this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
149 points (98.7% liked)

Climate

8919 readers
347 users here now

Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
silence7@slrpnk.net
149
US apartment buildings have tipped toward heat pumps | The climate-friendly appliances are becoming the norm among American home builders. Here are the factors driving the shift. (www.canarymedia.com)
submitted 1 day ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago

Different concepts. This has nothing to do with "in case the power fails."

This has apparently changed since last I went shopping for a heat pump. Used to be, heat pumps couldn't be expected to sufficiently heat a house on the coldest days of the year, so a second additional heat source would have to be installed, which also doubled as a backup in case the heat pump mechanically failed. The setting on the thermostat to engage this second heat source was labeled "Emergency Heat" or "EmHeat", like so:

A better term would probably be Auxiliary or Supplemental heat but the industry uses the term Emergency Heat.

Apparently there are heat pump systems on the market now which can pass inspection on their own with no supplemental "emergency" heater. I suppose that goes hand in hand with the technology becoming more viable in the northern latitudes. They didn't used to be suitable for colder climates but now they are, I guess that means they're suitable for flying solo here. I wouldn't personally do that because A. I like to have the backup in case of system failure, and B. without heat strips or a furnace, the defrost cycle is just...running the air conditioner. The source of defrost heat is your mammalian ass.