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It will take years to decades to electrify the fleet. There are plenty of routes that can be serviced today with shorter range EVs.Pretty sure it will be a good while before the USPS electrifies the entire fleet. Hopefully they will find best use cases to start.
I installed a Chiltrix CX34 unit in my original house which provides hydronic floor and DHW heating. It's been working well for 7 years.Anyone have good geothermal or heat pump experience in USA?
It’s on my list to electrify everything
I would guess that -20 F would be a challenge for any heat pump system.I have air source Mitsubishi mini splits at my house since 2018. They work but can't keep up with the cold very well when it's 20 below. Older house that if I were to do it over would be far better insulated. We put in Lo-E triple pane windows, too.
The heat pump system kept the pipes from freezing, but struggled to keep the house above 55 when it was -20.
So we also have an efficient wood stove and burn trees we cut for wildfire mitigation.
Or any system at all that's remotely efficient, especially without better insulation than I have.I would guess that -20 F would be a challenge for any heat pump system.
Fortunately where I live it rarely gets below 0F and the heat pumps struggle but do work.
My Mitsubishi system is rated to -26 F. It certainly works, just couldn't keep up. I suppose if it were a serious problem I could go with a bigger pump, but I won't since I have readily available wood and a very efficient stove."High-HSPF heat pumps can handle cold weather. At temperatures below -20°F, cold climate heat pumps still provide dependable heat, and many models are 100% efficient at sub-freezing temperatures."
"Hyper Heat is a new home heating system designed by Mitsubishi. Hyper Heat is a heat pump system, but it adds an exclusive Inverter technology that allows it to maintain its efficiency when temperatures drop, all the way down to -13 degrees Fahrenheit."
Im looking at this.
Historically many heat pumps poop out around -5F, which is why many people's pipes froze when the Midwest had a deep cold a few years ago. The newer tech for my pump, as I noted, is rated for -26F and kept the pipes from freezing while we were out of town and the low temp was -21F midway through.Heat pumps can work at quite low outdoor temperatures but I think -20F is a temperature that would be unlikely to offer much efficiency improvement over heat strips.
Most heat pumps have provision for resistance backup heat. My Chiltrix units have this option but I have never felt the need for it in my climate.Historically many heat pumps poop out around -5F, which is why many people's pipes froze when the Midwest had a deep cold a few years ago. The newer tech for my pump, as I noted, is rated for -26F and kept the pipes from freezing while we were out of town and the low temp was -21F midway through.
And, of course, that was only for a few days, so the rest of the time the Mitsubishi works quite well, and we are nearly always well below freezing at night.
This is what that looks like in terms of kWh/day for the minisplits, isolated:
View attachment 1018325
I don't have exact records from before, but I can certainly say that the winter power usage is 1/2-1/3 of what it was when we had baseboard.
Might argue this is at least equally good news for residential and grid level battery storage growth.CATL, BYD To Slash Battery Prices By 50% In 2024. BOOM! EVs Win! - CleanTechnica
CATL says it will begin selling LFP battery cells in the VDA format at price less than $60 per kWh hour by the middle of this year.cleantechnica.com
reports that in order to secure its market position, CATL is sorting out production line resources and pushing for cost reductions that could drive the price of its VDA spec lithium iron phosphate battery cells down to RMB 0.4 per Wh. That translates to $56.47 per kWh hour. At that price, a 60 kWh battery that costs manufacturers $6,776.00 today will cost just $3,388 12 months from now, saving EV manufacturers over $3,000 per vehicle.
Batteries have gone from being in tight supply a year ago — when the price of lithium spiked to stratospheric levels — to being in oversupply today. Some in the battery industry believe that prices below 0.4 RMB per Wh will leave battery makers with no profit, but in a competitive market it is possible for them to gain market share at a loss, although that is obviously not a long term strategy.
The upshot here is that battery prices are indeed falling just as Tony Seba predicted 10 years ago. That is great news for the EV revolution. In the final analysis, lower prices for electric cars will do more to make that revolution complete than all the mandates in the world.