this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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How Americans heat their homes (files.catbox.moe)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago (3 children)

How do you heat your home?

Honolulu.

Seriously this map (top especially) is... C- at best; I know elementary teachers that would fail this on the spot. Why not just list the colors in a 'label' box? Why are there two shades of purple? What about yellow and dried-poo yellow-brown? (if you argue 'it's the color they appear', electricity isn't yellow and oil isn't red...) Why is there a text blurb in essentially 12pt font hiding in the great lakes/canada instead of double+ the size and at the top, centered? Why are some state capitals on the map - and in the worst color contrast possible (see: why are there two purple colors...). Also, why are they in like 10pt font? Why is oil listed twice?

For a display of just 5 items, this is pretty awful.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

I also have to question the accuracy of it all, especially since plenty of homes up north use multiple sources (e.g. natural gas furnace and wood fireplace)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

RIGHT? It's almost like it was designed to make you puzzle over it for longer than you should have to. The second image is easier to digest-- It's labeled properly, and you can sort of tell that areas would overlap.

First one could be redeemed with a little bit of information hierarchy, but it's pretty obtuse as-is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Why are 2 of the options purple? There are so many colors to pick from!!!

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hey should we put a legend on our map?

Na, just scatter the identifiers all over the map and make sure you use at least two shades of mustard

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They have 5 colours here with 2 purples and 2 oranges. Why oh why

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They used all the colours of the rainbow, don't you remember the mnemonic?

Red

Orange

Other orange

Purple

Light purple?

ROOPL

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

ROOPL's Drag Race

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I would love to see a “no heating system”color on this map. I have no heat in my house (HI) and that’s really common here; Hawaiʻi would probably be a bright beacon in an otherwise empty map

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I suspect that they are counting this under electricity.

If there's no central heat and you do get a cold spell, a temporary portable electric space heater is what most people would use.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I read the heating options on the main picture as "Oil, Natural Gas, Propane, Wood, Electricity, Miami"

Miami is a heating source all to itself.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why is the desert heating with wood?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That section of the map overlays very closely with the Navajo reservation. AFAIK that area has high levels of poverty and a lot of homes do not have electricity at all. See this article that came up on search: https://amizade.org/keeping-warm-in-the-navajo-nation/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Ok that makes a lot of sense. Though, there’s two of these areas in the desert. One maps pretty strongly to the Navajo Nation, the other seems to be in the middle of Nevada.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not as much propane in Texas as I’d expect.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Nah, they have their own electrical regulator ERCOT which is under capture by the utility companies.

They had a huge blackout 2 winters ago because backup systems are less profit for shareholders.

Just crony capitalism at work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Every day we stray further from God, I tell you hwhat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Can you all stop being so rude about the map? Until you go out and make your own then you've got no place to shit on it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Electricity?!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

It's like lightning, but we've tamed it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The outside has all the warm, just bring it inside with the power of technology.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Yeah, right, like there's some sort of magic pump that pushes heat into a house.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you live in a place that rarely stops below 40F, it's not worth the extra cost of bringing a gas line into the house, just use electricity.

However I'm right in the middle of that patch of the south and have gas heat and water heater. I'm looking into a heat pump for my next one, but gas is way cheaper than electricity here, so we'll see...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Modern heat pumps have an energy efficiency of about 300 - 400% so they aren't nearly as expensive to run as most people think. If you live somewhere where it rarely gets below freezing they're a definite winner for heating. Hell, we've even got plenty of people installing them up in MN where they're far less efficient in the winter. You would probably still pay just slightly more than for gas heating but a heat pump also removes the need for a furnace entirely in warmer areas so you no longer have furnace maintenance costs to worry about. So if you do wind up needing a new furnace or any major furnace repairs then definitely go with the heat pump.

As far as water heaters go you can also get heat pump water heaters which are far more efficient than electric and have the added benefit of cooling your house when they run (because they pull the heat from the ambient indoor air). The only problems with those are that all the ones that I can find are absurdly expensive compared to a normal gas or electric water heater and the maintenance on them is far more complicated than on a normal water heater.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I'm nowhere near as cold as MN, but my heat pump does a great job until around 20 degrees. But I also have a wood stove which I use on those cold days. Plus it's also an air conditioner.

One advantage of heat pump water heaters I haven't seen is that they chill the room their in pretty considerably. This is great for storing wine and root vegetables.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Hopefully an increasing number of heat pumps!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I'm in Massachusetts and I heat my house primarily with a central electric heat pump and supplemental mini-split heat pump. I do have a natural gas backup just in case, but I haven't needed it this year at all even down to 18⁰F

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Heat pumps are hella efficient bud, and way cleaner. I switched to a heat pump and dual fuel system, heat pump is efficient down to like 10 degrees F and only below that do I need gas.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

passive house when