What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by benlivengood on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @08:38PM (#26161536)

Boilers/furnaces are ~90% efficient now. Combined electrical/heat generation can only hit 50-80% efficiency.

In theory heat pumps powered by electricity would be the most efficient option.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by kolencherry on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:04PM (#26161715)

Heat pumps don’t work particularly well below 25F. Our heat pump switched to auxiliary heat (electric resistance heating) with how cold it’s been in Texas.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by StillBored on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:17PM (#26162634)

Those are just the standard compressor/r410 systems with reversing valves. There are number of systems designed to work well below 0F.

https://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/benefits/hyper-heating https://www.fujitsugeneral.com/us/residential/technology/xlt...

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by 8note on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:51PM (#26162845)

Theory would require some magical fluid to do the heat transfer, and we're limited to real coolants that don't have horrid environment impacts

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by benlivengood on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:56PM (#26171656)

Or geothermal heat pumps for very cold and hot environments.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by Tossrock on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:24PM (#26161881)

Though, heat pumps lose efficiency in very cold weather, and right now it's very cold in Texas.

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