Heat pumps = happiness?
Welcome to the third and final week of our introduction to heat pumps! If you missed weeks 1 and 2, check 'em out here and here.
Housekeeping
- Please sign this petition (takes 2 secs) to make it easier to install solar panels in the U.S.
- The petition is from the folks behind Sun Day, a new day of action on September 21 (i.e. this coming Sunday!) to celebrate the transformative power of clean energy. Events are scheduled across the country (and the world). Find one near you here.
- If you're in New York, join me for Sun Day in Stuyvesant Square Park where I'll be watching legendary climate writer and activist Bill McKibben chop it up with future New York Senator Brad Lander.
Now, back to the pumps.
The heat pumped 'round the world
Heat pumps = happiness?
Is it any coincidence that three of the happiest countries on Earth—Finland, Sweden, and Norway—boast the highest rates of heat pump adoption?
Finland, winner of the World Happiness Report for an enviable eight years running, has been on the heat pump train since the early 2000s. Today, over 50% of Fins rely on heat pumps to keep their hygge* homes warm.
*Hygge is a Danish word, but, y'know, alliteration. The Finnish version of hygge is called Kalsarikännit, which translates to 'pantsdrunk' and describes the act of getting drunk at home alone in one's underwear with no intention of going out. Respect!
Meanwhile, in the neighboring petrostate of Norway, that percentage climbs even higher: there are ~630 heat pumps per 1,000 households. While Norway exports more CO2 emissions than any country other than Qatar (!), at home they prefer to pump heat, not oil. (I'm reminded of how tech company CEOs forbid their children from having screen time...)
Here's a funny, related video I came across last week.
Sweden's no slouch, either. The Swedes have deep heat pump penetration, with nearly 2 million units installed across their tall and conventionally attractive population of ~10 million.
Okay, so here's a question. Besides happiness, what do the Scandinavian countries all have in common?
Free, high-quality healthcare and education? Well, yeah. A strong social safety net? Sure, but— Low levels of corruption and high trust in public institutions and fellow citizens? Okay, that too. A deep connection to nature? A strong sense of social support? A culture of high freedom and balanced work-life?
Yes, yes!! But what else??
They're all COLD, damnit.
It is significant that some of the coldest places on earth overwhelmingly prefer heat pumps to conventional fossil fuel furnaces and boilers. Anyone still convinced that heat pumps can't hack it in frigid temps should book a 'coolcation' to Oslo in February and have a little look-see.
As to whether heat pumps are responsible for all that Nordic gaiety, I can't conclusively say. But probably.
Let's keep looking at heat pumps around the world.
What of China, Green Dragon of the East?
And then there's China.
China is kicking the world's ass in the clean energy transition in literally every single category. Heat pumps are no exception.
- China accounts for 25–30% of the world's installed heat pumps, with tens of millions of units already pumpin'
- China is the world's largest manufacturer of decentralized (i.e. 'ductless') heat pumps, producing ~35% of all the heat pumps sold in 2022. The sector employs more than 300,000 people. Not too shabby!
- Air-to-water heat pumps represent nearly 30% (about 80 gigawatts) of China's installed heat pump capacity
Wait a sec... did you just say air-to-water heat pumps?
Indeed I did.
So far, we've talked about air-to-air ('air source') heat pumps, and we've talked about water source heat pumps... so what the heck is an air-to-water heat pump?
Time for a quick(ish) detour.
How air-to-water heat pumps work
Air-to-water heat pumps bring in heat from the outside air, just like air-to-air heat pumps. The refrigerant draws heat in and puts it through the usual ringer (evaporator, compressor, condenser, expansion valve).
But instead of releasing that heat into your home, an air-to-water heat pump transfers the heat energy into a ginormous hot water tank (filled with water, obviously).
From there, you can use the hot water for its many wonderful purposes: laundry, bubble baths, the application of temporary tattoos, etc.
You can also use it to heat your home with a device called an 'air handler'. Hot water from the tank circulates in pipes; the air handler blows air over those pipes, thus warming the air.
The heat pump that can act like a battery
The coolest part about the air-to-water heat pump is that, with the right equipment, you can turn it into a thermal battery with the ability to lower your electricity bill by 30% a month and reduce your carbon emissions by 90%.
To do it, you'll need a couple things:
- An incredibly well-insulated hot water tank
- A smart meter from a startup called Harvest. (This is not a sponsored post, FYI; I'm just a fan.)
A well-insulated hot water tank can keep water hot for a really long time. It's no different from a fancy thermos that keeps your coffee warm for days on end.
Okay, so, let's say you've got an air-to-water heat pump, a super well-insulated hot water tank, and a smart meter from Harvest.
Now, instead of running your heat pump whenever you hop in the shower, your Harvest device will only run the heat pump when the price of electricity is cheapest. That might be during the middle of the day, when solar farms are cranking out effectively free power, or in the middle of the night when the energy grid is quiet.
But because you've got that insulated tank, the hot water will stay hot for days at a time. You'll never notice the difference—but your utility bill will.
Stocking up on electricity when it's cheap and clean is an increasingly common practice known as 'time-shifting' or 'load-shifting'. The energy grid gets congested at certain times of day, like when everyone gets home from work. This causes prices to spike, forces utility companies to turn on their nasty gas 'peaker' plants, and can even lead to brownouts and blackouts.
By avoiding peak rates, you'll maximize your savings and help keep the grid stable for everyone else.
To learn more about Harvest and thermal batteries, I'd recommend checking out this podcast.
Okay, now let's get back on track.
Why haven't heat pumps taken off in America?
Yeah, what gives?
The evergreen answer is that Big Dystopia spends hundreds of millions of dollars every single year—has spent billions over decades—peddling climate disinformation bullshit and lobbying politicians to keep us hopelessly chained to fossil gas pipelines. Heat pumps, which reduce our dependence on natural gas, have been targeted. A gas-sponsored PR campaign drove newspaper headlines that referred to heat pumps as 'Soviet-style' technology.
In Russia, heat pumps you?
Despite the propaganda, America is slowly but surely coming around. As of 2022, Americans have installed some 24 million units, the equivalent of ~16% of U.S. households. In new single family homes, heat pumps are the preferred heating and cooling solution 45% of the time. Impressive!
Heat pumps are here to stay. And as the American market grows, so too does the knowledge and expertise of our intrepid HVAC contractors, an increasing number of whom now specialize in heat pump installations.
I've been talking to friends in the industry about what prospective heat pump buyers should keep in mind. Here's what they said.
Advice for getting your very first heat pump
1. Get multiple quotes
Maybe an obvious one, but receiving estimates from at least two or three heat pump contractors will give you a better sense of the costs involved and can help you understand which style, brand, and model of heat pump is right for your home. Avoid anyone giving you the hard sell.
2. Consider an energy audit
Is your house drafty? Do your ducts leak? Is your kid mining Bitcoin in the basement? A heat pump in a 'leaky' home won't be as effective as it should be, which means it'll hard to work harder and therefore use more electricity. Thankfully, many heat pump contractors offer energy auditing services, such as the blower door test, that'll tell you exactly how leaky you are.
3. Know your spark gap
The 'spark gap' or 'spark price' refers to the differential in price between 'natural' gas and electricity. If you live in a state with skyrocketing electricity bills, an air source heat pump might not be the way to go—unless you've got rooftop solar and a battery, of course.
4. Canadian? Give Tessa a call!
Any Canucks reading this who want in on the heat pump game should definitely get in touch with my friend Tessa, owner and operator of Dawn Energy in Toronto. Dawn Energy will comb through years of data to right-size your energy requirements and build you a custom plan for home electrification.
Well, that just about covers everything I know about heat pumps. Let's wrap this three-part series with a chill concluding section.
Will heat pumps save the world?
Well, no. Solving climate change is not going to happen through individual actions and consumer purchases. That said, getting a heat pump is the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon emissions, outside of [REDACTED] an oil pipeline.
Per NREL, American buildings—up to 95% of them—could meet their heating and cooling needs with heat pumps, with median savings of $300 to $650 a year depending on heat pump efficiency (and depending on what happens with electricity prices).
Look, change is scary. A hot water tank, a gas boiler, a furnace—these are some of the most expensive purchases a homeowner ever has to make. But have a little faith in the heat pump. It's just an air conditioner that works in both directions, after all. And it's made a lot of Finnish people very happy.
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