Midea Unveils Stark Awareness Gap in Heat Pump Technology Among Homeowners and Contractors

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Midea Unveils Stark Awareness Gap in Heat Pump Technology Among Homeowners and Contractors

Midea, the world's largest producer of major appliances and a leading innovator in the HVAC industry, unveils an eye-opening survey that found more than half of homeowners are not fully aware of heat pumps and their function, and therefore have not considered the purchase. The survey conducted by Atomik Research shows a considerable awareness gap of the potential of heat pump technology amongst homeowners and contractors, as well as a willingness to embrace heat pumps with proper understanding of the technology. Heat pump adoption has been rapidly rising in 2023 and with ongoing federal and regional legislation and incentives, adoption is expected to continue to increase in 2024.

Read the full story here.

dko

I'm pretty sure if you had a survey asking a technical question about any home heating system you can get similar percentages. Just depends on the questions asked. 

HVACNUT

I'm not sold on the whole -4° thing.Maybe, but what is the indoor temperature with 100% heat output, 60°? No thanks. My wife would throw all my stuff on the lawn.

87% will switch to a heat pump as their SOLE source of heat? Again, not me. I'm all for reducing the carbon blah blah blah, but not if I can't be comfortable doing it. I'm such a princess. 

I'm also not 100% sold on inverter technology and all the bells and whistles that come with it. Don't get me wrong, some of these systems are absolutely awesome. I recently commissioned Carrier Infinity systems at 2 different builds. 10 systems in total. You simply weigh in the charge on top of the factory charge if needed. Then you do everything through the Interface (thermostat). It's able to tell you sub cooling, CFM per zone, air leakage per zone, and a host of other goodies. These systems are zoned (because everyone needs a thermostat in every room), with Carrier dampers, and the modulation that these systems are able to achieve is outstanding. BUT, what happens on an early 2 am Saturday morning in February when it's -4° and a board takes a poop in a condenser? You're not getting one until Monday at soonest. IF it's in stock at the local distributor. The people who's systems I commissioned can always shuffle off to another wing. Actually they don't have to because both sites have hydro coil backups on all air handlers delivered by fossil fuel high efficiency LP gas boilers. Most of us have 1 or 2 CAC systems, so if things go south, it might not be fun if you don't have any dinosaurs to burn as a backup.
That's why fossil fuel backup. Or wood, pellets, whatever. Something. 

So for me, when the time comes, I'll ditch my R22 CAC system and install a high SEER, high COP 2 stage heat pump. I have everything I need on the truck if a part goes bad. Condenser fan motor? Got it. Capacitors? How many you want? Relays, contactors, blower motors. And if you don't have, you can usually safely MacGyver a temp repair until you can get the correct part.

So I'll have my nice 2 stage heat pump and feel like I'm helping a little. Maybe not Hunter Green, but a nice Sage. However, I'll also have my stage 3 oil fired boiler and fin tube BB. Less taxing on my generator as well if needed. 

Hot_water_fan

Maybe, but what is the indoor temperature with 100% heat output, 60°? 

Sounds like part of the 96% @HVACNUT

WMno57

HVACNUT said:

Funny thing @WMno57. As I was commissioning these Carrier systems, I was reminded of a guy standing in front of a huge Carrier Corp. banner with a bunch of other suits, and how this guy just saved Carrier Corp. from going to ........

I live in Indiana. I'm well aware of what happened at the Indianapolis Carrier plant and not happy about it. Both political parties need to work harder to develop and keep American jobs. As a citizen and taxpayer, I don't give participation trophies. I expect results.
I see my post was removed. Doesn't change how I feel. I grew up in Lansing, Michigan in the 1970s. Our Government failed American manufacturing. Our Government failed the rust belt in the Midwest.
@Erin Holohan Haskell I feel it was ill timed to post a cheerleading article for Midea right after an article celebrating US manufacturing. I realize you didn't grow up in the rust belt, and may not be aware of the devastation that offshoring jobs has caused.
Although we now have a global economy and there are many countries who are our friends and partners, there are a few countries who are not our friends. They do not share our views on intellectual property, free trade, and most importantly freedom and democracy.
Sorry if this upsets some. I encourage everyone to become more knowledgeable about the issue.

HVACNUT

@WMno57, I deleted that part because I thought it was too political but I guess you screen grabbed it pretty quick. 
As long as we have free and fair elections every 4 years like we always have, we'll be alright. We're America after all.🇺🇸

WMno57

@HVACNUT I thought what you originally said in its entirety was fine.
I respect your right to control your message.
I respect Erin's wish to not stray into politics and other areas that might be divisive.
So I chopped off the last part of the screen grab. Please let me know if you would like me to remove the screen grab altogether.

WMno57

back to heating
from the article

Midea is at the forefront of meeting this emerging demand with innovative solutions. Recent lab tests of Midea’s forthcoming 3-ton cold-climate heat pump system achieved 118% of rated capacity heating output at -15°F. The Midea system also delivered tremendous efficiency at -15°F with a Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 1.92 – surpassing the ENERGY STAR cold climate benchmark of 1.7 COP at 5°F – despite operating at a temperature 20°F below the testing standard.

The Department of Energy (DOE) realizes the under-tapped potential of heat pumps in decarbonizing our living spaces, promoting engineering advancements through the Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge and incentivizing heat pump adoption through tax credit programs within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The billions of dollars of taxpayer money from IRA 2022 are a tremendous incentive for bad actors to game the testing. Like Volkswagen did in the diesel emissions scandal. Who is checking these efficiency claims?

Erin Holohan Haskell

Unfortunately we have to remove posts if they get too political. We can't get into politics here because it leads to fighting and personal attacks, which interferes with the work we're doing to help people and learn from one another.

I realize that there are many issues in our industry that are related to politics that affect people deeply, but we've been running this site for 27 years and have rarely seen a political discussion end well online. Thank you for respecting this rule.

As for the news we share, we do our best to provide a broad perspective. So while we may post about a class on the beauty of American manufacturing, we will also share a global corporate news release about heat pumps.

Recently we've been sharing new releases from the AHR Expo, and we will continue to do so all week here. This news will be from companies all over the world to give our community a wide overview of new products and developments. You'll also see how different companies are approaching the market, which can be very interesting.

You may not always agree with these posts, but we're not going to filter the news we share.

DanHolohan

Well said, Erin. Thank you. 

Dave Carpentier

Well, where I live my choices this summer when we get rid of the old oil boiler, will be;
a) have gas line run in and install a modcon
b) have gas line run in and install a modcon + HP combo
c) install a HP and replace my little genny with a whole-house genny (diesel or gasoline) to cover these rural outages for the electric grid heat.

It's not that I dont recognize some of the advances in HPs, Im just waiting for the ones that can work at my design temp without the need for large amp heaters.

c) would be a fairly big install bill.