this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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Why Heat Pumps Are the Future, and How Your Home Could Use One (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have a few people I know that installed heat pumps about 10 or 12 years ago, and they have failed at this point. The cost to repair is more than a new heat pump and they are just getting a standard Ac unit and using the backup gas furnace that has minimal hours on it as the main heat source now.

I feel like this is more inherent obsolescence of the companies making parts and not so much the tech itself?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's definitely possible to buy low-quality appliances and end up with something which fails sooner than you'd want. That's true of every appliance out there.

There's a reason there are Consumer Reports reliability ratings for heat pumps — like they have for every other major appliance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I agree that it might be a problem of lower-quality appliances. Anecdotally, mine is 20 years old and was repaired recently (some parts had to be manufactured as they don't make them anymore) and still works.

Is there an open alternative for Consumer Reports? The content of this link is blocked without a subscription it seems like. Thx!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

There are other similar publications like the New York Times Wirecutter, but they're not generally available without a subscription.

I recommend paying a visit to your local library if you're thinking of buying a major appliance; in the US at least, libraries tend to have all the relevant subscriptions and can get you access.