Why heaters are the future of cooling

A huge number of people still heat their homes with fossil fuels. There’s a better way.

Experts call it the “cold crunch." As temperatures rise in regions that historically haven’t needed indoor cooling, global demand for air conditioning units is expected to skyrocket. Indoor cooling is already the fastest-growing use of energy in buildings. But the emissions associated with cooling buildings are still tiny compared to the emissions from heating them — and that's because while air conditioning uses electricity, our heat is still largely generated by burning fossil fuels.

The way we heat our homes and buildings is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. But a solution may actually come from the rush of consumers looking to buy AC for the first time. They're a huge potential market for a different kind of system — the electric heat pump. A heat pump works like a two-way air conditioner, using electricity and a chemical refrigerant to transfer heat either into or out of a building. Instead of using fossil fuels to generate heat, it uses electricity to transfer heat, and it does it efficiently. And if heat pumps are widely adopted, they could make a major impact on the carbon emissions generated by buildings.

Further reading:

This report from the International Energy Agency is a great visual look at how the rising demand for space cooling presents buildings with a big opportunity to make their heating systems more efficient:

Check out Rebecca Leber’s reporting on another big air conditioning challenge — regulating the refrigerants that contribute to global warming:

[Vox]

His videos go much more in-depth about how heat pump technology actually works. Our goal was more to explain the connection between two separate climate stories: the booming need for home cooling, and the opportunity that presents to drastically cut our heating emissions. Both stories have a lot more to them than what we could get into in this video, which we hope is just a starting point!

[moataz]

Big swing and a miss here by not talking about the efficiency differences between heat pumps vs. traditional furnaces/electric heaters. The reason heat pumps are better is they’re not generating heat, simply moving it from the outside in. That can create efficiencies of up to 500% when compared to traditional heating.

[rjfaber]

As a Dutch BIM Engineer specialising in HVAC and plumbing, there has been a grand total of one residential project I've worked on in the past two years that has _not_ featured a heat pump for every apartment. I feel the decision to show the Netherlands as an example of countries that have already embraced the technology is quite correct.

[therealjuralumin]

As an Australian I was so confused, this is something I've had nearly my whole life (I'm 24) and I have never once heard it called a "heat pump". It's just an air conditioner.

[Xrey]

It blows my mind how I just realised, since I'm not a native English speaker, what a heat pump is and that literally every country in Europe has had them for decades.

[EngineeringMindset]

Heat pumps don't just heat/cool homes. We have an entire series on the different types and how they work

[jay-uobi]

"Revolutionary"

We have had these for decades in nearly every Australian home.

[jackgerring]

I can't believe he called a heat pump 'revolutionary' in 2021.

[tylermotta]

For anyone wondering how a heat pump works in the winter it's all about the refrigerant. So like that ductless mini split in his room uses 410 A refrigerant which boils at -55 F. When refrigerant boils it's going through a phase change and starts pulling energy from it's surroundings to turn into a gas, even if it's like 32 F below it can still draw that heat.

[UselessDuckCompany]

It's interesting to learn about these connections in technology

[XLR]

This has been a thing in every moderately advanced country except the US for literally decades.

[matthewrogersmusic]

“With a revolutionary device called a heat pump” nah Vox I’m out after that one 😂

[jonyork]

for those on the fence, I went from a electric baseboard heat at 18 KW in total for my home, to two heat pumps (one each floor) and only consume 6KW in heating now. Same temperature, same comfort, less consumption.

[joshuathorson]

This is one of the weakest videos I've seen Vox put out. Graphics don't clearly explain how heat pumps also can work to cool buildings, no explanation of why or how they are more energy efficient.

I'm very pro-heat pump so it's disappointing to see such a wasted opportunity.

[chriscunningham]

You guys normally do a great job of explaining the tech or subject up front. However an absurdly low effort was shown here exposing exactly how air conditioners and more importantly heat pumps actually work and their benefits / downsides for both. I barely gathered much from today’s video.

[mattmayo]

I stayed in a house in Maui that was built in 1970. Terrible insulation or none at all. But that Fujitsu heat pump had that place at 63 degrees when it was 105 outside. Truly impressive

[Wonderhussy]

I just had these installed at my house in Death Valley, where it gets to be over 120°F in the summertime...curious to see how this coming season goes in terms of comfort -- and electric bills!

[kanderson]

A "two-way air conditioner" using a heat pump is called a reverse cycle air conditioner because it literally reverses the heat pump the other way when you want to change from hot air flow to cold air flow and vice versa.

[nickhiscock]

This type of reverse cycle air-conditioning has been common in Australia since the 1990s. Alot of places use them from both Heating and Cooling.

[gmanengineer]

“Heat Pump” is NOT one of the worst names of all time. It explains exactly what it does: a heat pump moves heat energy from one place to another. Sometimes it’s pumping heat out of your home, sometimes it’s pumping heat into your home.