“A climate scientist half-jokingly once told me that if billionaires really wanted to save the planet, they would buy everyone a heat pump…”
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Just buying a heat pump alone does not account for potentially ongoing higher electricity costs. People sometimes need solar panels to power those heat pumps. Speaking from experience: I bought heat pumps for my house. I live in California and pay PG&E rates. Absurdly the cost of electricity is usually higher than a less efficient gas appliance.
Interesting, I think that speaks to utility rate difference more heat pump vs. other heating method. For context, here in Oregon I moved from a natural gas heated home to one that uses a heatpump boiler for radiant floor heat. My utility bills are about half of what I was paying previously if I look at combined electric + natural gas cost compared to my current electricity-only cost (of course, the homes are not 1:1 in terms of other factors affecting efficiency).
In Washington State natural gas is much more expensive than electricity. I hope to update my gas water heater to a heat pump eventually, but it was just replaced a couple of years ago so I can't justify the change right now. The solar panels we have cover 80% of our electric costs during the summer, about 25-50% the rest of the year.
As the TikTok goes, if they wanted to, they would.
This brings up an interesting argument, do the right thing have to also be the cheapest thing. We should be prepared to pay more to do what is environmentally advantageous if we have the means.
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