The trouble with heat pumps
According to recent poll by the United Nations, more than 80% of people worldwide want more action on climate change. According to Sabine, the poll would have been more instructive if they’d asked how much people are willing to pay for it.
That there’s a tension between great green goals and mundane monetary matters is particularly obvious when it comes to housing. Governments all over the world want house owners to make their buildings more energy efficient. Heat pumps are supposed to do it. Yet heat pumps are surprisingly controversial. I tried to figure out why and found a brilliant example for how to lie with statistics. Let’s have a look.
Exhibit A: An article in the Telegraph titled, “I’m tired of explaining to poorly-informed Green voters heat pumps are awful.” Its author, Robert Tylor, writes that “Even hardcore eco-warriors have reservations about them”. He goes on to explain that “heat pumps have a shoddy record in actually heating buildings, particularly older houses that millions of us live in.”
Exhibit B: Of course, the eco warriors on X/Twitter don’t agree. Here we have one of them claiming that “The actual evidence suggests not. Over 80% satisfied with their heat pump's space & hot water heating - a satisfaction level similar to gas boilers” and that “a recent Govt study found all UK homes, “from Victorian mid-terraces to pre-WWII semis and a 1960s block of flats”, are suitable for heat pumps.” When was the Victorian era. From 1837 until 1901. A satisfaction level similar to gas boilers, really?
Yes, that's really what they claim. The website CarbonBrief, which is usually a highly reliable source of information, has a fact check list on heat pumps which rates the claim that “Heat pumps don’t work in existing buildings” as false. They also refer to a study that has allegedly found that “there is no property type or architectural era that is unsuitable for a heat pumps” and “There is no significant variation in performance based on house age.” Middle ages, Roman era, bring it on!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Science without the gobbledygook to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.