<story><title>Heat pumps of the 1800s are becoming the technology of the future</title><url>https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2023/heat-pumps-becoming-technology-future</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AlanSE</author><text>The fridge isn&amp;#x27;t the biggest energy hog in the house, but I&amp;#x27;m very sympathetic to the absurdity of heat levels in a house.&lt;p&gt;I often see my HVAC cooling when the set-point temperature is actually _higher_ than the outside temperature. Logically, the house is a heat generator, it makes sense physically. The roof is black, etc.&lt;p&gt;It would offer a good number of benefits if the system could outright open a duct to the outdoor air, and suck it in whenever the local outside temperature is within the range requested by the user. People who are into optimizing energy use (they exist) can go even further and pre-cool their house during the night in summer.&lt;p&gt;For this to work, all you need a pusher fan, no refrigeration at all. There might be some pressurization problems, like, you may need a duct both for the intake and outlet. Also might require another filter... but air quality would improve significantly.&lt;p&gt;This is a really &amp;quot;dumb&amp;quot; idea, but it&amp;#x27;s perfectly in-line with all the new ideas being thrown out there. The new ideas just tend to throw in an additional heat storage mechanism, like a water tank (in the article). You can get a lot more efficiency gains by saving the night&amp;#x27;s cold in a tank and using it through the day. But on a more basic level, you can pump straight into the house when the conditions are right.</text></item><item><author>nickpeterson</author><text>Why can’t my whole home participate in this technology? It would seem an ok fit for things like freezers, refrigerators, hot water heaters, etc.&lt;p&gt;When it’s freezing cold outside, it seems crazy that I warm the air of my house and then use electricity to keep the fridge cooler than the air I just heated.&lt;p&gt;Someone needs to make a standard for moving heat&amp;#x2F;cool through all appliances in a house…</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ComputerGuru</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve built&amp;#x2F;retrofitted and a prototype of mechanically operated louvres with push&amp;#x2F;pull fans for air exchange in an old school building, tied to the thermostat, ac, and a CO2 detector.&lt;p&gt;The idea of doing the same in my home has been taunting me for years now. Ideally you&amp;#x27;d have two such louvres, one with a push fan in the upper floor and the other with a pull fan in the lower floor to simultaneously eject unwanted heat, bring in fresh air, and boost whole-house circulation. They&amp;#x27;d be set up to interface with the thermostat&amp;#x2F;hvac and would operate when the outdoor temperature at intake is lower than the temperature at exhaust and both are above the set point on the ac.&lt;p&gt;The biggest problem is really one of convenience. You&amp;#x27;d need a filter on the intake and a rather large and powerful fan to overcome that static pressure - ergo, a noisy one. And you&amp;#x27;d probably have to fully dismantle the system in the winter to prevent the cold from getting in (the Midwest is cursed with both hot and humid summers and cold and dry winters). It just end up being the kind of thing where the devil really is in the details and you either do it right and it&amp;#x27;s a huge undertaking or you do it fast and sloppy and its drawbacks won&amp;#x27;t be worth it.&lt;p&gt;But I agree, nothing is more infuriating than seeing the AC on and the outdoor air temperature being lower than that of the home. And opening windows just doesn&amp;#x27;t make a difference since in most 20th century homes there&amp;#x27;s just poor airflow and no circulation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Heat pumps of the 1800s are becoming the technology of the future</title><url>https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2023/heat-pumps-becoming-technology-future</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AlanSE</author><text>The fridge isn&amp;#x27;t the biggest energy hog in the house, but I&amp;#x27;m very sympathetic to the absurdity of heat levels in a house.&lt;p&gt;I often see my HVAC cooling when the set-point temperature is actually _higher_ than the outside temperature. Logically, the house is a heat generator, it makes sense physically. The roof is black, etc.&lt;p&gt;It would offer a good number of benefits if the system could outright open a duct to the outdoor air, and suck it in whenever the local outside temperature is within the range requested by the user. People who are into optimizing energy use (they exist) can go even further and pre-cool their house during the night in summer.&lt;p&gt;For this to work, all you need a pusher fan, no refrigeration at all. There might be some pressurization problems, like, you may need a duct both for the intake and outlet. Also might require another filter... but air quality would improve significantly.&lt;p&gt;This is a really &amp;quot;dumb&amp;quot; idea, but it&amp;#x27;s perfectly in-line with all the new ideas being thrown out there. The new ideas just tend to throw in an additional heat storage mechanism, like a water tank (in the article). You can get a lot more efficiency gains by saving the night&amp;#x27;s cold in a tank and using it through the day. But on a more basic level, you can pump straight into the house when the conditions are right.</text></item><item><author>nickpeterson</author><text>Why can’t my whole home participate in this technology? It would seem an ok fit for things like freezers, refrigerators, hot water heaters, etc.&lt;p&gt;When it’s freezing cold outside, it seems crazy that I warm the air of my house and then use electricity to keep the fridge cooler than the air I just heated.&lt;p&gt;Someone needs to make a standard for moving heat&amp;#x2F;cool through all appliances in a house…</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ballenf</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve often wondered if opening windows while AC is running and outside temp is below inside temp is less efficient than keeping them closed.&lt;p&gt;My thought is I should keep them closed due to extra load on the AC to dehumidify the outside air. Or open windows and turn AC to fan-only mode to prevent stagnant air in rooms without windows.</text></comment>