Eokokok t1_jegawli wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:18 PM

Reply to comment by AcademicGravy in Heat Pumps could supply 20% of building heating by 2030. Supercritical CO2 heat pump sales in Japan have now reached a total of 8.5 million units. by DisasterousGiraffe

CO2 is better than other things GWP-wise, true, but it has no place in home installations given everything about it.

There is one place where it makes sense, system which accounts for probably most lost refrigerants while not caring about efficiency that much - car AC/pumps. And guess where they not actually use it forcing proprietary garbage 1234f...

So if CO2 is to be pushed for environmental reasons it should be used were power and efficiency is less of an issue than leaks, but hey, it's never about environment in the first place is it...

AcademicGravy t1_jegcukk wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:31 PM

Consider if every home was heated with a co2 unit. In that case there would be a lot of potential leaks but since it's co2 it's not that big of a concern. The units wouldn't be as efficient but if all our electricity was produced with renewables it wouldn't really matter.

If every unit was R-32 than yes it might be more efficient but leaks could cause some damage to the climate.

Tough to say for sure which one would be better for the enviroment but I think end goal currently should be co2 heat pumps and solar panels on every well insulated house. Don't think we have a better set up enviroment wise right now than that.