HCTriageQuestion

Why do climate activists target the lowest percentages of pollution instead of the largest?

Honest question.

Heating with electricity in MT isn't stupid. It's typically done along side something like gas in homes built since the 1990s. In temps >40° the electric heat pump is cheaper to operate than gas and if you have air conditioning (cooling) you already have 99% of the parts so there's minimal if any additional installation cost.

A heat pump doesn't convert electricity into heat directly as Paul's calculations suggest. It takes the heat (not temp, they're different things) present in the outside air and moves it into the house at a higher temp. Heat pumps can generate 5x the heat per KWH compared to direct electric heating.

You can also install relatively cheap heat exchangers which heat your hotwater with the same heat pump. This reduces your electric hot water bill (direct electric heating) by about 50% and decreases your house cooling electricity usage thanks to the cold water chilling the evaporator in the summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto

Outside of super cold places (90% of situations), rocket stoves can't compete with nuclear power feeding a heat pump. It's the ideal solution for the environment, operating cost, convenience, and scalability.

The light bulbs and rocket heater are quite similar. So much pollution occurs outside of what they can reduce that it's pointless considering them at this point. It's like bailing water instead of patching the hole.

Would love to see your sources from that talk BTW.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/electricity-use-in-homes.php

Your talk conflates topics like zone heating and thermal masses, two things people already do without rocket heaters.

Your implying that direct electric heat sources (radiant/convection) are the only form of electric heat. I recommend you look into heat pumps and heat recovery units for heat pumps/airconditioners. They heat your hot water with the heat pump waste heat. Heat pumps are massively better in every way than the rocket stove with lower up-front cost for anyone that has an air conditioner. Combined with nuclear power, everyone wins.

Heat pumps.

Look into geothermal too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f9GpMWdvWI

My home is cheaply built 1800 square feet and I pay <$80 on average for electricity, but it's 71° 50% humidity year round in the entire house with about a half dozen people living here and two fridges. It could be massively cheaper if I made the house less comfortable like you're proposing. I could do zone heating, turn the temps down in the winter, up in summer. Our drywall gives the same thermal mass as your stone/concrete sculpture if we wanted to open our windows nightly.

Agreed.

Take the ideal situation, i.e. every USA home adopting rocket heaters. The carbon reduction, even assuming your numbers are correct, is outweighed by one single shipping container. ...and there are thousands of shipping containers. It's possibly outweighed by a small fleet of jets.

Now if you want third world foreign countries like India to adopt them, ok that makes more sense. But only if you find a way they could afford the fuel. Once you do, go talk to them.

Not all help is helpful. Not sure most people understand this concept.

Ever have a group discussion get derailed by someone trying to help, but making the situation worse with weak arguments and obviously flawed solutions? That frequently happens when complex issues are discussed with people who don't put in the hard time learning the entire system or scope of the problem or what has been done already.

For example, our government spent billions increasing air-conditioning 'efficiency' metrics beyond what AC manufacturers recommended. After a couple years Energy Star realized the new "more efficient" AC units were consuming MORE energy than the "less efficient" models because of latent heat in water vapor. All that time and energy pissed down the drain because the loudest mouth in the room was helping.

BTW you and I are the polluters. Every time you vote with your wallet, you're empowering every company in that supply chain. Most of the supply chain exists in China and is shipped here.