Don’t rush into anything
“A lot of these [HVAC replacement] decisions are made under duress, like when a system fails in the middle of winter,” said Robert Cooper, president and CEO of Embue, a company that specializes in sustainable options for multi-family buildings. “You’re going to replace it with the quickest thing that you can get somebody in there. You’re not going to shop around.”
Although we can’t prevent those kinds of emergencies from happening, we can encourage you to start thinking about your future heat pump ahead of time so you’re not ending up in a situation that forces you into a 15-year commitment to an inefficient fossil-fuel heater. It’s completely normal to take a few months to negotiate over project quotes, and then again to schedule your installation based on the availability of equipment and labor. If a potential installer tries to pressure you into acting fast, especially if you’re not in a heating or cooling emergency, that’s another red flag.
Aside from living with the equipment for 15 years, you may also be entering a long-term relationship with your contractor. If anything goes wrong, you’ll continue seeing them as long as you’re covered under warranty.
Important factors for some installations
It bears repeating that heat pumps in general are not only greener and more efficient than other home heating and cooling systems but also more modular and adaptable. Up until this point, we’ve tried to focus on advice that’s broadly applicable to anyone looking to buy a heat pump. But there is some other helpful information we’ve gathered in our research that could be either absolutely crucial or completely irrelevant to you depending on your situation.
Why weatherization matters
Even if you buy the most cutting-edge heat pump system available, it won’t do much if your home is drafty. Homes that aren’t sufficiently insulated can leak up to 20% of their energy, per Energy Star, further adding to the homeowner’s annual heating and cooling costs regardless of what kind of HVAC system they have. Leaky homes tend to be older and more reliant on fossil fuels, too; in fact, just one-third of US homes are responsible for nearly 75% of all residential carbon emissions, according to the US Energy Information Administration. These emissions also tend to have a disproportionate impact on low-income communities and people of color.
Many statewide incentive programs do not merely encourage but require updated weatherization before you qualify for a heat pump rebate or a loan. Some of these states also provide free weatherization consultation services. If you live in a drafty home, this is something to look into even before you start reaching out to contractors about installing a heat pump.
What a difference an inverter makes
Most heat pumps use inverter technology. Whereas traditional air conditioners have only two speeds—completely on or completely off—inverters allow a system to run continuously at variable speeds, using only as much energy as it needs to maintain a comfortable temperature. Ultimately it uses less energy, makes less noise, and feels more comfortable pretty much all the time. The top picks in our guides to portable air conditioners and window air conditioners are all inverter units, and we highly recommend that you choose a heat pump with an inverter condenser, too.
Inverter technology also works well in conjunction with the variable efficiency of heat pump technology. You don’t have to worry about turning the system down or off when you leave the house for a while, as the system will regulate itself so well that it’ll work to maintain the temperature while barely using any energy. Turning the system on and off would actually use more electricity than just letting it run.
How heat pumps handle extreme cold weather
Heat pumps have historically been more common in Southern states, and they’ve also had a bit of a bad reputation as being less efficient or failing entirely in colder weather. A 2017 study from the Minnesota-based clean energy nonprofit Center for Energy and Environment comparing older heat pumps with more recently designed ones showed that older heat pump systems were significantly less efficient in temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. But it also found that heat pumps designed and installed after 2015 kept functioning normally down to -13 degrees Fahrenheit—and in more moderate conditions, they were two to three times more efficient than standard electric heating systems. “The colder it is outside, the harder it is for that machine to take heat from that air and move it inside,” explained Harvey Michaels, a lecturer in system dynamics and information technology at MIT Sloan. “It’s like pushing uphill.” Essentially, it’s harder for the heat pump to move the heat when it has to find that heat first—but again, that happens only in extreme conditions. If you’re worried about below-zero temperatures, your home almost definitely has a robust heating system installed already, and you might be a good candidate for a hybrid-heat or dual-heat system.
Hybrid-heat or dual-heat systems
There are a few situations where installing a new heat pump and keeping your gas- or oil-fueled burner as a backup might actually be cheaper and less carbon intensive than strictly relying on the heat pump. This kind of installation is called a dual-heat or hybrid-heat system, and it works best in places that regularly deal with temperatures below freezing. Since heat pumps can be less efficient in extremely cold weather, the idea is to offset the difference by using fossil fuels to help get the room up to a temperature where the heat pump can perform best, typically somewhere between 20 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Think of it as being similar to how a hybrid car works.
Harvey Michaels of MIT Sloan, who has served as an advisor on state and federal climate-policy commissions, expanded on the potential of hybrid heat pumps in a 2021 article. Once the temperature starts to drop below freezing, as he explains in that article, natural gas could be a cheaper option than a heat pump, depending on local energy pricing. And even if you do turn the gas on for those coldest days, you’re still reducing your home’s carbon emissions by at least 50%, so it’s still a win for the environment.
This might sound counterintuitive on the surface: How can you reduce carbon emissions by using carbon-based energy sources? But the math bears that conclusion out. If your heat pump is operating at only 100% efficiency because of the cold weather (as opposed to the 300% to 500% at which it normally operates), you’re using three times as much of the electricity to heat your home back up to the optimal performance conditions. In a state like Massachusetts, where 75% of the energy grid comes from natural gas, that ends up using a lot more fossil fuels than if you were to just turn on the gas burner in the basement and let it get the house back up to the baseline temperature.
“Obviously we want to reduce the emissions of fossil fuels as much as possible,” said Alexander Gard-Murray, whose work on the 3H Hybrid Heat Homes report examined the way such systems can work to speed up heat pump adaptation and overall decarbonization. “If you’re thinking, ‘I’ve got a gas furnace that’s newly installed, I’m not gonna rip that out,’ but you want to get a new cooling system, they can work in tandem. And that’s something else to ask your heat pump contractor about.”
Hybrid heat systems aren’t meant to be a permanent solution but rather a transitional tool to help ease the stress on both the electrical grid and peoples’ wallets, while the utility companies make the shift toward a more renewable grid overall.
How to start your heat pump search
Start looking before your current system fails.
Ask your friends, neighbors, and/or local social media groups for recommendations.
Research local rebates and other incentive programs.
Make sure your home is airtight and weatherized.
Talk with several contractors, and get their quotes in writing.
Remark：
Some of the articles are taken from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it. If you’re interesting in heat pump products，please feel free to contact OSB heat pump company，we are your best choice.
Post time: Nov-26-2022