dirk23wright
dirk23wright t1_iqs33at wrote
Reply to comment by arfbrookwood in Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter by clampie
I realize that.
These days, I believe they make various kinds of air heat pumps that work in cold temperatures. As others have said, they have air heat pumps that are still effective below 0 deg C.
In the Netherlands, there's no excuse to not have an air heat pump if you have a house. It doesn't get cold enough there to worry about efficiency loss. Why they insist on coal and wood is beyond me. Not only that, they aren't even buying good wood stoves, but regular ones. They're not buying the masonry types that have convoluted flues inside of them. Thermal efficiency is dramatically improved that way. Oh well. Just because they're European doesn't mean they're the sharpest tool in the shed.
I think the aversion to most air heat pumps is that they may hate blowing air. I know that Swedes generally don't like forced warm air heating. I assume the Dutch are similar, but I could be wrong.
dirk23wright t1_iqr85qc wrote
Reply to comment by Waste-Temperature626 in Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter by clampie
They should be buying mini-split systems, not wood burning stoves.
dirk23wright t1_iqr7yhq wrote
Reply to comment by arfbrookwood in Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter by clampie
Ground source heat pumps work great in northern climates. We have one in our house in Sweden, half the way up the country.
dirk23wright t1_iqr7sjq wrote
Reply to comment by qtx in Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter by clampie
It appears that most Swedes live in apartments.
Your straw man comment is therefore incorrect. Apartments have centralized heating, usually, and, if not, then each has a heat pump. Adding a wood burning stove to a modern apartment would be impossible as far as I know. Therefore, my comments were directed at people who live in stand-alone houses only.
dirk23wright t1_iqr6u7s wrote
Reply to comment by hirsutesuit in Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter by clampie
I believe they can be made to work well just about anywhere.
dirk23wright t1_iqqlh93 wrote
Have they never heard of a heat pump? It doesn't get that cold in the Netherlands. Heat pumps are just fine. Hell, we have a ground source H/P in Sweden, and it works great.
Further, have the Dutch never heard of a masonry wood-fired heater? They are traditional in Sweden. You can buy modern versions of them. In these heaters, the flue is convoluted inside the box such that it extracts the maximum heat from the flue gases before exiting up the chimney.
dirk23wright t1_iqv9pja wrote
Reply to comment by Dewey_Cheatem in Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter by clampie
OK, that's unfortunate.