Category: Heat Pump

As we’ve discussed in the past, a Heat Pump system is a critical technology for fighting climate-change. They provide heating AND cooling, electrically, at much higher efficiencies than traditional ways to heat and cool. They’re awesome! And so we installed our first one – in snowy Boulder, CO – to learn deeply about how to help homeowners #ElectrifyEverything and fight climate change.

We wrote a Twitter thread 🧵 on them – check it out and give it a share!

Key Learnings:

#1 Super important to work with the customer to understand their goals:

1. Reduce fossil fuel use for heating

2. Improve home energy comfort in the 3rd floor nook office (subject to very uneven heating and cooling)

3. Work with a partner who could manage the whole process turnkey

#2 Sizing the unit properly is ESSENTIAL

We had a home performance company do a blower door test and run manual J calcs to determine load calcs.  THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT to a successful outcome.

#3 You never know what you’re going to find in a previous install 🙂

Demolition time!  When we removed the PVC flue vents, we found an old wasps nest! Fortunately, no wasps were harmed as the nest looked long-abandoned.  Things got a bit dirty.

#4 Contractor selection matters!

While the heat pump system was installed according to the spec, the contractor didn’t pay attention to the details we think are important for delivering an A+ customer experience: i.e they left some of the insulation uninstalled and didn’t use mats on our hardwood floors.

#5 Systems and Design thinking is critical

Several electricians recommended the simplest / easiest solution for a specific goal (i.e. get 240V of power to the Air Handler). They didn’t think to re-use existing wiring nor did they discuss what else we might electrify in the home (induction stove and heat pump water heater are next!). Approaching the design based on long-term goals is important for the best, cost-effective long-term outcome.

#6 Heat pump technology really works!

So far, it’s been awesome and borderline magical! The customer has been super excited about the comfort delivered by the heat pump system. The fan is quiet and runs for more time, distributing heating more evenly throughout the home. Fewer cold spots so far this winter!

#7 Combustion is smelly.

Customer has noticed that the smells that came out of the vents when the heat kicked on are now gone! They thought it was just a “feature” of the house. Apparently it’s a “bug” caused by burning natural gas.

#8 Rebates matter.

Not all contractors are approved installers under various incentive programs from the electric utility and city/county.  The list of contractors who are approved for both Xcel AND Boulder incentives is ~5. We left some money on the table with Xcel incentives.  Do your research before selecting a technology and contractor partner!

#9 Top take-away?

There is a LOT of opportunity to make this simpler, easier, lower cost for the consumer, all while helping them reduce their impact on the environment and making their homes more comfortable and cozy. This is the first, very meaningful, step in #HomeElectrification. For other homeowners, it might be an EV charger, water heater, or induction oven.

We’re super excited to help homeowners upgrade their homes with the latest, energy-efficient technology to help them on their Climate Journey.

If you want to learn more about electrifying your home, contact us and get in touch!

Solving climate change is hard. Solving climate change is a whole lot easier if we do 2 things (hint: heating repair):

1. Replace our appliances and vehicles with electric-powered ones – #ElectrifyEverything

2. Replace coal and natural gas power plants with renewable energy (mostly solar and wind)

How big an impact is this? It’s huge. About 50% of our carbon emissions come from these two things. If everyone in the country did these two things, we would be significantly closer to avoiding catastrophic global warming. It’s the most impactful thing you can do.

So, where to start with Electrifying Everything? The two largest ‘appliances’ are your car and depending on where you live, your furnace or your Air Conditioner. EVs are a well known ‘replacement’ for your gas guzzling car. But what to do about your furnace / AC?

There’s a new kid on the block: a Heat Pump. Check out this great video – Why heaters are the future of cooling – if you are unfamiliar. Heat Pumps are awesome – and they should 100% be the next heating repair furnace / AC you buy. Let us say it again, you should never buy a fossil-fuel powered furnace again. Why?

• They’re basically magic.

• They’re super efficient to operate.

• They’re significantly lower cost to operate.

• They can help save the planet.

If you’re getting a new furnace, get in touch to see if we can help you save a couple thousand dollars.

Here are the Top 5 Reasons to invest in a Heat Pump:

1. They are technologically basically magic. You already have a heat pump in your home: your freezer. It takes ambient air and makes it super cold. How? They don’t directly generate heat or cold, instead they extract it from one location (with a compressor/expansion valve) and move it to another (with coils and a fan). A Heat Pump Furnace does the same thing, but it reverse. It takes heat from ambient external air and heats up a room.

To understand this, it’s helpful to understand a little bit of physics. When we think of cold air, we think of 0 degrees Celsius – at that temperature, water freezes, rain becomes snow, and my nose turns bright red (scientific fact). But, 0°C still has heat in it. It has 273° of heat – in Kelvin. And similarly, a 90°F day is sweltering. In Kelvin, it’s 305°K.

And so even though it feels hot / cold in human terms, it’s all just physics. Heat Pumps operate using physics and are able to extract real amounts of heat or cooling from air that to us, feels like it doesn’t have it.

2. This technological prowess extends to its efficiency rating: Appliances are measured in efficiency: how well do they take an input and create a unit of useful energy out of it. Gas-powered stoves are notoriously inefficient. About 40% of the heated created by that blue flame goes into your food. The other 60% dissipates as waste heat. An Induction cooktop is way more efficient: >90% of the heat gets transferred to your food.

Your fossil-fueled furnace is actually pretty efficient. Standard units these days are >90% efficient. But you know what’s 3-4x more efficient? You guessed it: a heat pump! Because Heat Pumps move heat (see #1) rather than create it, their efficiency rating is >300%! What does that mean? For every unit of electricity they consume, rather than producing .9 units of heat, they produce >3 units of heat!

3. They can save you a boatload of money, Part 1. Because they are so efficient, over the lifetime of the system, they can save you thousands of dollars. Don’t take it from us – Mr. Money Mustache (finance and life-optimization guru) recently installed a heat pump and is going to save himself $676/year (for a 15% Return on Investment). That’s real money. And given that they last 15 or more years, that’s over $10k in savings. Where else in your investment portfolio can you generate a 15% ROI?

4. They can save you a boatload of money, Part 2. Heat Pumps for heating repair create both heating and cooling. So by replacing your furnace with a heat pump, you get an AC thrown in for free! Have you installed an AC recently? It typically costs $5-10k for central air. If you have to replace your furnace already, you are getting $5-10k of value for free. When was the last time you got a $5-10k check just for doing nothing?

5. They can help save the planet. Heat pumps run on electricity. Electricity is the only energy source that we’re good at making renewably (wind and solar). So every year we deploy more wind and solar, each heat pump has a lower carbon footprint and a lower impact on the environment. That’s the 101.

There’s the 201 level reason: heat pump usage is highly correlated with when renewable energy is producing electricity. We typically have our ACs on during the hottest time of the day: when the sun is shining. And we typically run our heat systems when it’s coldest: during the nighttime. But that is also when the wind blows the most. So your usage of a heat pump is highly correlated with when renewable electricity is the most plentiful. That’s pretty awesome.

Interested in learning more about heating repair? Contact us for a quote today!