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It’s September 4th and we’re under a Heat Advisory here in #Vermont.
Heat indexes will be hovering around 90 for most of the day, with WBGTs (a measure of heat’s impact on the body) in the Moderate to High range.
Tuesday through Thursday will see areas of Vermont reaching the Extreme threshold for WBGTs, a level at which experts recommend delaying all outdoor activity.
This will be a long lasting event—stay cool! #VTwx
@JosephAndriano Am I right in assuming Vermont is like Western Oregon and has many households without AC?
@ingalls Yep, that is entirely the case here. Central AC is very rare, and I know a lot of people who don’t even have window units.
That is changing thanks to heat pumps, though. Due to all the heat pump incentives people are getting them installed, and then they’re able to use them for both AC and heat. But many houses still don’t have them, and so are suffering in particular with these high nighttime temperatures and dew points.
@JosephAndriano Heat pumps are interesting to me, I need to learn more about them. I recently learned my grandparents heat and cool using a heat pump and it only really struggles when the temperature approaches or exceeds 40°C. They live in the arid part of the Northwest, so they do deal with heat quite a bit but they say it’s worth the savings.
@ingalls Heat pumps are very popular here in Vermont. Anything to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of heating our old and sometimes drafty houses is welcome.
Everyone I know with heat pumps is very happy with them. As you say, it does struggle if temperatures get too high or too low, but for the large middle ground of temperatures where heating or cooling is needed, they’re great. Given how much the climate is warming, having both heat and cool functionality is a selling point.