How US-made heat pumps could help weaken Russian power over Europe

[Miguelito Loveless]

https://electrek.co/2022/03/08/how-us-made-heat-pumps-could-help-weaken-russian-power-over-europe/

President [Joe] Biden should immediately invoke the Defense Production Act to get American manufacturers to start producing electric heat pumps in quantity, so we can ship them to Europe where they can be installed in time to dramatically lessen [Vladimir] Putin’s power.

White House aides… have studied plans to dramatically scale up US production of energy-efficient heat pumps that they hoped could be used in Europe if European leaders decided to cut its imports of Russian oil, said three people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Biden officials have weighed whether these heat pumps could be produced through the Defense Production Act, an emergency national defense law, or through procurement programs at the Department of Defense, the people said. Some advocates close to the effort have compared the idea to the “Lend-Lease Act” program through which the US sent critical supplies to the Allied nations that had been invaded by Germany in World War II.

Heat pumps are WAY more efficient than gas furnaces, though more expensive to buy initially. However, a massive increase in manufacturing will drive down the cost. This could be a win/win scenario for the US and the EU.

[boston bean]

1. I had one installed in November. It was very hard to find any in stock.

Same with gererators. I was able to find both. Generator is propane.

[Miguelito Loveless]

2. I moved to batteries with solar starting in 2015 while tax credits were still generous

and prices were reasonable. If we can find a reasonable V2G solution that meets electrical codes, we could be VERY self-sufficient going forward.

[DanieRains]

3. The World Needs High Efficiency Plug And zplay Mobile Heat Pumps

That run off 110 or 220v.

Drill a hole in your wall and plug it into an outlet.

[Miguelito Loveless]

4. And changes to building codes banning

new gas connections.

[Disaffected]

5. Hmm,

I think there is a little more to it than that.

[DanieRains]

6. We Put A Rover On Mars

We can make a plug and play mini split heat pump. I started shopping for one after it hit 108 in Seattle. Costs $700 plus installation for a good one.

[hunter]

7. Heat pumps have been hard to get recently.

Many of the components are made in China, South Korea, and Japan.

Europe, and the United Kingdom especially, have been paying people to replace their gas water heaters, furnaces, and boilers with heat pumps, which has increased demand.

California is discouraging gas appliances in new construction and some of the more efficient heat pumps are largely back-ordered.

U.S. manufacturers tend to specialize in larger commercial units. Most of the smaller heat pumps sold here, even those "made in the U.S.A." use foreign components.