Heat pumps sold so fast in Maine, the state just upped its target::undefined

  • Cheez@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    These things have been completely standard fixtures elsewhere in the world for decades. I was honestly shocked that America, the land of air conditioning, had never heard of them.

    They’re so ubiquitous in Australia it’s what we think of when we hear “air conditioner”.

    When you shop for aircons they have to specify “cooling only” because reverse cycle is the default.

    • tigers@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      They are completely standard in large parts of the US too–just the northeast and other colder areas haven’t started using them due to their colder winters.

    • nodsocket@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Typical naive Australian. What you would consider unbearably frigid is warm by northern standards. It wasn’t until recently that heat pumps were efficient enough to compete with wood and coal furnaces.

    • limelight79@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      Lots of houses in the US have heat pumps already.

      This is about one state in the far north pushing to get them into more houses. Older heat pumps would not have been very effective there for most of the winter. Newer models can still produce heat in much colder temperatures, so they are adopting them.