Guess what else would drastically reduce air pollution. Switching to electric heating aka heat pumps instead of burning wood and coal. While cooking the ventilation is already good enough but if you cannot open the damn windows because everyone is poisoning the air…

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Same goes for various industries and energy production in general. Burning stuff is usually the easiest way to do it, but it comes with some serious long term consequences. Ideally, we would use renewables to produce electricity, and then use that electricity to heat things up when needed.

Unfortunately, large parts of various industries has been built around the idea of burning things instead of using electricity. In order to fully transition, we would need to completely rebuild many factories and radically modify countless others.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

We do need to completely rebuild …

Like anything else, it could have gone smoothly if we did it in an intelligent way as opportunity presents, but turning it partisan, proceeding in fits and starts, only looking short term, refusing out of fear of change, means we keep putting it off. That’s just going to build into an emergency.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 hours ago

On top of that, the economics only make it harder. Those who take dirty shortcuts, will have lower CAPEX and maybe even OPEX. This gives them a competitive advantage compared to those companies that choose to follow a more sustainable path.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 3 points 22 hours ago

Not going to open the windows when it’s -20C.

[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Im stuck with an all electric house... to expensive just to live and it has left me with no money to upgrade to cheaper options like heat pumps and solar. My monthly equal payment plan is currently $850 a month. This is with me keeping my house cold during winter where its set to 64 on average. At night I drop it to 58. Maybe one day ill be able to afford it to break this shitty cycle.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Yeah, I grew up in an all electric house, and even as a kid who didn’t have to pay bills, I hated it and vowed never to be stuck in one again.

But heat pumps make a huge difference in heating cost and induction is better than cooking with gas.

You do have to factor in the cost of utilities and where I live electricity is very expensive. Even here regular heat pumps are cheaper than heating with propane or oil (or of course resistive electric) but gas is still cheapest. Installers generally recommend a hybrid system so you can use the heat pumps in the shoulder seasons, but gas when it’s cold. If you could use a ground source heat pump or solar panels, that changes everything.

But all that is hugely expensive to convert to and we’re not going to make any progress if that’s the way forward. Requiring it for new construction, where it’s much cheaper, is the least we can do, but this is something that’s worth a little government help

My state still has incentives for landlords and homeowners by income level: any chance there’s some help there?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 1 points 18 hours ago

No chance there are government grants to do those upgrades?

I assume you've also done the math on financing those upgrades, and on just plain moving out.