Plug-n-play solutions for home electrification, and options for power outages (Part 2)

There's some pretty cool stuff out there. Speaking of stuff,
Links 'n' stuff:
PART ONE

Other videos that popped up in the little clicky things here and there:

My beginner's guide to electric vehicle charging

A video on Coleman lanterns

My 24-hour Vehicle-to-Load Test Run

A comparison I did with my old gas stove and a new radiant electric model

Technology Connextras (my second channel where stuff goes sometimes)

Technology Connections on Mastodon:

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00:00 Intro
00:42 A bit more on load management
03:43 Running new wires? Maybe not!
04:58 Heat Pump Water Heaters
07:50 Drawbacks
09:39 Thoughts on tankless water heaters
11:34 Other considerations and drawbacks
15:40 Heat Pump Clothes Dryers
17:41 Drawbacks
19:21 Induction stoves - they're a thing!
20:28 Stoves with Batteries
24:58 Pros and Cons
27:22 Power Outages
29:02 A cheap and huge "battery" you can get anywhere (propane)
29:58 Stuff you can do with propane
31:56 My rationale
33:37 Electric cars which offload stored power
37:05 There are nearly endless options, including your community
39:49 Bloops

[jajssblue]

I feel like our culture can really underestimate the long term ROI of good infrastructure and planning. I really like your content because it constantly highlights the practical value and steps people can take to improve these investments on their personal level and higher levels of advocacy. Literacy is a great way to change things.

[kadmii]

living in an older house in the northeast US has been making me think more and more about "what can I replace this with when it goes?" and these videos have given a lot of food for thought

[radioactive]

Just so you know, heat pump dryers often come with a connector on the back to dump the water. Since you usually install this next to your washing machine, there's a good chance that dumping that water down the drain is an easy option because a waste water pipe is already there. This leaves only the lint trap as the maintenance requirement. And if you have a front loading washing machine, you can put the dryer on top of it and have the water gravity fed into the pipe without a pump

[PKWeaver]

We bought a heat pump dryer 10 years ago and it's the best purchase at ever made.
I have ADHD and drying clothes outside was always a challenge. When we admitted this gave and bought a heat pump dryer we didn't know it would never damage our clothes. It's amazing, does large loads and yes, takes ages. If you know this in advance it's brilliant.

[DavidCiani]

It's proably a pipe dream/not efficent for a residence, but the concept of centralizing all of the heat pumps from around the house into a single system has always fascinated me. Air handlers, hydronic heating, domestic hot water heater, refrigerator, freezer, etc. all hooked up to a single thermal energy management system that can intelligently move energy around based on where it's needed (or not needed). Throw in a geothermal ground loop too!

[xXfzmusicXx]

As someone living in a country (Norway) that barely uses gas, and where electricity is not only available in vast quantities, but also mostly renewable (don't remember exact numbers, but it's at least >90%) all of this is fascinating to me. I had no idea how much Americans used gas. While I knew gas stoves were popular I didn't realize you use it for heating for example. Great video!

[MattOckendon]

You are absolutely spot on about induction cooking. After 5 years I could never go back to gas or resistive heating. Boiling the biggest pot full of water in the time it takes to find some pasta is life changing!

[jacobtothe]

I appreciate the honesty about pros and cons, up-front costs versus operating costs, regional needs, and other nuances ignored by the hype-it-up crowd. I am very rural and power outages happen during summer and winter storms. Diesel and gas generators, backup propane stoves, wood-fueled furnaces, and so forth are common as a result. But progress should be embraced where it is most beneficial first, and then the rest of us can benefit later.

[conqu]

Really happy you included the part about building resilience through communities at the end -- an important and consistently overlooked aspect of how we approach challenges throughout the U.S.

[anymancandoitwiththerightools]

I love how well researched your videos are! As someone in HVAC for over 20 years.. I can say everything you've said is true.. and I also would to agree that not every hvac firm is down with heat pumps.. we are tho.. it's all we install anymore.

[fensoxx]

I love the higher output you seem to be putting out. Please keep a good healthy balance for yourself but it is so great to watch your content more often. You’re really good at this and appreciated! Thank you!

[tristanridley]

As a Canadian this was fascinating. Everyone I know has always used electric stoves and dryers, so understanding where you guys are coming from is a challenge. This helped.

If power outages a really a common thing, then you all should consider having a responsible organization take over your power grid. Significant outages are so rare here they each get wikipedia articles, and storms that cause hundreds of downed lines have all the damage repaired in a day or two, if you're unlucky.

[sicarianduraznac]

This channel has caused me to drastically redesign the house I was saving up to build.

[TrossachsPhoto]

Condenser dryers are quite common here in the UK, but I've just bought a second-hand heat pump dryer which takes the same space as a condenser, but thanks to the knowledge gained from your many many many useful discussions on heat pumps, a fraction of the resistive heating cost. I paid £150 for a 4 month old heat pump dryer.

[backseatgaming]

I tried induction for cooking and now it's my favorite. Bonus points for having different protections against improper use and a built-in timer to not burn your food in case you get distracted and forget that it's there.
Ikea has a nice selection of induction compatible cookware that i'm pretty happy with.

[evolv.e]

15:40 our family bought a heat pump dryer 3 years ago. Costs very little to operate and still going strong. I love that this video (and this channel for that matter) goes over some great information and viable energy saving options.

[danh]

Always appreciate these videos. Sorry that this is a long comment. I'll just add my own experience with the Rheem ProTerra hybrid 50 gal heat pump water heater that I bought from Home Depot for $1, 699+tax and installed myself. I bought it June/2022 to replace an 80 gallon electric water heater that sprung a leak after 20 years of flawless service. Installation was just as easy as replacing any electric water heater with no special tools or procedures required. I live in the warm south so the heat pump worked great and the energy savings were exactly as advertised. A big bonus was the cool dehumidified air in my utility room. Well, two days ago the thing started beeping like crazy. Upon inspection, it was sitting in a pool of water and the LCD screen said it had error codes. I downloaded an app to talk to my water heater, yes our civilization is at this stage, and it politely told me a whole bunch of things that I didn't understand and asked me if I wanted it to forward the error codes to the installer/contractor. Well seeing as that was me, and I had no idea what it was talking about, I ignored it and tried to find out where the water was leaking from. It turned out that the bottom heating element, it's a hybrid and has both top and bottom heating elements in addition to the heat pump, had a defect or something and arced and melted all the wires and foam near it. It had gotten so hot that it melted through the center of where the element electrodes are (not where the element screws in) and sprung a leak. Thankfully there is a troubleshooting help line phone number in large print right on the side of the tank. The water heater has a 1 year in-home parts and labor warranty as well as 10 year parts warranty including the compressor. Rheem customer service was great. They immediately contacted a plumbing company in my area and they came and inspected the unit the next morning. The plumbers sent a report to Rheem saying that the whole water heater needed replacing. Now here is where there may be an issue for some people. Later that afternoon I got a phone call from Rheem saying there is only 1 authorized installer in my area and they may not be able to get to me quickly. They said that I should hire a plumber, pay for the installation, and then submit the bill to Rheem for reimbursement. They authorized $550 for reimbursement and if it was going to be more than that I had to get "Prior approval from Rheem" or they wouldn't cover it. I'm a do it yourself-er so I asked if I could just do it. I didn't want to wait for a plumbing company, and I had been without hot water. They said "yes" Home Depot will just exchange it for a new one and if I have any issues to call them from the store and they would take care of it. So this morning I took the old one back to home-depot and got a new one installed with no issues. They wont reimburse me for my time, but i would rather just get it done. That's basically it. I know it's not an exciting story if you were expecting one but water heaters are so simple that we should expect a good 15 trouble free years from them. I don't know what happened to mine and I still do recommend this type of water heater as I hope my experience isn't typical. Rheem seems to be a good company that will cover their products under warranty, but it would probably be a good thing to be able-bodied or to know some plumbers who are.

[vigilantcosmicpenguin]

I'm not even close to owning my own home yet, but I'm glad I'm being informed about these sorts of things early on. It'll definitely make things easier a lot further down the line.

[wotireckon]

Now officially my favourite YouTube channel! A constantly rolling mountain of incredibly useful information! As a builder with a very keen eye on the future, watching these videos is pure manna from heaven! Please keep 'em coming - everyone desperately needs this sort of education!

[ShukenFlash]

Your video on induction cooktops finally pushed me to pick up a portable one for my camper. (I'm full-time in it due to constantly traveling from project to project for work.) For anyone still doubting them I can confirm that compared to the propane-powered that's built into the camper, the induction cooktop does indeed cook faster. It also releases far less heat into the camper then the propane stove, which is fantastic when it's hot out, less load for the AC to struggle against. I also don't have to run fans and blow all of my nice conditioned air outside in order to remove all the combustion products. I regret waiting several months to get it.