. This means that it is particularly ecofriendly to install electrified heating systems in the city.
In the village of Eklutna, not far from Anchorage, electrician Derek Lampert has found a heat pump that copes with extreme temperatures. He lives in a house that he built with his father during the pandemic. The walls are 22 inches thick, he boasts. Lampert planned for the house to be as energy efficient as possible, and so he invested in a SANCO2 heat pump, which uses CO“We’ve had it as cold as –20 degrees Fahrenheit and it still worked,” says Lampert. “I was getting 135-degree water.
However, because a heat pump sucks heat indoors from outside, sometimes for long periods, the outer part of the machine can get especially cold and make the device less energy efficient. Heat pumps are generally designed to defrost themselves periodically, but Lampert argues that his model could be better at this. He says he has noticed a fair amount of frosting and ice build-up around the exterior of his heat pump when it’s very cold. “Certainly, the colder it gets, the worse it gets.
Terry Chapin, an ecosystem ecologist and professor emeritus of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, has a heat pump but notes that his model—designed to work down to –13 degrees Fahrenheit —struggles in the winter months. “It doubled our electricity use when I was using it at very low temperatures,” he says. When the temperature drops below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, he switches back to his oil heating system instead.
asks, But apart from the hype, why does a heat pump cost more than the total for a small fridge and a big fan?