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ddreier | 5 years ago

Several articles have said that only 40% of homes in Texas use natural gas for heat. https://climatecrocks.com/2021/02/14/the-eyes-of-texas-are-o...

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bob1029|5 years ago

I have lived in Texas all my life and this figure surprises me. Every home I have ever lived in or rented has had a gas furnace, even if some of the appliances are electric. I've never even lived north of ATX, so this makes even less sense to me.

Why would we be building out all these homes in the Houston area with insanely powerful gas furnaces? The home I am in right now could easily get to 80F+ in this current ambient weather if I let the furnace run constantly. But, my 5 ton AC struggles in the summer to pull 30 degrees of delta. This stuff really staggers me sometimes.

As a counterpoint, I also have a friend who lives in the downtown area with new construction (completed late 2019) and its a heat pump/resistive setup. He is on griddy and not having a good time right now.

Perhaps its some economics thing with home builders and supply chains, rather than rational application of engineering talent.

enraged_camel|5 years ago

That actually makes sense since the lower half of the state rarely gets cold enough to warrant a complex heating setup.