Yeah, but like most advances in efficiency, it's not used to take less, it's used to take more. Heat pumps could be used in combination with good insulation and good practices to keep houses more comfortable. A few degrees warmer in the winter, a few degrees cooler in the summer. But that's not what happens. Americans use air conditioning to keep their houses cold. People who aren't used to it end up wearing jumpers inside in the summer. No doubt in the winter the heat pump would be used to keep the house warm enough to be naked at all times. Add to that bad insulation and no amount of heat pump efficiency is going to stop the wasted energy.

Stuff like telling people that stopping global warming means they need to be uncomfortably hot all summer and uncomfortably cold all winter is why so many people don't care about stopping it. Our goal for this should be to get heat pumps and renewable electricity rolled out everywhere, and then let people keep their houses at whatever temperatures they want without contributing to global warming.

But that's not possible. We are nowhere near being able to sustain that. Nowhere near. Reducing our consumption is possible right now.

If you think summer is uncomfortable now give it time.