[Firerouge]

A heat pump water heater seems like a no brainer way to improve efficiency. They're not yet common, but there are many more options available over seas than in America.

This project seems emblematic of the challenges facing funding manufacturing initiatives in America. What's funded are the projects that appeal to tech investors, more of a focus on flashy presentation, luxury design, AI, and cloud app features, than the baseline functionality.

We get innovation as a side effect of convincing investors that the idea will disrupt industries and create app ecosystems that lock in consumer attention. Chasing the 100x unicorns and no longer training workhorses

[Maxion]

Big problem in the US is that in many regions natural gas is cheaper than electricity, causing heat pump water heaters to be more expensive for the consumer. So everyone ends up burning more.

[Youden]

That doesn't make a lot of sense. A modern gas-fired plant is ~50% efficient and heat pumps typically have a COP of ~3 for hot water, so if you take natural gas, burn it to convert it to electricity, then feed that electricity to a heat pump, you'll get ~1.5x the energy you'd get if you just burned the natural gas.

[bob1029]

How does the electricity get from the generating unit to the heat pump? What are the environmental conditions during heat pump operation?

These things sound so obvious when you don't factor in the annoying little details like transmission of energy. System complexity also matters. There's this thing called "total cost of ownership" that paints a more honest picture regarding how these economics interact.

Using heat pumps to solve a problem looks fantastic in operational efficiency terms, but what happens if the control board breaks and the vendor decided to move on? Dumb, slightly less efficient appliances might actually be cheaper and better for the environment in total. If I have to create a pile of e-waste every 3 years just to save 10% on my energy bill for something that is already incredibly cheap in absolute terms, I think it could be argued I've made everything worse.

[Firerouge]

Maybe the problem is shared deeper than that, that both industry and individuals are not interested, incentivized, or capable of investing into improving on good enough.

[nrhrjrjrjtntbt]

What about heat pump and solar. Maybe just a financing issue then? Maybe installation issue for appartments and rentals.