be confused and decide to just wait for the new tech when they can.
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I am not surprised (Score:2)
Where I live, there are heavy government subsidies all the HVAC installers promise to handle on your behalf and it still isn't really making heat pumps particularly competitive with forced-air gas furnaces with a tied-in traditional AC system.
And if you're worried about power loss in winter storms, it's a lot easier to attach a UPS or gas generator to a furnace than to a heat pump with its significantly higher power requirements.
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And if you're worried about power loss in winter storms, it's a lot easier to attach a UPS or gas generator to a furnace than to a heat pump with its significantly higher power requirements.
If you live somewhere the heat going out is more than just a minor inconvenience, you probably should have a backup form of heat available. In the old days I'd have recommended a portable kerosene heater, but with the availability of inexpensive (usually around $100-$150) Chinese diesel heaters [youtube.com] which vent the exhaust outside, there's no reason to be filling your living space with kerosene fumes. Another option would be to install a wood-burning stove, which requires no electricity whatsoever.
So yeah, not
can't install them? (Score:5, Insightful)
"many contractors don't have training on how to properly install heat pumps"
That's puzzling, a heat pump is installed much like an air conditioner.
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A water to water heat pump only needs an electrician and a plumber, not even a HVAC technician.
Of course you could still have use for a HVAC technician to get it properly sized and tuned.
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More like many contractors do not have insurance that covers their screw-ups for heat pumps. Looks like a litigation-nation problem to me.
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Can a standard central air handler "evaporator" coil work efficiently with heat pumps? Or in other words is say 100F coil temperature enough for the central air to get the energy into the air and the heatpump to get the energy into the coil?
The problem with hydronic here in Europe is that old radiators can't do much with 100F water and unfortunately FCUs are alien technology to most residential heatpump installers (even though it's pretty much standard in commercial). In the bad old days they just put in th
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You insensitive clods! (Score:2)
Heat pumps will take energy away from those who need it the most: The poor, starving AI LLMs and Bitcoin miners. Have you no conscience?
I recently replaced my gas furnace (Score:3)
I asked the salesman about heat pumps, and he said they were a poor choice in my climate area.
I've read reports that some experimental or uncommon heat pumps work in cold climates, but they appear to not be widely available.
Even the manufacturer's website says that they are not recommended for my area.
Re:I recently replaced my gas furnace (Score:5, Insightful)
If you live where it gets really cold, then you need to do a GSHP Ground Source Heat Pump. That involves varying amounts of digging which is best done before a house is built and which can be impractical or just impractically expensive later depending on the situation. They are technically viable pretty much anywhere, but maybe not economically.
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I just saw one of these installed in a house here. They are apparently now economically viable even in relatively mild climates. Obviously, heat pumps get cheaper, more reliable and more long-lived the more the numbers go up.
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What is your area?
1 versus 24 (Score:2)
Converting a home to heat pump from electric is generally much more expensive and time consuming than just buying a heat pump unit. A new 240V circuit is needed which
No (Score:2)
Any "saving the climate" is now far out of reach. If we had acted decisively in the 1980's when the science was solid, sure. Not anymore. All we can still do is make sure we do not get the really big (extinction level) catastrophe, and time is running out fast on that one. Also, so you see any efforts that are reasonable in size given what is at stake? I do not. Or rather I do, but these are all about denying the problem.
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Geoengineering will not do much. The human race still needs a few centuries of experience with geoengineering to be able to do it competently and at the scale needed. There is no enough time for that. Funny how non-engineers always _massively_ underestimate how complex, slow and expensive engineering new things really is.
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Already have one (Score:2)
Sort of. I have a conventional air conditioner, plus electric heat. Since this all plugs in to hydro dams here in British Columbia I see no reason to spend the money to change it any time soon. If everybody switched to heat pumps and electric cars we'd need several Site C [wikipedia.org] dams to supply the power we'd need. Not going to happen any time soon.
The climate here (Kamloops) is a challenge for heat pumps to work well on the very hottest (40C) and very coldest (-20C) days.
...laura
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There's actually several kinds of geothermal.
The three that matter here are:
Geothermal heatpumps merely use the earth as a heatsink - dump heat into it during the summer, pull heat during the winter. Any imbalance* can be addressed by making the well a bit deeper or such to allow regular heat conduction to keep the temperature even year-round. Can be done pretty much anywhere not sitting right on bedrock. We could do it with bedrock, just more expensive drilling.
Geothermal heating on the other hand, depe
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Heat pumps can be used in reverse for air conditioning. That's one of the appeals of them. Geothermal heat pumps are the way to go, they too can run in reverse. I had one in Indiana, best damn heating/cooling system I've ever seen.
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In many places you'd need to combine geothermal with a heat pump to bring up the temperature to a useful level.
Only in places with close to surface magma it would work without a heat pump.
Water to water heat pumps are then the best alternative. Just some plumbing work to replace the heat pump.
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True - for these that own and live in single/multiple family houses. But very likely most of folks here live in apartment complexes and rent.
Re: Install your own (Score:2)
You can't install either unless you're a licensed electrician or HVAC tech, not 100%.
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Sure. So go vote to make that better. Next opportunity in 2 days. At least installing solar does really not require an electrician. Germany allows you up to 800W now without one and with connection to the regular house-net and Germany is paranoid about electrical safety.
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I got near unlimited ground mount solar that I play with, a few KWH of modern batteries, many more KWH of legacy Lead Acid and will g
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The foot print of bulk transport of food is bugger all. Cities are terrible for living, but decent for energy efficiency.
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Only F-gas licensing is nearly universal, due to international agreement (though the license exam is something like 50 bucks in the US as far as I recall).
A monoblock heatpump and PV will be legal to DIY install everywhere sane.
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Please consider getting off the computer and installing your own heat pumps and solar panels.
Plenty of municipalities won't grant a permit for those sort of improvements if they're not being installed by a licensed contractor. While that certainly might not stop people who are determined to do it anyway, it can potentially cause problems with keeping a home insurance policy, and if you ever decide to sell your house it could negatively impact the resale value.
Also, with something highly visible like solar panels, you risk code enforcement slapping you with a "stop work" order and then having to pa
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I am already on a heat-pump (apartment complex) and city electricity (pretty large city...) is a water/solar mix. This stuff _works_. You just need to put in some initial effort and some thinking.
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I mean this is totally natural, right? https://www.climate.gov/news-f... [climate.gov]
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Heat pumps are vaporware.
That is an US problem. Things work reasonably here (Europe). And that means (unless you think the US economy is really failing) there is a lack of will in the US to make it possible. If you look at the current fear-mongering and hate-inciting that US domestic politics has become, it is not hard to see why actually serious problems do not really get addressed anymore.
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Basically there is no one magic silver bullet that will let us keep the cars & suburbs that the automotive companies sold us on decades ago.
Suburbs are not a problem. The solution is a working public transport system (look at most of Europe to see how that goes). A newer solution is home-offices and that can take away a lot of the need for transportation. Cars need to mostly go away, no question. That approach is not sustainable and leads to catastrophe. I expect in the end all that will be left for cars is electric delivery vans and rentals/taxis at maybe 5% of the cars we have today.
Re: Betteridge's law says no. (Score:2)
Heat pumps are good but they're no substitute for switching to green energy
Nobody is proposing it as a substitution.
"My name is rsilvergun, I don't know what the fuck a heat pump is, but it sounds like what my anus does all day long. So I'm going to rant about cars."
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Heat pumps are good but they're no substitute for switching to green energy and walkable cities.
You mean those cities which are hotter than the suburbs because of all the black top and heat generated from all the buildings?
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The planet can easily sustain 10 billion people, but not 10 billion people all putzing about in their own metal boxes [youtube.com].
If you're gonna do the whole fantasy rainbows and unicorns dream thing, I'd rather have an economy that is sustainable without continuing population growth. That way we get to keep our metal boxes and modern western standards of living, and simply just breed less people.
I've said this to you before: Read about the rat utopia experiments [wikipedia.org]. Being crammed into tight little urban spaces with "everything you need" has been proposed before, and it's not nearly as great as /r/fuckcars on Reddit would have you be
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"Heat pumps are good but they're no substitute for switching to green energy and walkable cities."
Making existing cities "walkable" is probably going to be really expensive. Not only do you have to move stuff closer together, you also have to have covered walkways (or skyways) for when there is weather.
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"The local distribution network won't handle the extra load - from EVs as well as heat pumps."
Most houses in my area are all-electric. The heat pump will reduce loads on most days. Seven amps instead of 16 to 20 in my case to heat the main part of this house.