I love heat pumps. But many don’t. Why is that? To answer why so many contractors dislike heat pumps, we’ve reviewed articles, podcasts, chats and most of all talked with our colleagues in the broader field of HVAC.
In this article we discuss the main points why it may be hard to find a heat pump friendly contractor in your neighborhood. While reasons include local climate, lifestyle, and money, these reasons can be viewed exactly opposite to make a great case for heat pumps.
Colorado’s cold climate.
Historically, heat pumps installed in Colorado in the 1980’s and 1990’s could not meet heating demand for our homes.
The reason being that the compressor and heat exchanger technologies could not efficiently move heat from outside sub freezing temperatures into your home. Everybody complained about it, and the stigma is very sticky in Colorado, where gas is plentiful.
All of our best HVAC installers and service folks are well aware of those lessons from just a couple decades ago, and it is best to avoid setting up a customer to be chilly in the deep winter.
It’s important to know that the work to install a heat pump is significant, requires several trainings, certifications and experience, if your heat demand is to be met on the coldest of nights. The most efficient cold climate heat pump cannot heat a home that demands more than the maximum output in the design.
Now, very cold climates have been met with technological advancements in Europe and Asia at the turn of the century. More recently, the US Federal Government has whipped up the US manufacturing industry to advance cold climate heat pumps.
Today we are seeing results from that effort, a wave of new US cold climate technology which have joined forces with the time tested heat pump brands from over seas manufacturers.
But in a race to heat a home from cold to warm, a furnace will win. The heat pump will take longer. A heat pump is not a furnace with flaming hot air. It’s a slower, quieter work horse that warms up the home, surfaces and keeps circulating at a lower setting to keep the home temperature consistent. It’s the tortoise against the hare.
In short, contractors are wary of installing heat pumps in cold climates because of a risk of getting a call from a cold customer in deep winter. Of course, a good design that meets the home needs when the thermometer heads below zero is all that is needed.
Money.
Contractors avoid deploying more heat pumps because of money. I’m told they are too expensive to sell, when a furnace is another, cheaper solution. Additionally, the incentives are diverse in their scope and in some cases daunting to navigate for both contractors and customers.
A furnace has less moving parts, can operate on a smaller electrical circuit and runs loud and hot. You know when it’s on and when it’s off. You feel it. Today’s cold climate heat pump in comparison runs quiet with a framework of logic relying on high tech sensors, inverters and highly efficient subsystems. The heat pump is a quiet electrical genius, the furnace a powerful fire hammer.
On the face of it, at list pricing, the furnace is less costly. But over the lifetime of the machines, a heat pump can save most US homes money. Add to that the waves of financial incentives from a range of sources, and the heat pump is a choice won in the numbers.
A heat pump beats a furnace as the tortoise beats the hare, in the numbers over the long haul. Contact us for more information!
