this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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Sustainable Tech

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I put this together to help me understand how fluctuating emissions from the electrical grid and outdoor temperature impact the environmental performance of a heat pump compared to a natural gas furnace.

Would love feedback!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You might want to check the weather API you're using, as it was returning wildly inaccurate results for Melbourne,Australia (12C instead of 23C currently).

Edit: looks like it's returning the results for Melbourne, Florida, so I guess you need to make sure you include the country

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

I'll make country a mandatory field. Thanks!

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

I had entered the country, it just wasn't sent to the weather API or something.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Gotcha - I'll try and chase the issue down.

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

Do you have any thoughts or plans on open-sourcing how the calculations are done? Assuming the values used in the calculations aren't proprietary, it might be cool to do that :) That way no one can argue that the math is wrong.

You don't have to, I think it's rare for a company to do that, but it might fit with the transparency bit. Alternatively, if you list out where the numbers are coming from so that people can confirm the details manually.

Very cool regardless :)

My other suggestion would be to link information about the different types of heat pumps, or a guide on how to get the efficiency value. Similarly, if the heat pump question was at the end, in a toggle format so people can easily swap between the options and compare

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I am more than happy to share the calculations - I'm a firm believer in transparency. I'll update along with your other suggestions. Thanks for the input!