The “common” places I’ve seen ammonia refrigeration in use are hockey rinks and cold storage warehouses. I assume it’s used in industrial installations as well for heat rejection.
Yes, if you release propane into an enclosed space like a mechanical room and then introduce a spark, it could cause an explosion.
The explosion risk (in a commercial setting) is mitigated by having gas detection sensors and an exhaust fan that runs when the gas detection alarm trips along with horn/strobes at any entrance to the mechanical room and inside the mechanical room.
In a residential setting, I’d only feel safe if the condenser (outdoor unit) used propane with a liquid to liquid heat exchanger and separate glycol loop that runs inside to the air handler coil.
Japan has no domestic source of oil or natural gas. The US has so much natural gas that it’s flared off to the atmosphere in some places. Natural gas is insanely cheap to heat with as a result and condensing boilers are extremely efficient. This created a scenario where heat pumps may be more efficient, but they might still cost more to operate. The raw cost of gas excluding pipeline and connection costs in my state is $0.57 for what is equivalent to 29.3kW of electricity. It’s very hard to beat that if you have a 98% efficient boiler, even with a COP of 4 if you’re paying $0.15/kWh, that means the equivalent amount of heat moved would cost 0.15*7=$1.05 or just under twice as expensive.
> It’s very hard to beat that if you have a 98% efficient boiler
You do not, to be clear, have a 98% efficient gas boiler. You _may_ have a gas condenser boiler which claims 98% efficiency in absolutely ideal circumstances, but realistically you're likely not getting close to that. AIUI 80% efficiency is fairly normal for real-world condenser boiler usage (non-condensers were more like 70%)
Yep - where I am, it's moderately more expensive to use our heat pump to heat the house (at basically any time of year) than to use the gas furnace, and approximately nobody has a heat pump water heater. And with datacenters trying to move in, that equation may get even worse in the future. Gas is surprisingly, weirdly cheap, often not even metered in apartments.
Having two options during cold winters can pay for itself with one emergency repair though, or be a massive savings if it can't be fixed fast enough and pipes burst.
Generally yes. But also it is sometimes like half the cost or less for comparative heating power, and for air-heating an apartment in the middle simply doesn't need anywhere near as much, and you literally heat each other so actually-fair costs are fuzzier. Gas bills in places that didn't include it would often be like $15/month in the middle of winter, hardly worth the administrative and hardware costs.
One of the houses I rented many years ago didn't even have metered gas. We paid a "hookup" fee to the city (like... $40/quarter?), and they didn't care how much we used, as long as it wasn't for commercial purposes. I assume the city had something for detecting extreme use or leaks, but that's probably it. It was a somewhat strange property though.
> and you literally heat each other so actually-fair costs are fuzzier
What you're describing is closest to "actually fair" I think we can get. A neighbour of someone I know leaves their apartment empty for long periods of time and when they're gone they just shut off their heating completely and leave all of their neighbours to pick up the bill - each apartment has their own heating system but they share walls, floors, and ceilings.
The backup heat source of a heat pump is extremely nice to have if your furnace craps out, just shut off the gas supply and let the heat pump do its job. If I had to replace my A/C condenser I’d probably opt for a heat pump to replace it so that I’d have that option too.
> The raw cost of gas excluding pipeline and connection costs
In Ontario Canada; your gas hookup is CAD$29/month (~US$21) every month of the year, on top of a per m3 charge for delivery to you before the gas cost itself. So on a smaller or well insulated residence, capping that pipe really helps push the economics in favour of heat pumps.
> but it's ridiculous that people have this sense that shopping should somehow fund your vacation.
Some people are dumb and think tax refunds are free money when in reality they’re an interest-free loan to the IRS.
Money is fungible and instantly redeeming rewards for a statement credit is almost always the optimal way to use credit card rewards.
A person who wants to fund a vacation with rewards can simply redeem the rewards for a statement credit while simultaneously transferring that amount of cash to a HYSA or similar.
> Money is fungible and instantly redeeming rewards for a statement credit is almost always the optimal way to use credit card rewards.
Uhh I have no credit cards where redeeming for credit is the optimal play. Every single one has 'offers' that give a further multiplier on the dollar amount of the points. Eg redeem $80 of points for a $100 home depot gift card.
> I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation. It is so much better than much of the badly plasticized PVC and other plastics that are now used.
PVC, XLPE, and rubber insulation is more durable than silicone. THHN uses PVC, XHHW uses XLPE, SOOW cord uses EPDM rubber.
I would encourage you to refrain from saying things like ‘lol. Talk about cope.’ here, let your argument stand on its own without baiting the other person into responding emotionally.
I’m not offering this advice because I’m perfect either, I find it difficult sometimes to be respectful of someone I disagree with. You can take it or leave it, I’ll just say editing those sorts of things out of my own posts has been helpful.
I assure you that Nathan Fielder is not rehabilitating her image. If you’ve see his work, you’d understand.
He gets people with personality disorders or a lack of embarrassment to act insane in front of cameras, more or less. I don’t see why that would change, given the subject. She tried to get out of prison by having a baby.
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