Porridgebrain's handlers invoke 1950 law to give millions to companies that make heat pumps

Yesterday the vegetable-in-chief's handlers had him sign an order invoking a cold-war-era law to give millions of taxpayer dollars to companies that make electric heat pumps, ostensibly to "fight Global Worming."

If you don't have a tech background you have no idea how a "heat pump" works, or whether it's better or worse than other options for heating your home.  So since you don't know how it works, you believe whatever the regime tells ya.

And of course Porridgebrain's handlers know dat.  So they can couch this as "Dis gud cuz it beez fightin' duh Global Worming!"  And since all "good 'Mericans" know dat Global Worming is duh mos' dire crisis EVAH, you'll think dis iz totally GREAT!  Cuz duh New York Times constantly tells you  Global Worming gonna kill ev'ryt'ing on duh Erf, right?

Having an engineering background (despite being a pilot and general stud) I'm here to cut through all the regime's bullshit for ya.  So buckle up, sweetheart.

There are essentially four ways U.S. homes are heated: The most common and efficient is "natural gas."  Another, common in the northeast, is "heating oil," which uses an oil-fired burner to heat water.

A third option is the heat pump, and the last is "resistance heating"--the least-efficient, most costly option.

Heating with natural gas--the same gas that powers stoves--or heating oil are both highly efficient.  But burning anything produces CO2, which Democrats and their scientific lackeys wail is causing duh Erf to get hotter (Global Worming).  Dey call dis duh mos' awful threat to duh Erf evah, and are determined to make you stop burning things.

Enter the "heat pump."  Anyone who's been around the outside part of an air conditioner knows that the air blowing thru it is hotter than the outside.  So the pump is using electricity to keep your home at 72F even when it's 110F outside, eh?  A heat pump turns that around, like an air conditioner installed backwards.

To the surprise of most people, when it's 40F outside the air still contains a lot of heat.  It's just that there's not enough to make humans comfortable.  But by adding just a *little* heat, it works.

So a heat pump is like an air-conditioner installed backwards:  Instead of sucking heat out of your house, it sucks heat out of the 40-degree outside air and pushes it into your home.  Slick, and when the outside temp is 40 or 50 degrees it's very efficient.  Not as efficient as gas, but still pretty neat.

But when the outside temp drops to 30 or below, the efficiency drops like a damn rock, meaning your cost goes way, WAY up.  In fact you won't believe this but the least-costly fix is to use resistance heat (like a toaster) to heat the OUTSIDE air to 35F or so, and then use the heat pump.

Seriously, that's in every installation.  Your electric bill goes thru the roof!

SO...while heat pumps technically work in all climate zones, they're only economical in places where the winter temp stays above 30F or so.

By contrast, natural gas gives you a lot more heat per dollar.  Plus, a gas-fired furnace will last for 15 or 20 years, while heat pumps typically only last 7 to 10 years.

SO...given the poor energy efficiency of heat pumps in much of the country, why would duh biden/garland regime use a 1950 law to give millions to the companies that make the things?

It's all theater.  See, they know you'll believe that these multi-billion-dollar companies aren't constantly spending their own money to improve efficiency by a percent or two.  The companies do this research all the time, without taxpayer funds.  Problem is that increasing efficiency makes a heat pump a LOT more expensive, and because most Americans move every few years, few consumers are willing to spend the extra money that they won't get back when it's time to sell.

Getting it yet?
 
Porridgebrain's secretary of Energy--the totally moronic Jennifer Granholm, a woman who had zero energy experience--said her agency would give $169 million to nine already-identified billion-dollar companies to "accelerate electric heat pump manufacturing."

Under biden's order the DOE will give $169 million to companies like York, Mitsubishi and Honeywell, all of which are billion-dollar multinational corporations.

This is nothing but corporate welfare.  It only works because the regime sells it as helping to fight Global Worming, leading uneducated voters to think it's really great--when it's really a net loss. 

Source.

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-administration-uses-wartime-authority-222944627.html