Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback

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In Maine, where winter is long and chilling, and exorbitant oil and gas prices have motivated people to switch, crews have installed tens of thousands of heat pumps, prompting the fossil fuel industry to step up its efforts to beat back the trend.

The state agency has also established a pilot program to see if heat pumps could replace furnaces in mobile and manufactured homes. Marianna Casagranda is one of 10 homeowners in the town of Freeport who signed up.

The website, which credits Carrione’s marketing firm, warns that most Maine homeowners can’t rely on heat pumps as a sole source of heating. It says that because heat pumps run on electricity that’s still made by burning natural gas they are “no greener than the furnace in your basement.” The Maine Energy Marketers Association raised questions about heat pumps’ viability by suggesting they would tax the region’s electric grid. In 2021, ISO New England, the state’s power grid operator,of rolling blackouts because of supply chain issues affecting natural gas. Yet the trade group’s president blamed the situation on the state’s promotion of heat pumps.

“We may pay the invoices for these consultants, but we do not hire them,” said Devine, adding that state groups have autonomy over their individual campaigns. But oil’s market share is falling. Whereas 74 percent of the state’s homes relied on oil to keep warm in the winter in 2010, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, that figure had fallen to 60 percent by 2021.installed through Efficiency Maine rebates, per capita. This sprawling region of pine forests and potato farms is bordered on three sides by Canada and it has endured some truly frigid cold snaps, including a record low of minus-37 degrees in Caribou in January 2009.

In a state with fewer than 600,000 occupied housing units, the agency has already given out rebates for 116,000 heat pumps, blowing past its original goal of helping residents install 100,000 units by 2025. While Stoddard said some were skeptical of the agency’s initial efforts to recruit installers and boost the market, now there is little doubt that heat pumps can function in cold climates, and his agency is experimenting with new uses.

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heat pump may defy Maine winter but the do it from an extremely cold house. Natural gas auxiliary heat is the only way to go there unless they have oil auxes...

I notice you made no attempt to even mention the specific points that were made against electrifying. You didn't because then you would have to have made an attempt of invalidating them. And you know the sheep who follow this publication won't research it themselves.

Y

-8 last weekend and the heat pump was still blowing hot air. Not sure what anyone is talking about.

I am sure that they are NOT worth a da$& in som states. What is ok in Florida May not be so good in N. Dakota, Montana, or Alaska. Not 100% sure, just what I figure

The Global North will benefit from global warming.

Just learned about pipes meant to send CO2 to North Dakota, anyone talking about that?

'Fossil fuel industry groups say...' 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

In the past, one could envision a scenario where abacus industry groups said calculators aren’t ideal for being used to solve math problems. That fictional scenario would be no less accurate than the fossil fuel groups opposing the spread of cleaner, superior technology.

Heat pumps stop working once the temp gets below about 38 degrees, I am willing to bet they are installing dual fuel systems which are very popular.

We have one, but we can’t use it during really cold days and have to use our central system. Me thinks the skeptics are correct. Great for the southern states, not so great for places that get really cold.

Let them then go all elec and watch as their elec grid melt down.

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