The program aims to use federal funds awarded under the Biden administration to deploy more than 500,000 heat pumps in the chilly region over the next few…
No, there’s a lot bigger difference than that. I have a modern cold climate air source heat pump. Unlike an air conditioner, it’s designed to operate continuously with a variable speed compressor and cooling fan. It’s easily capable of running for days on end during the coldest times of the year (well below freezing). It’s also capable of defrosting itself which is critical for winter operation because it’s literally cooling the air around itself way below freezing.
My previous air conditioner could not run for long cycles like that without the compressor shutting down as a protective measure. It had no ability to defrost itself and its vertical fan orientation allowed it to fill up with snow and ice during the winter, clearly making it totally inoperable until spring when the weather was warm enough to defrost it and dry it out.
You say this as if things like variable speed compressors, multiple compressor stages, and designs other than the generic mostly empty box with an open vertical fan on top don’t exist for air conditioners as well.
Your previous air conditioner was designed for its intended purpose. Based on your description it almost certainly didn’t have the hardware to function as a heat pump, so being inoperable during a snowy winter wasn’t an issue, given it’s designed use. On the other end, it was the house I’m in has had three air conditioning units over its lifetime. None of them were an open vertical design like that, and I’m in AZ where snow is irrelevant.
You’re talking about equipment designed for the intended use case of cold weather that takes environmental aspects like snow accumulation into account for its design instead of ignoring it, and acting like that is some sort of new technology. It’s just better designed and not just the cheapest shit they can get people to buy. Whoever bought an exposed air conditioning unit like that in an area with regular snow was an idiot that clearly did zero research.
No, there’s a lot bigger difference than that. I have a modern cold climate air source heat pump. Unlike an air conditioner, it’s designed to operate continuously with a variable speed compressor and cooling fan. It’s easily capable of running for days on end during the coldest times of the year (well below freezing). It’s also capable of defrosting itself which is critical for winter operation because it’s literally cooling the air around itself way below freezing.
My previous air conditioner could not run for long cycles like that without the compressor shutting down as a protective measure. It had no ability to defrost itself and its vertical fan orientation allowed it to fill up with snow and ice during the winter, clearly making it totally inoperable until spring when the weather was warm enough to defrost it and dry it out.
You say this as if things like variable speed compressors, multiple compressor stages, and designs other than the generic mostly empty box with an open vertical fan on top don’t exist for air conditioners as well.
Your previous air conditioner was designed for its intended purpose. Based on your description it almost certainly didn’t have the hardware to function as a heat pump, so being inoperable during a snowy winter wasn’t an issue, given it’s designed use. On the other end, it was the house I’m in has had three air conditioning units over its lifetime. None of them were an open vertical design like that, and I’m in AZ where snow is irrelevant.
You’re talking about equipment designed for the intended use case of cold weather that takes environmental aspects like snow accumulation into account for its design instead of ignoring it, and acting like that is some sort of new technology. It’s just better designed and not just the cheapest shit they can get people to buy. Whoever bought an exposed air conditioning unit like that in an area with regular snow was an idiot that clearly did zero research.