1. News you can use
It's that time of the year. The weather is warm, cold, then warm again. People are starting to get ready for spring! This typically includes sprucing up the home. As consumers spruce up, I encourage you to consider improvements that help with home energy management. If one of your clients is in need of a new HVAC system, they may wish to consider using a heat pump.2. Question of the week: What is a heat pump?
A heat pump is an alternative to furnaces and air conditioners. From the Department of Energy website:"During the heating season, heat pumps move heat from the cool outdoors into your warm house; during the cooling season, heat pumps move heat from your cool house into the warm outdoors. Because they move heat rather than generate heat, heat pumps can provide up to 4 times the amount of energy they consume."
Basically, heat pumps heat/cool homes, helping consumers reduce home energy usage.
3. NEW category? Where does this information fit on the ISSUE TEAMS?
Heat pumps fit best within Issue Team: Environment. Outcomes include:
- Long term: Oklahomans will prevent/decrease the degradation of their environment
- Medium-term: Oklahomans will increase energy efficiency
4. Picture of the week: from the ENERGY STAR website: Where does my money go?
From the graph, it is EASY to see why we should care about heating/cooling.
Heating/cooling takes up the bulk of the energy costs!
5. Anything else I can think of to help you in your work:
Ag Communications released a story about heat pumps last week.Sonya McDaniel and Robyn Rapp both have had questions about heat pumps recently!
It just so happens that I was listening to Public Radio, and they mentioned that OKState has this incredible resource: http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/
Info for homeowners: http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/geothermal/residential.htm
Info re: accredited installers and designers: http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/about/contact.as
Hope this helps! I am always open to new topics. Please let me know what you'd like to see.
GP
