>> U.S. Emissions fell during
the height of the pandemic as
people were stuck at home and
there were fewer vehicles on the
road that changed as the
pandemic eased.
Any report this week shows
emissions rose again base mold
amount last year.
Many researchers, scientists and
lawmakers argue Americans need
to reduce their use of fossil
fuels much sooner than they may
have planned.
Miles o'brien is back with a
look at an alternative for home
heating that could prove useful
and reduce the costs of fossil
fuels.
>> A super efficient, economical
all electric home.
It can be done.
Welcome to mark Jacobson's home
in Stanford, California.
Built in 2017, it is a way to
fully practice what he preaches.
>> I wanted first and foremost a
comfortable home using zero
fossil fuel energy.
>> He is a professor of civil
and environmental engineering at
Stanford university.
It is also cofounder of the
solutions project.
>> The green on here is the
solar production during the day.
>> In nonprofit trying to
accelerate the transition to
100% renewable energy all over
the world.
>> We have solar on the roof,
electric heat comes, electric
heat pump water heater.
Was he myself to use only
electricity.
>> Would you declare this as a
success?
>> It is way beyond what I
expected.
I produce more electricity than
I consume.
It proves new homes and all be
developed with no gas, all
electric.
>> But what about existing
homes?
Is the transition away from
fossil fuels practical and
affordable?
There is growing evidence it is.
>> You can still run it down.
>> Nine years ago Al Lopez
started a company called green
team Long Island.
He also is on a mission to rid
homes of fossil fuels.
>> Time is running out before we
can really stop that two degree
warming that will start making
things dramatically worse.
Every home is going to be using
heat pumps in a matter of time
because it is so efficient.
>> We caught up with him and his
crew at Jennifer because Frey's
home in west Hempstead, new
York.
It is one of 15 installations
the company completes every
week.
She hired the team to install
insulation, heat pumps and solar
panels.
>> I've always wanted to have a
green home.
I think it is something I've
always thought a bill in my
mind.
I've always said if I am going
to be a homeowner something has
to be green or everything has to
be green.
>> Heat pumps are so green
because they are not creating
heat.
Removing it from one place to
another.
Inside there is a fluid called
refrigerant that boils at -40
degrees low zero fahrenheit
cared as long as the outside air
is warmer than -40 the
refrigerant picks up heat from
the outside air as it becomes a
gas.
It flows into an electric
compressor where it is put under
pressure adding more warmth to
the gas.
The warm gas flows into your
room unit as it heats your room.
The gas itself condenses back
into a liquid.
Now the liquid travels back out
flowing through a valve that
lowers the pressure and the
temperature.
The cycle starts all over again.
In the winter you can pump heat
inside and in the summer reverse
the process to pump heat outside
cooling your room.
You can go to 4, 5, 800 percent
efficiency because you are not
making heat.
You are just pushing it from one
area to the other pit >> As the
temperatures get very high or
very low, the efficiency does
decline.
>> The challenge is the time you
need heating the most is
literally when there is the
least heat to be extracted from
their on that coldest winter
night.
And the time when you need
cooling the most is on the
hottest summer day when it is
the hardest to put heat into the
air.
If the rock is deep enough to
let you do that.
>> Kathy is the founder and
president of dandelion energy.
The company is installing heat
pumps connected geothermal
wells.
It makes a heat pump even more
efficient.
>> You are extracting heat and
rejecting heat to the ground and
the ground is typically 50
degrees fahrenheit year-round.
So it is never that hard to pull
heat out of the ground and it is
never that hard to put heat into
the ground.
What that translates to is a
system that is incredibly
efficient and very
cost-effective for homeowners.
>> Dandelion has focused on
reducing the cost and
consequence of drilling a
geothermal well.
Using smaller more noble
drilling rigs to reach tight
lots like this one.
So far they have installed more
than 1000 geothermal wells for
heat pumps.
Elaine is among their customers.
She got rid of her old gas
furnace and air conditioning
system at her home in Scarsdale,
New York.
All of it was replaced with two
heat pumps in her basement
attached to closed-loop
geothermal wells.
>> These pipes are connected to
the outside underneath the
ground.
>> The pipes are filled with a
steady supply of 50 degree water
year-round matter the weather.
The system cost $40,000 all in
but with subsidies in financing
they did not have to come out of
pocket upfront.
Has it been satisfactory both in
heating and cooling?
>> Definitely.
All our neighbors are
complaining about how much their
heating bills went up.
But ours stayed the same.
We are using that heat a lot
more and we use the ac a lot
more as well.
>> Without guilt.
>> Yeah, without guilt.
>> Drilling FEMA -- drilling
geothermal wells to enhance heat
pumps greatly adds to the
expense.
In the most extreme climates it
is often mandatory that there is
some conventional wisdom or
urban myth air source heat pumps
don't work well in climates like
New York either.
>> They have become more
reliable.
>> Bj Modi is a professor of
mechanical engineering at
Columbia university.
He has installed heat pumps in
his 150-year-old Harlem
brownstone.
He says he pump technology has
greatly improved in the last 20
years.
But buyer beware.
>> I think one gap we need to
address is we need more people
trained to install them and
install them right.
They are a tricky technology.
This technology is there to
deploy.
We will need heat pump simply
because that is the only option
we have.
>> New York state aims to
completely eliminate fossil
fuels in all its buildings by
2050.
Right now we are doing about
20,000 buildings a year.
To reach our goal, we need to do
200,000 a year.
A tenfold increase and that is
where the challenge and the
opportunity come in.
>> Is it realistic to imagine
fully electrified homes en masse
across the country in the next
20 years?
>> It is a challenge.
It is a high goal but one that
is achievable.
>> On rooftops across the city
there is evidence the transition
is well underway.
But with one million buildings
in the city alone, the road to
zero is fraught with congestion
and gridlock.
For the pbs newshour, I'm miles
o'brien in New York City.
>> There is a lot more online at
pbs.org/newshour including a
story about solar powered energy