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Comment by apexalpha | Hacker News Reader

After the 2022 energy crisis we renovated our house and moved fully electric. Heatpump, induction cooking, battery, etc...

It was already a easy financial case to be made, let alone the extra comfort. But now it's a no-brainer. I get €100 back every month now, while others around me pay up to €300 per month.

The way the Chinese manufacturers are scaling production of batteries is something to behold.

In 2022 I bought 20kWh + 10kW inverter + installation for €7500.

My buddy just ordered a 54kWh battery for €6500... And it's not slowing down, they're only gaining speed with the introduction of over cheaper materials like Sodium batteries.

The Chinese are the only reason I remain somewhat optimistic of our chances of combatting climate change.

Europe is too lazy, the US just gave up, really.

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I'm curious as to how low a temperature your heat pump will operate. I live in New England and replaced a whole-house air conditioner with a heat pump, but the heat pump works only to 35F. Much colder than that, and an auxiliary electric heater kicked in. The first Winter cost me about $800 over my gas-fired forced hot water heating system. I had the contractor disable the electric heat in the Spring and rewire the thermostats to start the (high efficiency) furnace when the outdoor temp got too low.

We got a heat pump in BC Canada, it’s rated down to -30C.

We also got solar, our entire power bill (all heating, cooking, lights, computers, etc) is $500 for the year. Best decision ever.

That depends on the refrigerant, the new Mitsubishis are effective at that and lower temperatures.

Mine can go until -25c they say: https://www.nibe.eu/en-eu/products/heat-pumps/air-water-heat...

We don't ever get those temps so I should be fine.

My biggest issue is not cold but mist. I live near a river in a valley and have underestimated how much mist hurts performance around ~1c outside.

It needs to defrost often, because of the high moisture content in the outside air where I live.

But it also has a normal, resistive heating 9kW backup. But for financial reasons this is considered 'emergency only'.

Keep in mind that heat pumps have a limit how much they can pump (it also depends on temp., there is less heat in 35F air). If your house is not well insulated, at a lower temperature it would be loosing more energy and eventually it would reach the threshold where it's performance is not enough to keep up.

I love my induction stove. You will pry it out of my cold dead hands. I wish I could do all the other things you did, but rent ...

But induction is a game changer. It makes everything else (including gas) seem weak. I can make my steel wok glow red within 20 seconds.

And it's so much easier to clean too. And, when you're not cooking it's flat so you can just use as counter space.

And then there's the flammable gas in your house. I had it for 20 years, it works fine when installed properly but the risk is never 0.

Would you mind sharing some details on the 54kWh battery for €6500? I'm looking for one and this sounds like a crazy deal.

It's this one: https://balansenergie.nl/

They're a startup trying to get to the minimum amount of MWh to become a 'virtual power plant'.

It seems it's 48kwh, apologies. And it seems the cheapest batch is already sold out: it's now €6500.

the US didn’t just give up. they are actively resisting cheaper technologies (ie green power) because of incompatible ideologies that favour the status quo. the biggest threat here is that the US does absolutely nothing in fact worse, it doubles down out of ignorance, greed and stupidity

The US didn't give up. Trump purposely killed the funding for clean energy because Big Oil donated $75-100M to get him elected.

correction: they may have spent $450M: https://climatepower.us/news/new-report-oil-and-gas-industry...

Exactly. And it wasn't a secret either. He shouted 'drill baby drill' at any opportunity.

And then the Americans elected him in a landslide.

They gave up.

The US didn't give up. Trump purposely killed the funding for clean energy because Big Oil donated $75-100M to get him elected.

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