Comments by "Tony L" (@tlangdon12) on "Undecided with Matt Ferrell" channel.

  1. The oil that we mine doesn't leak out from the ground very much at all, so it will be safe enough if we put it where we got all the oil from.
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  2. I've had thoughts along these lines for a while. Vegetable oils would provide a carbon-rich lubricant to allow granulated biochar to the pumped underground.
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  3. The full concept of Passive Houses is that the home is heated and cooled passively, i.e. without any mechanical or electrical assistance and without consuming any fuels. So cooling is obtained by having windows that can be opened, fresh air supplies that enter the home through a long run of pipe underground (so are tempered), and by shading windows and fitting "E" glass to avoid the structure absorbing too much heat in the summer. Passive heating is acheived by the triple glazed windows that don't allow out heat that the "E" glass has allowed in, having thermal mass to retain heat, and air sealing so that warm air doesn't leak out of the house. Some of the biggest savings to be had are available for very low cost if you take the truely passive approah. But for most climate zones, some active heating is necessary and comfort can be increased with active ventilation.
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  4. You seem to be missing the point that an outdoor 'unit' is the only thing that can supply heat into the home or reject it if there is no demand in the home. There has to be something outside the home. It could be an air handler or a ground-source loop, but there has to be something that sits outside of the home. Ground source loops are great if your property has a lot of outdoor space, but for homes in urban areas air handlers remain the most compact form of outdoor unit to gather or dispose of heat that is not needed in the home.
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  5. We don't need nuclear power to solve the problem, there are other ways that we know work. Given that nuclear is so expensive, and so risky we should use the other options that are available.
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  6. The "secret sauce" is the software that manages the compressors to very tight tolerances. AI wasn't mentioned, but there is potential for AI to optimize the operation of a cascaded system even better than a human.
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  7. This is another very good option for areas where the land is not the best for agriculture. Slow growing trees are more valuable for their lumber, which embeds the CO2 into our buildings, but fast growing trees (and shrubs) can be used to pull CO2 out of the air quite rapidly as well. We should be looking at any areas of wasteland to see which can usefully be converted to forests.
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  8. Fantastic analysis Matt. Reflecting on your observation that the two most significant blockers to energy efficient are money and political will, many viewers will regard the USA as a very rich country. If this is correct, then the ONLY problem you have is your leaders! Luckily Americans have always been very self-sufficient and willing to ignore a lack of leadership and just get on with it, so I expect the USA will improve, but more slowly than countries where the leadership is proactive.
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  9. All this will come in time.
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  10. It can't solve the whole problem, but if we don't try to solve this problem, it will make living on Earth really difficult, so perhaps it's better to try?
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  11. Due to the diminishing returns when installing insulation, it's very hard to design a home thatcan gather the heat needed to keep occupants warm in the winter, and yet not get too hot in the summer. The Passive House concerpt tries to do this, but even the best passive houses have some form of active heating.
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  12.  @TwilightMysts  I’m not worried about the risks in my lifetime, but about the risks of the waste that remains radioactive for hundreds of years.
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  13. Many hybrid inverters can work as a UPS in the event of longer power outages. They won't allow you to run your heat pumps, unless you invest in at lot of batteries, but they will keep essentials such as lights and ventilation on. I watched a video on YouTube where someone had hooked up a second-hand 24kWh Nissan Leaf battery (which cost about 7000 USD here in the UK) to their inverter. With energy storage that cheap, even running your heat-pump through an outage becomes feasible.
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  14. Which are tiny in comparison to the world's oceans.
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  15. That's why owner-built homes are often built to much better energy standards and much better quality. Builders need a return on investment over the 6 months it takes to build the home, owner's only need the return on investment over their lifetime, and even then they might not be bothered about the rate of return as they have had a super-comfortable home to live in.
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  16. I think your decision to go with two heat pumps, one for heating your home, and one for heating water, is a very sensible. Using one system for both functions involves quite a bit of compromise, which ends up costing a more in energy. With two system, each can be tuned very precisiely for efficiency. I hope you enjoy your home.
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  17.  @justwords3882  And yet the science says it works. Who are you going to beleive? Scientists or a randomly generated user name on the internet?
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  18. Logically, if you are going to have a generator to run the heat pump, you would benefit from having a heat exchanger between the generator's cooling system and the home heating system to collect all the waste heat. The result should be a smaller generator is needed, as the heat pump will only be working half as hard. I know that it's a bit more complicated than that as you have to be able to provide the high current needed at startup for the compressor, but this is a relatively easy job for the battery bank+inverter that is likely to be present in a home with a new heat pump, along with solar panels.
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  19. I think you mean the Dark Ages!
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  20. Most UK homes have hydronic heating systems, and these were designed to run with the hot water at 70C. The pipe work and radiators can be too small for heatpumps to operate effectively. More modern hydronic system are designed for lower temperature flows to take advantage of condensing the exhausts gases, such systems are happy with flow temperatures of 45C, which is also fine for hot water if you have a large storage cylinder. Legionnella is generally not an issue in domestic properties, even if water is stored at 45C.
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