While this heat pump news doesn't address core issues, or even the most problematic sectors contributing to our climate crisis, I find it worth sharing nonetheless.
Newer models have been performing pretty well during the winter, and local government is trying out window units that are at least HALF as expensive compared to mini-split counterparts.
"It's still early days in the Boston Housing Authority's test run with the technology, but a pilot project in a New York City apartment building that launched in 2023 showed encouraging results. Apartments with window heat pumps maintained more consistent temperatures during the winter than those relying on the building's old gas-fired boiler system. They also used 86% less energy for heating, which cut resident’s winter heating bills in half."