We have just converted from a gas furnace to a heat pump. It took a day. Connected to the existing heating system (water radiators and under floor) and hot water pipes. I know you wanted an ethanol solution, however, the electricity route combined with solar cells (like we have) makes it cheap to run.
I do tend to forget that liquid based heating might not be the norm everywhere - here in Denmark it is the most common way to heat your house. Our heat pump operates down to -25C (-13F) and down to -35C (-31F) with reduced heating output and that should be enough for our climate. Not sure how good a “normal” heat pump for a single room can perform in cold weather.
I think it is a good “temporary” solution to convert to as much biodiesel as possible. The other benefit of diesel-based heating is that you don’t require a lot of electricity to run the heater, if power is cut and you rely on battery backup. We do have batteries in our solar cell solution, however the way it is tied together, we can’t provide emergency power from the batteries to the heat pump. Only able to power stuff that requires a normal plug. We have a fireplace in case we run into issues with heating.
IMO we should all change away from fossil / burning for heating, where and when possible. I know it will take a long time to get to that place, especially with new data centers requiring so much power.
Currently on an oil system that uses baseboard radiators throughout the house. Didn’t realize a heat pump could potentially tie into the same system but am going to look into it now. Anything to watch out for in your experience?
If I remember correctly, the issue with corn ethanol is the scale. It requires a lot of space and a lot of water.
Solar panels are energy wise a much more efficient use of the same area.
They also don’t require water or any kind of labour to harvest. Finally the consumption of electricity in heaters or cars is more efficient than burning ethanol.
I like your idea of using existing burners instead of replacing entire heat systems. Perhaps biogas produced by household and agricultural waste is a better option than growing corn for this purpose.
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We have just converted from a gas furnace to a heat pump. It took a day. Connected to the existing heating system (water radiators and under floor) and hot water pipes. I know you wanted an ethanol solution, however, the electricity route combined with solar cells (like we have) makes it cheap to run.
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I do tend to forget that liquid based heating might not be the norm everywhere - here in Denmark it is the most common way to heat your house. Our heat pump operates down to -25C (-13F) and down to -35C (-31F) with reduced heating output and that should be enough for our climate. Not sure how good a “normal” heat pump for a single room can perform in cold weather.
I think it is a good “temporary” solution to convert to as much biodiesel as possible. The other benefit of diesel-based heating is that you don’t require a lot of electricity to run the heater, if power is cut and you rely on battery backup. We do have batteries in our solar cell solution, however the way it is tied together, we can’t provide emergency power from the batteries to the heat pump. Only able to power stuff that requires a normal plug. We have a fireplace in case we run into issues with heating.
IMO we should all change away from fossil / burning for heating, where and when possible. I know it will take a long time to get to that place, especially with new data centers requiring so much power.
Currently on an oil system that uses baseboard radiators throughout the house. Didn’t realize a heat pump could potentially tie into the same system but am going to look into it now. Anything to watch out for in your experience?
If I remember correctly, the issue with corn ethanol is the scale. It requires a lot of space and a lot of water.
Solar panels are energy wise a much more efficient use of the same area. They also don’t require water or any kind of labour to harvest. Finally the consumption of electricity in heaters or cars is more efficient than burning ethanol.
I like your idea of using existing burners instead of replacing entire heat systems. Perhaps biogas produced by household and agricultural waste is a better option than growing corn for this purpose.
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They have a large scale project of that sort in Finland.
Article from Helsinki Times
Since this was written, they’ve also started running busses on that fuel.
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Even ethanol critics don’t claim ethanol needs more energy to make than it produces. However the most optimistic supports only give in around 1.7x.