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Quillan · 11-12-08, 10:14 AM

Fincuan, your RealClimate article is also wrong in certain respects. I'm only going to speak about A/C and heating; since I sell these for a living I know a little bit about it. First, air conditioning and the SEER rating: You get the EER by dividing the cooling output in BTUs by the energy usage in watts. A 10 SEER unit will use 3600 watts to give 36000 BTUs of cooling. The minimum SEER allowed by law to be manufactured in the US is 13, and has been since January 1, 2006. 10 SEERs were the minimum back in 1996 when I started selling these things, and they've been manufactured since the late 1980s, but I don't know the exact date they were forced to switch to this efficiency.

If you want to talk about the average SEER of a/c equipment out there in the country, 10 might be right considering the old stuff that's still around (I had a customer in here last year with a relay on a 1958 model Lennox unit that's still running). However, if you want to make that comparison, you have to compare it with the average of all heating systems out there too.

Down here in Louisiana, they just don't sell oil-fired furnaces so I know jack about them. However, in gas heat, the minimum allowed these days is only 80% efficient. It does NOT convert anything close to 100% energy into heat in the house. The highest efficiency furnace I can get is 95% efficient. Older units again are far less efficient than current models, so if you're averaging them all I don't really know what you'd wind up with.

Air conditioning is a closed system. There are no emisions from it. Electric heat and heat pumps are closed systems, again with no emissions. Gas, coal, and oil heat have emissions.

The energy required to heat air 1 degree is exactly the same as the energy required to cool the air by 1 degree. Where you live determines which you need to do more and how much of the year you need to do either.

Heat pumps are only an option in places where the temperature stays above freezing the majority of the time. You can't use the reverse flow when the temperature is below the freezing point of water; the outside coil will ice over. They use oil/gas heating in the north because it's more efficient in terms of cost/heat output. Both articles are misleading in certain fashions, but it looks to me like Wired decided to compare the emissions of one of the poster children of the environmental movement with one of the never-mentioned counterparts, while RealClimate decided to change the units to obfuscate the issue.

11-12-08, 10:14 AM	#6
Quillan Samurai Navy Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 579 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Fincuan, your RealClimate article is also wrong in certain respects. I'm only going to speak about A/C and heating; since I sell these for a living I know a little bit about it. First, air conditioning and the SEER rating: You get the EER by dividing the cooling output in BTUs by the energy usage in watts. A 10 SEER unit will use 3600 watts to give 36000 BTUs of cooling. The minimum SEER allowed by law to be manufactured in the US is 13, and has been since January 1, 2006. 10 SEERs were the minimum back in 1996 when I started selling these things, and they've been manufactured since the late 1980s, but I don't know the exact date they were forced to switch to this efficiency. If you want to talk about the average SEER of a/c equipment out there in the country, 10 might be right considering the old stuff that's still around (I had a customer in here last year with a relay on a 1958 model Lennox unit that's still running). However, if you want to make that comparison, you have to compare it with the average of all heating systems out there too. Down here in Louisiana, they just don't sell oil-fired furnaces so I know jack about them. However, in gas heat, the minimum allowed these days is only 80% efficient. It does NOT convert anything close to 100% energy into heat in the house. The highest efficiency furnace I can get is 95% efficient. Older units again are far less efficient than current models, so if you're averaging them all I don't really know what you'd wind up with. Air conditioning is a closed system. There are no emisions from it. Electric heat and heat pumps are closed systems, again with no emissions. Gas, coal, and oil heat have emissions. The energy required to heat air 1 degree is exactly the same as the energy required to cool the air by 1 degree. Where you live determines which you need to do more and how much of the year you need to do either. Heat pumps are only an option in places where the temperature stays above freezing the majority of the time. You can't use the reverse flow when the temperature is below the freezing point of water; the outside coil will ice over. They use oil/gas heating in the north because it's more efficient in terms of cost/heat output. Both articles are misleading in certain fashions, but it looks to me like Wired decided to compare the emissions of one of the poster children of the environmental movement with one of the never-mentioned counterparts, while RealClimate decided to change the units to obfuscate the issue. __________________ We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.