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The Real Reason Tesla Developed The Heat Pump!

300 H and H

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Patron
12:10 min.


The Tesla Space
The Tesla Space

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Just another path Tesla is going down most people have no idea about. Elon and his crew have been busy working on heat pumps for homes.
My bet is the Tesla unit will dominate this market in the future.
Elon is getting brow beat in the press over Twitter and the stock is reasonably underpriced priced currently.
Those who do company valuation are going to be busy in the coming years as Tesla enters new markets outside of auto manufacturing.
Right now they don't seem to be seeing the future of this Company.
 
It will be interesting to see if he can make his heat pumps work in cold weather. Most heat pumps seem to pretty much fail at single digit temperatures just above the freezing point. And they work worse as the temps get even lower. I was talked out of a new heat pump last summer. I was talked out of another heat pump at the start of this year. I live in USDA Zone 5. If I lived in USDA Zone 6 or 7 then a heat pump probably would make a lot more sense. But Zone 5 the current versions of the heat pumps are marginal and people in my area with heat pumps tend to complain about their performance. And from what I understand Zone 4 and colder they are not commonly recommended.
 
Melensdad said:
It will be interesting to see if he can make his heat pumps work in cold weather. Most heat pumps seem to pretty much fail at single digit temperatures just above the freezing point. And they work worse as the temps get even lower. I was talked out of a new heat pump last summer. I was talked out of another heat pump at the start of this year. I live in USDA Zone 5. If I lived in USDA Zone 6 or 7 then a heat pump probably would make a lot more sense. But Zone 5 the current versions of the heat pumps are marginal and people in my area with heat pumps tend to complain about their performance. And from what I understand Zone 4 and colder they are not commonly recommended.
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Agreed. Which is why, contrary to the bold claims made in the video, dependence on Natural Gas will remain.

It is simple science. Always question it.
 
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FrancSevin said:
Agreed. Which is why, contrary to the bold claims made in the video, dependence on Natural Gas will remain.
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Biden admitted that and is likely to approve the Alaska Willow project, which is a big blow to the 'green' agenda but honestly natural gas is one of the greenest energy sources we have right now.

As for heat pumps, if there is some sort of technological breakthrough in Tesla's design, or if others can improve them for cold temperature use, then they make sense. Certainly they make sense in Zone 6 and warmer. But improvements need to be made for more efficient use if they will replace natural gas.
 
20 year house had a heat pump in the Valley Forge area - new construction i.e. 'well insulated/tight' for the standards of the day.
AC bit died, opted to replace whole system. went with a 'spiral compressor' which the contractor thought was wasted $$.
well, it paid the $$ in about three months...

DW hated it - she was used to 'hot air' coming out of the vents . . . heat pumps do not provide the delivery air temps of gas/oil/etc . . .

the key to even lower outside temps is the gas used. gases that vaporize at ever lower temps will be able to "extract heat" from ever lower outside temps.

frankly, the ground-to-air heat pumps are seriously more effective/efficient - but they require area or deep drilling . . .
 
Melensdad said:
It will be interesting to see if he can make his heat pumps work in cold weather. Most heat pumps seem to pretty much fail at single digit temperatures just above the freezing point. And they work worse as the temps get even lower. I was talked out of a new heat pump last summer. I was talked out of another heat pump at the start of this year. I live in USDA Zone 5. If I lived in USDA Zone 6 or 7 then a heat pump probably would make a lot more sense. But Zone 5 the current versions of the heat pumps are marginal and people in my area with heat pumps tend to complain about their performance. And from what I understand Zone 4 and colder they are not commonly recommended.
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Interesting. Have you had any experience with a heat pump/ mini split in the last few years? I installed a solar array at my home 2 years ago. Started small and have progressively been adding to the system. I have a 15 k system currently. Needless to say, no electric bill, and have been transitioning shop, house, and garage to electric forms of heating. Our natural gas cost tripled in the last 2 years. I have installed two mini split systems. One heats my 30x36 12' ceiling attached garage. It is a Menards branded Denali Air. It has no trouble pushing 110°F plus air above 0°F. At -38° f it was pushing 85° F air.
Now I did hear from a friend that morning of -38. His Mr. Cool system was throwing a code. The next night at -30 ° f he had no code.
The second system I have heated a 12x40 loft in my shop. It was a Fujitsu unit. I did not go out and check the air temperature but the room has an alarm if it gets too cold and the alarm did not go off. But that evening after work the cat was happy at 70 ° f.
I have been installing cheap electric baseboard heat in the house. Also. It is probably less efficient than the mini split, but is very cheap to install. The more heat I can make with solar, the less my natural gas bill is.

In my opinion, with the 30% rebate from the government, solar is a no-brainer right now. I started out with just a grid tied system and have transitioned into a sol ark battery backup system. Basically provides a UPS to my whole house with 25 KWH of reserve. As long as I can get home in that time and plug my Ford Lightning in it has another 131 Kwh of reserve. Residents is in northern Wyoming.
 
mbsieg said:
Interesting. Have you had any experience with a heat pump/ mini split in the last few years? . . .
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No actual experience.

But within the past 12 months I did TRY to get a couple companies to work with me on mini-split systems to re-zone my home and both companies gave me the same story. One of the companies sold Mitsubishi mini-splits, can't recall the brand sold by the other company. I also looked at the Pioneer brand mini-splits and they specifically recommended against using their product if the temperature regularly drops to 5 degrees (F) unless a secondary heat source is added.
 
years back I did some serious engineering on solar heating a basement (ultra insulated) 500 gal water tank - with the heat pump using the water vs air/ground "ambient" heat sources.
given "ideal" A and "ideal" B and "ideal" C - looked like a winner. but one really has to start from scratch with the build to make it 'economical' - retrofitting costs just kilt it.....
 
I recently installed a Mitsubishi mini-split and couldn't be happier. No natural gas available, just oil, electric or wood. And it's just on the border between Zone 5 & 6. In 92 when I was building my house, I looked into heat pumps but kept getting the same answer that the air coming from a heat pump would not be hot enough. Technology has change quite a bit in the last 30yrs.
 
I'm on the border of Zone 5 & 6.
I installed a new Bosch heat pump a couple years ago. It's smart in its own way as it determines how much heat or A/C to generate. It can vary itself from being a 1-ton unit to a 5-ton unit.
When it's running at it's 5-ton capacity, I easily get 90 degrees out of the registers at the far end of the house from the unit. Under 50 degrees in the A/C setting.
It's rated to around 4 degrees below zero but below around 20 degrees, it may kick in it's AUX/Emergency heat (which I hate using). If it goes below 20, I fire up a wood stove to generate supplemental heat.
 
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