You probably have a heat pump or two in your home right now without even knowing it! Your freezer, for example, is a heat pump, moving heat from the ice box into your kitchen. If you trust your freezer to keep your food frozen, you can trust a heat pump to keep your home cozy. But if you’re still on the fence, here are five reasons that heat pumps are awesome for you, the planet, and your pocketbook.
1. Heat pumps make your home more comfortable.
A heat pump is designed to provide slow and steady heat, with very little temperature variation. You won’t get a blast of hot air from your ducts like you do with a furnace, but you also don’t get the downswing in temperatures between blasts of hot air either. It seems like a small thing, but 81% of surveyed homeowners who installed heat pumps reported being more comfortable in their homes, and I can attest as a heat pump owner that I plan to never settle for the low-quality comfort from a furnace in my home again.
2. Heat pumps are a two-for-one deal.
The job of a heat pump is to move heat, and with a simple valve, it can switch from moving heat into a home in winter to moving heat out of a home in summer. Modern heat pumps can keep homes comfortable in very cold climates, very hot climates, and everywhere in between. One appliance doing the job of both a furnace and an air conditioner, how awesome is that!
3. Heat pumps are incredibly efficient, saving you energy and (possibly) money.
Heat pumps are three to five times more energy efficient overall than a gas furnace. It turns out that you can move a lot of heat energy with just a little bit of electricity. And since you aren’t using that much electricity, it could cost less to heat a home with a heat pump than with a furnace. To see if a heat pump will save you money in your region, check with local installers or, if you’re based in the United States, use this handy tool from Rewiring America.
4. Heat pumps make our homes and communities safer.
Electric heat pumps don’t burn fossil fuels, and that means no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or long-term health risks from natural gas. If you get rid of all fuel-burning appliances in your home, you can sleep better at night, knowing your heating system isn’t putting yourself or your family in jeopardy. As a bonus, you will be reducing the air pollution in your community.
5. Heat pumps can heat your water and dry your clothes, too!
Heat pump technology is so awesome that appliance manufacturers are finding new applications. It is now possible to heat your water and dry your clothes with less energy than ever before by using heat pumps. And if you own an electric vehicle, chances are that the cabin heat is provided thanks to a heat pump, too!
Learn more about heat pumps, where they work best, and how big of an impact they can have on climate change on the Drawdown Explorer!
Heather McDiarmid, Ph.D., is a climate change mitigation consultant and educator who specializes in decarbonization solutions for the residential sector. At Project Drawdown, her work focuses on climate solutions related to buildings, electricity, industry, and transportation.
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