Wait, why another heat pump?

Unless you are living off the grid, you already own at least one heat pump.

If you own a refrigerator, you already own a heat pump.
If you own an air conditioner, you already own a heat pump.

When we speak of “heat pumps” we are referring a machine that cools a space by pumping a refrigerant that displaces energy from ambient air but is also able to warm the same space by running backwards, so to speak.

At my house, we have a refrigerator, a freezer, and an air conditioner. A couple of weeks ago, we added a multi-split heat-pump to our home to replace our 30 year old air-conditioner.

The scrollbar has tipped me off that this is a long post. Can’t you just get to the point?

Sure. Our new heat-pump system is awesome. The house is now a comfortable temperature throughout both floors and each of our bedrooms now can be independently made colder or warmer depending on the sleeper’s preferences.

Previously, our old air conditioning required that the first floor would be frigid in order to make the second floor comfortable. And then outside of the house, it also made the place uncomfortable: the air conditioner in our backyard was so loud that we couldn’t hang out there when it was on. Now our new heat-pump is quieter than our neighbour’s window AC unit.

Our old air conditioner also used a lot more electricity:

Why I am sharing my personal heat pump journey?

Despite the ubiquity of refrigerators and air conditioners in Canada and the rest of North America, there still much demystifying that still needs to be done in order to encourage the wider adoption of heat-pumps and to collectively reduce the amount of fossil fuels from having to be burned to keep us warm.

Despite the lifetime cost advantage of heat pumps, their relatively low
uptake points to other barriers preventing households from choosing heat pumps when they replace their heating or cooling system. These barriers are behavioural, economic, and structural in nature. They include information gaps regarding heat pump performance and cost that undermine consumer confidence, households’ tendency to heavily weigh up-front costs and discount future benefits when making purchase decisions, the administrative burden of navigating complex and cumbersome rebate programs, and structural barriers that limit access for parts of the population.

“Heat Pumps Pay Off: Unlocking lower-cost heating and cooling in Canada, Canadian Climate Institute, September 2023

If you live in the UK and wanted to bridge this information gap and to know more from people’s lived experience about how their heat-pump works for them, it is possible schedule a visit with a home-owner to visit their heat-pump to learn more.

But if you live in Canada and don’t already have a heat pump, then you might want to read on and learn about my personal journey of picking out the heat pump configuration for our home. And I’m suggesting this not because my story is particularly interesting but because it is very important to become reasonably well-informed about heat pumps before you call your local HVAC company for a quotation.

Hey are you throwing shade at the HVAC industry?

I believe we can place some of the blame of this information gap that prevents consumer confidence to invest in a heat-pump for their home from the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) industry itself.

I say this because I’ve had two separate friends of mine tell me that they wanted a heat pump for their home only to be dissuaded by their HVAC contractor.

I have no concrete proof that the HVAC industry is hindering the adoption of heat-pumps because they would rather to continue to install over-sized methane-fueled gas furnaces as they are a profitable part their existing standard business practice; I only note that from my perspective, it certainly looks like some of those in the industry seem to act this way.

(And as a matter of balance, I will say that I have heard HVAC professionals who say it is unfair to place all the blame on the HVAC industry, when homeowners are risk adverse and most act extremely phobic to higher up-front costs.)

If you have to remember just one thing from this post, please know that it is very likely your HVAC “comfort advisor” who will visit your home, assess your needs, and give you a quote is very likely going to make a calculation based on your existing heating source, which is very likely already too large for your living space. This is huge red flag! You need contractor who will also look at your current ventilation system!

(For a deeper dive on this matter, you can watch this Technology Connexxtras video, HVAC professionals aren’t sizing equipment appropriately which is the abbreviated version of Old HVAC industry practices are holding us back and costing us money. But we can fix it.)

Friends, I’m trying to do two things with this post (1) I am trying to persuade you that a heat pump is great for both your personal comfort and for our collective project of reducing the burning of fossil fuels and (2) that you might need to prepare yourself before working with an HVAC industry who might rather you choose something easier to install. I don’t want to overstate (2) to scare you away from (1) but I just want you to learn from my experience.

Goldilocks and the Three HVAC Quotations

This was our context. We live in a small home that is over 100 years old. We had a 30 year old air-conditioning unit in our backyard. About twenty years ago, we had our natural gas furnace replaced. Despite getting a “top of the line” furnace, my son’s bedroom on the second floor would be three degrees colder than the rest of the house as his room shared a single vent with his sister’s bedroom. It was time to replace our air-conditioner, and I was able to convince my husband that we should replace it with a heat-pump.

The first company that we asked a quote from, didn’t even bother to look at our existing duct system even though I had told them that we had an existing significant problem with the heating of my son’s room in the winter. They prescribed to us a ducted, dual-fuel hybrid heat-pump/furnace system that was (surprise!) a ton larger than our existing furnace. This was such a disheartening experience because it really felt like that this company was only interested in selling us a furnace that came with a heat–pump, like this technology was some cute accessory.

The second company we asked a quote from, on the other hand, wanted to fix our home’s poor vents and duct system first, and then give us a quote for a new heat pump system afterwards. This might have an approach that other homeowners would have preferred but it didn’t really suit our personal needs.

The third HVAC company salesperson went into our basement and measured the size of our furnace’s trunk vent, did some math, and then told us that it would be too small for a ducted heat-pump system (heat-pumps need more airflow than gas furnaces). They suggested that we should seriously consider a ductless mini-split system for our home: one large unit on the first floor and three smaller units, one for each bedroom.

We went with this third option. I was a little nervous that the installation would make the outside of our home look ugly but the installers did a great job hiding the pipes in plain sight. I was also concerned that the indoor units would be loud and ugly-looking, but they’ve already faded to the background of my perception.

As I’ve said before and will say again: our new heat-pump system is awesome. The house is now a comfortable temperature throughout both floors, each of our bedrooms now can be independently adjusted to the sleeper’s preferences, the system is quiet, and it uses a lot less electricity than before.

Now, we still have to see how our new system will be able to hold up through the winter, but for the time being I would firmly place myself and my family among the majority of Canadian satisfied heat-pump users who would recommend a heat-pump to a friend or neighbor.

My husband’s only complaint with our new system is that it does take longer than we are used to for the kitchen to cool down after using the stove for cooking. The solution to which, of course, is upgrading to an inductive stove.

So what’s next?

Remember when I told you that my son’s bedroom would be the coldest in the house? We found out that it was not only our home’s poor ventilation system at fault. When the HVAC installers attached the mini unit in his room, they noticed that the blown-in insulation within the exterior wall had all settled to the floor. We are now collecting quotes so we can re-insulate those walls to keep all the heated and conditioned air inside.

Then we will wait to see how our heat-pump can hold itself against a winter.

If we feel confident that the heat-pump can keep us warm enough during our coldest days, then all we have to do is replace our water heater with another heat-pump so we can disconnect ourselves from the gas-line.

We’re doing our part to reduce the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuel.

Look around your neighbourhood and see if you can find the others who are doing the same thing. And if you see them, ask them about their heat pump.