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2 years agoWhen you have to run resistive heaters the electrical usage skyrockets and makes a heat pump system vastly more expensive to operate.
More expensive than a heat pump without a backup/additional electrical resistance heater. Not more expensive than an electrical resistance heater on its own.
That’s what’s so strange about this, in most cases a heat pump would be replacing a non-reversible AC and an electrical resistance heater or gas-fueled furnace. And in nearly every case, even with the need for a backup/additional resistance heater, you’re still saving money. And it’s not like any of this is new technology, it just took forever for it to become popular in the US.
It was useful for asking questions that neither you nor the other person would want to put in a public post. For example, someone posted a picture in the bad real estate sub that looked very familiar, and I sent a DM asking “is this X location?”. I might not want people to know I’m familiar with X location, they might not want people to know they’re familiar with X location, but maybe we’re both ok with each other knowing.
But I’m pretty sure its main use was sending hate to people without getting banned.