In this month's Yale Climate Connection Editor's Corner, we gather to discuss a climate-friendly, energy-efficient, all-electric alternative to furnaces and air conditioners: heat pumps.
Sara, who lives in North Carolina, is already the proud owner of a heat pump. In cold Rhode Island, Pearl dreams of owning a heat pump water heater. Sam Plans, a tenant in Wisconsin, suggested that her landlord should replace her furnace with a cold-weather heat pump.
This discussion has been edited and condensed.
Sam: Heat pumps have been on our radar lately because we've been looking at Vice President Harris' climate policies, and she's called heat pumps “a work of art.” In addition, the U.S. Department of the Treasury also released information on the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. Apparently, more than 260,000 households used the tax credits to purchase heat pumps, and 100,000 households used the tax credits to purchase heat pump water heaters.
Sarah: OK
Sam: Yeah, I also think now is a good time to talk about it while the weather is still hot, because despite its name, a heat pump is also an air conditioner. I think we should start with this question: What is a heat pump?
Sarah: The most important thing for people to know is that if you need air conditioning and heating in your house, a heat pump is your one-stop shop. It can heat your home. It can keep your home cooler. This is very effective. It runs entirely on electricity, so you're not burning fossil fuels in your home. If you're a homeowner concerned about climate change, the next time your furnace breaks or your air conditioner breaks, consider replacing it with a heat pump, as it's one of the most important ways to make your home more climate-friendly.
pearl: As a newbie to heat pumps, I have a question for both of you. I know there are heat pump water heaters too, so if you have a heat pump to cool and heat your home, do you also have to have a heat pump water heater?
Sarah: This depends on your specific setup, but if you have separate hot water heating systems and space heating systems, you may need heat pump versions of both.
Sam: And the secret to saving money here is that you'll get the most tax credit savings if you can get both heat pumps in different years. Heat pumps are eligible for a 30% federal tax credit, capped at $2,000 per year. So if you bought them in the same year, you might hit that cap,
Sarah: Speaking of cost, I've been through this. My air conditioner broke in 2021. It broke in the middle of summer when it was very hot so we scrambled to replace it but I still wanted to take the opportunity to make my house more climate friendly.
I got a quote to replace the unit with the exact same unit so that fossil fuels could continue to burn for 10 years or more, as well as a quote for a heat pump. And the cost was exactly the same then. So for me, there’s no penalty for choosing the more climate-friendly option. But what's very exciting right now is that heat pumps are actually cheaper for many people because we get a 30% federal tax credit. As a result, people are more motivated to make climate-friendly choices.
pearl: So when you get the estimate, is it before the tax credit kicks in?
Sarah: that's right.
Sam: A silly question: Do we have a name for heat pumps? Because it not only delivers heat into your home, it also delivers cool air into your home in the summer.
Sarah: I'd really like to hear Pearl's thoughts on this, but I will say that I have a huge beef with the name and think it should be called something else. I am a heat pump evangelist. I'm really excited about them, but first of all, it's a boring name, and it's also a confusing name, which is a terrible combination.
I was telling a friend of mine about heat pumps and how great they are and blah, blah, blah, and she said, “But does that mean you have to buy an air conditioner too?” I was like, “No, it's both. There is, but you’d never know it from the name.”
pearl: I agree with you. This is bad marketing, calling it a heat pump. But would you call it that? “Cool heat pump?” “Can a heat pump cool you down?”
Sam: It needs a little jingle. Is there a song?
Sarah: Oh, there's a song about a heat pump.
pearl: There's a whole music video, isn't there?
Sam: Oh, unbelievable. We have to embed it.
Sarah: Okay, so what do we call it? I mean, I think we can explain it until the end of our lives.
pearl: This is our job.
Sarah: How about a “climate-friendly melting pot”? No, but it sounds like it's just heating.
pearl: Yes, and the stove, in my mind I always think of gas burning.
Sam: “Cool…cool…cool”…no. Before I ask this question, I should have an idea. [Everyone laughs.]
Sarah: “Climate Friendly HVAC?”
Sam: Another part of the heat pump conversation is that contractor education seems to be a little behind the times. I know, Sarah, you've had this experience. Everyone else I've talked to has had the experience of literally having to fight with a contractor for a heat pump. I think it's hard because you feel like, as a homeowner, you need to know all the answers so you can teach the professionals. But I think that will change with more training.
pearl: Wait, Sarah, when you get an estimate for a heat pump, do you have multiple people give you an estimate?
Sarah: I did it. I got three quotes. Two of the companies urged me to keep using gas and asked why I didn't want to do that. I told them straight up that I didn’t want to buy something that would continue to pump methane into the atmosphere for a decade.
pearl: Do they look at you weird?
Sarah: One of them was younger, in his 20s, and he said, “Oh, that makes sense.”
For homeowners, there are some great guides on what you might need and how to ask for it. I don’t want people to feel overwhelmed. This is totally doable.
Everyone’s house is different, but in mine it wasn’t that hard to do. The contractor came in and had it done in one day. He just took the gas machine away and replaced it with a heat pump, and then, boom, I was done.
Sam: I think there's a lot of misinformation out there in the upper Midwest as well that's not necessarily wrong, but we're still learning how they work in very cold temperatures. So contractors may be a little hesitant or generally recommend that you keep your natural gas furnace. But they do work. They work very well in cold temperatures. We have a whole story about it and we'll tie it together as well.
read: Can a heat pump work in a cold location? Here's what you need to know.
pearl: I don't know if it's the same in every state, but in Rhode Island, you can – that's what I did – you can get counseling. This is really helpful because this person has no affiliation with any company trying to sell you anything. They just really want you to get something that works for your house. The initial consultation is really helpful because this can be very intimidating. I don't know anything about these things. It really helps to just get some common sense advice on what works for our family.
Sarah: That's great. It seems like every state should have one.
pearl: Yes, because I obviously want to install a heat pump system in my home, but the water heater is my biggest concern because I need hot showers in the winter and our existing oil-burning water heater just doesn't meet my needs. Works really well. . The people I talked to also knew everything there was to know about hot water heat pumps. So that's really helpful.
Sam: There is growing talk about the dangers of burning natural gas in homes and its impact on air quality. So I'm also wondering, Sarah, do you feel better when you take steps to stay away from gasoline?
Sarah: I do feel better because I thought about a few things.
One is that I don't like the idea of burning natural gas in my home. A growing body of research shows how burning natural gas in homes can lead to asthma and a variety of potential health problems in children.
But the other thing is, there's a lot of pollution in the community from all these appliances and heating systems that burn fossil fuels, so by removing that and switching to heat pumps, I'm actually doing what I'm doing in part to Improve air pollution in my community.
pearl: Can you talk about what your utility bill looks like? Obviously, your electric bill is going to go up because everything runs on electricity now. But do you see the net savings?
Sarah: For my house, it was much the same initially. After installing the heat pump, I paid a lot less for gas, but more for electricity. But since then, I installed rooftop solar panels, so my electric bill has dropped significantly.
When gas prices skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine, this made me feel safer because electricity prices were much more stable than gas prices, so the gas prices I paid skyrocketed, but I wasn't using much already.
There are studies showing that in many parts of the U.S., it would be cheaper in the long run for new construction to go all-electric. For me, making this switch made a lot of sense financially.
Sam: Additionally, as places further north that previously didn't need air conditioning get hotter and people are trying to figure out air conditioning solutions, maybe now is the time to consider a heat pump. Heat pumps are more efficient than regular air conditioners.
pearl: I don't have air conditioning yet. We did get a quote for installing the heat pump and installing the split unit. So we'll get there eventually. Now, we're just suffering. We put a set in Kai's room. [Editor’s note: Kai is Pearl’s toddler, who could power the entire country if we could just harness his energy.] It's such a pain and you can see the lights in the house flickering because they are using so much power.
Sam: The window units are not very efficient. They are very expensive.
Sam: So what do we call these things? “Cool pump?” “Climate friendly HVAC.” This is the best we have ever had.
Sarah: It's still bulky.
Sam: “Electric Home Temperature Control.”
pearl: I like “Climate Friendly HVAC Systems”.
Sarah: “HVAC won’t give your child asthma.”
pearl: We need an acronym. It should describe the climate.
Sarah: “Don’t HVAC systems rely on complex networks of ducts that sometimes explode?
pearl: That definitely says a lot about the climate. [Everyone laughs.]
Sam: Well, we'll keep thinking about that. Readers, please tell us what you think. Write it in.
Sam: Is there anything else we want to talk about?
Sarah: I would say if you are curious about heat pumps, or if you end up getting one, it is very important to talk about it because most people still don't know what they are. As we just showed, they have a bit of a bad rap, but they're amazing machines, and they have really good tax credits. The more I talk about them, the more people in my social network learn about them. You can do the same thing.
Sam: One day we'll come up with the name and we'll all be famous.
Sarah: That's the plan.
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