Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold::Published Monday in the scientific journal Joule, the research found that heat pumps are two to three times more efficient than their oil and gas counterparts, specifically in temperatures ranging from 10 C to -20 C.
Cost is an abstraction of a lot of factors, and some of that cost is in the pollution of manufacture. For example, we probably can’t afford the CO2 output of all the concrete that would be needed to convert to majority hydro power, even if we had the rivers to put them on. It’d pay back eventually, but the medium-term impact on the climate would be too much.
That said, we’re sticking AC units on basically every house in America, and making it reversible is not difficult or expensive. Heat pumps should have been standard for decades.