Heat Pumps Are Now Outselling Gas Furnaces In America (cleantechnica.com) 63
CleanTechnicareports that last year Americans "bought 37% more air source heat pumps than the next most popular heating appliance — gas furnaces."
And Americans bought 21% more heat pumps than they did in 2023. Canary Media is quick to point out that in many homes, more than one heat pump is required, so that data should be interpreted with that in mind. Typically, a home uses only one furnace. Nevertheless, the trend for heat pumps is up. Russell Unger, the head of decarbonizing buildings at RMI, said, "There's just been this long term, consistent trend."
It's easy to understand why heat pumps are gaining in popularity. In addition to providing heated air in the winter and cool air in the summer, they are far more efficient than conventional heat sources — delivering three to four times more heat per dollar spent than oil- or gas-fired heating equipment or old fashioned electric baseboard heat. They also create far less carbon pollution. How much less depends on the source of electricity in the local area,
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.
And Americans bought 21% more heat pumps than they did in 2023. Canary Media is quick to point out that in many homes, more than one heat pump is required, so that data should be interpreted with that in mind. Typically, a home uses only one furnace. Nevertheless, the trend for heat pumps is up. Russell Unger, the head of decarbonizing buildings at RMI, said, "There's just been this long term, consistent trend."
It's easy to understand why heat pumps are gaining in popularity. In addition to providing heated air in the winter and cool air in the summer, they are far more efficient than conventional heat sources — delivering three to four times more heat per dollar spent than oil- or gas-fired heating equipment or old fashioned electric baseboard heat. They also create far less carbon pollution. How much less depends on the source of electricity in the local area,
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.
Sometimes not that good (Score:2, Informative)
Heatpumps are a great way to heat/cool houses in temperate climates but when you start getting extremes then you have to be very careful about the type of unit you install.
With simple air-sink heatpumps that have an air cooled/warmed radiator outside in the environment there are limits to their effectiveness in very cold temperatures -- as many people in the UK discovered to their cost during a recent cold-snap that saw temperatures fall to as much as -20 deg C. The effeciency of a gas furnace remains co
Re:Sometimes not that good (Score:4, Informative)
Heat pumps are very popular in places like Norway, which has an extreme climate. Part of it is in the Arctic Circle.
These days they work fine well below -20C.
The main thing is just getting used to how they are different to gas boilers/furnaces for heating. You tend to just set the desired temperature and leave them on, rather than having them come on at specific times.
Re: Sometimes not that good (Score:2)
They're popular in Maine too, with electric prices way above the national average. You can drive down a rural road and see retrofitted mini-split systems everywhere. I'm sure many have backup gas or oil heat too because that would be smart for power outages or extremely cold nights.
Heat pump hate is fucking weird.
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For those that don't know where the lie of omission is in this one. They don't use air-sink heat pumps. Those become basically money burners below about -10C. Most around -5C. Because you need to resistively heat the outside unit to maintain transfer. It's hilariously inefficient.
What people in very cold climates use are geothermal heat pumps. Those are extremely expensive, requiring geological survey, and then drilling deep wells where liquid heat transfer medium will be circulated. You'll also need said c
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None of the units I've seen resistively heated the outside unit. Ours occasionally pumps a bit of heat back to melt any ice. Backup heat is usually done inside, in the air handler, or in a completely separate system. Doing it outside would be horribly inefficient. Can you explain more about what you are talking about there?
As for cold weather efficiency, you can get a COP of 2 down to just under -20 C. Where the grid is greening, this is a net win over gas as far as CO2 goes. Even better if you have h
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Heat pumps are very popular in places like Norway, which has an extreme climate. Part of it is in the Arctic Circle.
These days they work fine well below -20C.
This is cherry picking. Norway is a global outlier with 90% of their energy from hydro. Heat pumps are an upgrade from resistive heating yet at -4F you are lucky to see a CoP of 2 from an air sourced heat pump. In most situations it would not be better than gas either in terms of financial or carbon cost.
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Heat pumps are very popular in places like Norway, which has an extreme climate.
Can you cite a source for this? I'd be interested in how heat pumps are so popular in Norway and yet a rarity where I live in the Midwest USA.
It's not that heat pumps don't exist in the Midwest, it's just that they aren't exactly flying off the shelves. If there is a heat pump in the house then there's also a fossil fuel furnace and/or fireplace. I noticed that natural gas fireplaces are common around here even in what might be considered a low cost "starter" home. Natural gas service is just expected f
Re:Sometimes not that good (Score:4, Informative)
Here you go. https://www.theguardian.com/en... [theguardian.com]
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Local ordinances? Lack of subsidies? I live in the Okanagan in British Columbia, Canada. Everyone here has a heat pump. It's getting less and less common to see furnaces of any kind. But the government has been working hard to switch people over where they can, providing subsidies and showing how much lower your bills tend to be.
I greatly suspect Norway has also done something like that, considering the penetration of EVs there as well.
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They have a resistance element built in to provide heat when it is too cold for the heat pump to work. We were told to switch that on when it got below 35F
(I think western PA counts as 'midwest')
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(I think western PA counts as 'midwest')
That's pushing the envelope, by my standards and that of Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
They have a resistance element built in to provide heat when it is too cold for the heat pump to work. We were told to switch that on when it got below 35F
My sister used to live out in that area and in a phone conversation she asked me what it meant to have "emergency heat" set on her thermostat. She lived in an apartment building with heat pumps but due to age and other factors were not well maintained. I recall I explained that "emergency heat" was like a big incandescent light bulb in the walls heating her apartment. I believe that got the point across.
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Geothermal heat pumps are the bomb in the midwest or about anywhere else that has significant cold, they're just pricey to install. Had one in my place in Virginia after the Feb 2014 heating oil bill, just for that one month, was $680. Heating after that was much cheaper, in the mid-100's, and all electric, so nobody had to deliver anything whether the snow was 4 feet deep or not.
Meanwhile, I moved to Texas, and sit here in the moderately cool and fiercely hot, double-wide mobile home with my air-source
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Heat pumps are very popular in places like Norway, which has an extreme climate. Part of it is in the Arctic Circle.
*sigh*. Please stop using Norway as any example of extremes. It does not have an extreme climate simply because its top is in the arctic circle. Most of the country has its temperature moderated by Norwegian current which gets lots of heat from the gulf stream. The majority of the Norwegian population live in cities which have similar climate to say Vienna, which is to say the average low is 0 degrees C in winter, and average high above freezing in the coldest months.
There are places in Norway which do get
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Heatpumps are a great way to heat/cool houses in temperate climates but when you start getting extremes then you have to be very careful about the type of unit you install.
By cheap crap, get crap performance. Equipment that can work on wider temperature-ranges are always a bit more expensive, but not much.
In countries where sub-zero temps are commonplace it's often a better option to use a ground-based heat source. This means laying pipes underground where the temperature remains higher than above-ground. This can provide much better performance.
If you have the money, because it's about 8-10x more expensive up front. There are also other considerations, do you have enough land to put the pipes in or do you need to drill a deep hole to extract heat from?
Unfortunately, it's often much cheaper just to use an above-ground heat-pump with an air-based radiator/heat-exchanger setup and so bad outcomes can occur.
An air2air heatpump can cover 95% of your cooling and heating needs, the last 5% is the expensive part to cover.
You also have to wonder don't you... if a heatpump can effectively produce 3KW of heat with 1KW of electrical energy -- why don't we have over-unity perpetual motion (I know the answer but do you)?
Why would one wonder? It's a heatpump, it moves heat a
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An air2air heatpump can cover 95% of your cooling and heating needs, the last 5% is the expensive part to cover.
I'd be careful about "your" and specific figures.
An A2A heatpump can cover the needs of like 95% of the population, but it wouldn't cover 95% where I used to live in Alaska. I'd have either needed a ground source heat pump, a backup oil boiler/furnace (like my primary heat source up there), or spend a LOT of money on electrical heating strips.
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If you live rurally then it's cheap to get holes put in the ground, unless it's very rocky. It's practical for almost anyone with a reliable electrical supply. But the real answer is that you should be building foot-thick walls, insulating houses like they're freezers, and carefully controlling air intake and exhaust for efficiency to the point where you can afford to use resistive heat some of the time. We have our own considerations in California, like needing to stop allowing these flammable communities
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My house in Alaska had walls over a foot thick, yes, built like a freezer. Good windows even. Still took a lot of heating.
Re: Sometimes not that good (Score:2)
Everyone knows the answer. Heat pumps don't create heat, they just move it from outside to inside.
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With simple air-sink heatpumps that have an air cooled/warmed radiator outside in the environment there are limits to their effectiveness in very cold temperatures -- as many people in the UK discovered to their cost during a recent cold-snap that saw temperatures fall to as much as -20 deg C.
That's why most (all?) heat pumps have a secondary heat source, usually either electric or gas, for when it's too cold to exchange heat. For example, I have a 3-stage heat pump -- a 2-stage (scroll) compressor for heating/cooling and a 3rd stage electric strip heat for extreme cold. My inside unit also has a variable-speed (DC) blower that ramps up/down.
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No, it is definitely not "all". There are a lot that don't come with them because they flat out don't need them.
Three nights ago we hit a low of 7.6F (-13.5C). I have two Mr. Cool DIY 4th Gen units, one a single zone 18K ceiling cassette, the other a 3-zone configured 12K ceiling, 9K wall, 9K wall. No issues and everything is warm, but the system has to work. I say that because I live in a 120 year old house and the insulation is terrible to non-existent and the windows are the originals. Always another pro
Re:Sometimes not that good (Score:5, Interesting)
My heating/cooling bills are slightly higher in the winter than in the summer, but not meaningfully so, and we get temperatures down to -20C here occasionally. The heat pump is much slower at heating the house below -20C, but it's not too bad. (In actual fact, the reason why the bills are higher in the winter is because the cats still want to go out onto the catio and that means the door is often left propped open for long stretches of time. They want to do that in the summer as well, but the delta between room temperature and the outside temperature is smaller in the summer than in the winter.)
IN PRACTICE, the reality is that a normal heat pump will be better for your heating and cooling and your bills almost all of the time. If you live even further north than me, like in my old home town of Edmonton, you might invest in a failover heating system. But if you're buying from a reputable local installer, they'll set you up properly.
Re: Sometimes not that good (Score:1)
Re: Sometimes not that good (Score:2)
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If you live even further north than me, like in my old home town of Edmonton, you might invest in a failover heating system.
Here in Winterpeg where it routinely drops into the -30s C., heat pumps are sold as the AC part of an HVAC system - that is, a heat pump and a gas furnace are a typical package deal. The heat pump functions as an AC unit that can also provide some heat, and at colder temps the gas furnace kicks in. The biggest benefit of the heat pump comes in that window between AC and furnace weather (spring and fall), so the payback time here is far longer than it would be in BC.
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if a heatpump can effectively produce 3KW of heat with 1KW of electrical energy -- why don't we have over-unity perpetual motion (I know the answer but do you)?
Heat pumps do not produce heat. They move heat from one location to another. It is more efficient to move than to create. There is no magic involved.
Heatpumps are a great way to heat/cool houses in temperate climates but when you start getting extremes then you have to be very careful about the type of unit you install.
There are air-source heat pumps in common use in Canada and other arctic and near-arctic environments. They are designed with a different optimum efficiency range than ones built for semi-tropical environments. Buy a device designed to operate in the temperature range you expect in the area in which you live.
Ground-source heat pumps are nice, because the t
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What you're saying applies to gas as well. If you size a system to warm your house at 0C you're not going to be able to warm your house to -20C. So you still need to be careful what you install.
In countries where sub-zero temps are commonplace it's often a better option to use a ground-based heat source.
Ground source heatpumps simply maintain a more stable efficiency. In places where freezing temperatures are common you can simply select an appropriate air source heatpump. Heatpumps are becoming very popular in frigging cold places as well. It's not a case of freezing or not, it's a case of how wide of an operating
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Efficiency of gas burners remains the same in temperate climates?
No, no, no. Air temperature and humidity are very much factors in how much energy can be extracted for each cubic meter of gas you burn.
Cubic meter is the common measurement unit in the Netherlands mentioned on your bill.
It varies so much that a recalculation of your yearly bill is needed. Well, you pay for your consumption each month, then the energy company recalculates the previous 12 monthly bills by taking into account the weather that pl
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Efficiency of gas burners remains the same in temperate climates?
No, no, no. Air temperature and humidity are very much factors in how much energy can be extracted for each cubic meter of gas you burn.
Careful here. Temperature is the big factor, but that's simply because the density of natural gas increases inversely with (absolute) temperature. Colder gas is denser than warmer gas, and hence you get more energy out of a cubic meter of colder gas than a cubic meter of warmer gas.
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I heard the same thing about the UK, but it also turns out retrofitting existing heating systems with heat pumps instead of furnaces is popular there for its low cost, but it's inherently less capable than the mini-split design popular in the US. It's cheap because you just swap out the furnace, but only works in very mild winters. The heating fluid in a heat pump only gets about 40 degrees F hotter than a typical target room temperature. That's fine if your circulating air through the room with a fan, bu
Uh oh, quarterly profits threat (Score:2)
Hastily written Executive Order to block the sale of heat pumps in 3... 2...
Duct heating is ideal for heatpumps (Score:2)
Duct AC suits heat pumps much more than the hydronic heating we have in most homes in Europe. Just need a reversing valve and a different controller.
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Fortunately, ductless heat pumps also exist, which just needs a wall unit to operate.
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It's a significant retrofit to pull refrigerant lines through the home.
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A part of me agrees with you. Another part of me recognizes the abundance of ductless heat pump systems built for servicing two indoor heating/cooling units from one outdoor heat pump.
How many spaces in your home don't have a wall to the outside? For those spaces that don't have such access how many aren't closets, basements, or other spaces where climate control is of little concern?
I've thought about replacing my central heating and cooling with two or three mini-split heat pumps, while retaining some k
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You think that is bad, try running ducts where they weren't designed to go.
The drain line is actually a bigger deal.
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Unless you propose that businesses are storing said heat pumps rather than installing them, which would be rather expensive, presuming that they sold them is logical.
Also, I don't know where you got 35.3%, Oil warm air furnaces went from 2749 to 2921, an increase of only 6%.
Also, they shipped 261k gas warm air furnaces compared to 316k heat pumps. While in 2023, it was 227k gas furnaces, vs 206k heat pumps. But by that metric, heat pumps also outshipped gas furnaces in 2022, 299k vs 286k
Best of both worlds... (Score:2)
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More than a decade ago, I replaced my furnace/AC with a heat pump/furnace. When it gets too cold for the heat pump to work, it fails over to the furnace rather than simple electric coils.
Much the same for me.
When I moved into this house the A/C was junk and a few years later the furnace started acting funny. I replaced both with a new natural gas furnace and air source heat pump for heating and cooling. There is a small window every year where running the heat pump is a real cost saver versus running the natural gas furnace. When a controller board failed on the system I was quoted a very high cost on replacement. Rather than have the original system replaced I bought a much cheaper the
i bought a heat pump before they were cool (Score:2)
I got a heat pump over 15 years ago, back when few people had such a thing in my area. The people installing the system told me I was the first customer they had that asked for a heat pump. The installers knew what a heat pump was, and were trained in how to install them, but I was the first they had installed. I took this option because both my furnace and air conditioner were in need of replacement and natural gas prices were high and expected to only get higher. I expected the heat pump to be a money
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Exactly, the sweet spot (for natural gas) is about 40F to 45F Outside, as natural gas (here) is generally about 1/3 the cost/btu as electricity (and sales tax is not charged on heating fuels in the winter - but you can only have one fuel designated as a heating fuel).
Yeah, I'm baffled by the line "they are far more efficient than conventional heat sources — delivering three to four times more heat per dollar spent than oil- or gas-fired heating equipment or old fashioned electric baseboard heat".
Cheaper than baseboard heat, yeah, but they're considerably more expensive than gas-fired heat. That's why California actually had to pass laws banning gas-powered furnaces and hot water heaters, because nobody is willing to install heat pumps when the average PG&E ra
Wrong data (Score:2, Informative)
"delivering three to four times more heat per dollar spent than oil- or gas-fired heating "
Nope, they can have a thermodynamic efficiency of 3 or 4, that is true, but gas is much cheaper than electricity (obviously since gas is used to generate electricity). So yes, they use less energy, but are no cheaper to run. So whoever wrote that doesn't know what they are talking about, or is being deliberately misleading.
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For cooling (hypothetical 95F with low humidity) the Energy Efficiency Ratio came out at 12 for the pump vs 10 for A/C. This is a more direct comparison so I'd guess more accurate, and give the heat pump the nod for a small win.
Mostly I'm surprised how clo
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Mostly I'm surprised how close they are.
Not so much of a surprise. Consumers can calculate the $$ per BTU and switch if one becomes cheaper. Ignoring the significant equipment investment, of course.
What the utilities love about heat pumps is that now many people will buy energy to air condition as well as heat.
Not Cheaper Heat but less emissions Yes (Score:1)
Not quite there yet, depending on location. (Score:2)
It's cool to see this as a general rule. Electricity rates don't change very often, while Gas rates fluctuate quarterly, or sometimes even more frequently, making it difficult to compare cost. I'm in Colorado, and the cost of Natural Gas doesn't *quite* offset the Electricity cost for raw therms output to heat the house, but they're within $30/month of each other as of the last month's billing. They might actually be break even after Xcel kicks in it's quarterly increase for the winter months.
It's not enoug
No Contest (Score:2)
There doesn't need to be a contest.
I'm "going big" with solar, slowly, and when that is done I'll replace an air conditioner with a 48V mini-split reversible and use solar energy for heating and cooling. Biphasic verticals seem to be the snow solution.
I'll probably add more in various rooms and run those off increased solar.
I'd even like to put in a bigger domestic hot water tank and at least preheat that off of excess energy.
When I do some landscaping I'll need lots of fill so might as well install PEX/AL
Not viable in areas with high electricity costs (Score:5, Informative)
I live in San Diego, CA.
The local energy company charges very high rates for electricity 47-55 cents per KwH depending on the time of day. There is a baseline discount of 10 cents per KwH for up to 130% of baseline usage. I have solar on NEM2 to help mitigate my yearly bill, but the system was sized to cover my electric needs at the time of installation. Adding an electric heat pump will blow this model out of the water.
I upgraded my insulation to help with gas heating costs. But the problem is is more and more homeowners upgrade their insulation, the utility will just raise the rates to keep the same revenue flowing in.
I spend around $200 in gas usage for the winter season to keep my living spaces at 68 degrees F.
Even with a 3-5X multiplier on BTU's for using an electric heat pump, I can't see a way to save any money. The electricity costs will be way higher than continuing to use natural gas. 1kW can theoretically yield ~3412 BTU. For a 35000 BTU furnace, this means the electrical resistance equivalent would be 10.3 kW not including any inefficiencies. If we divide 10.3kW by 4 (heat pump KwH multiplier) we get 2.575 KwH per hour of use. That translates to a cost of $1.21 per hour to run.
For natural gas, you an get approximately 100K BTU for hundred cubic ft depending on the heat content. One hundred cubic feet costs $1.61 on the baseline rate and $1.91 on non baseline. Assuming no inefficiency This means I can run my 35000 BTU gas heater for 0.35 * 1.91 or 67 cents per hour.
Of course, in the future California may prohibit the installation of new gas appliances in the future, or they may levy additional taxes on natural gas. At that point I would have to make a decision, stay and eat the additional costs, or move out of California.
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I wonder if running a natural gas generator to power the heat pump would be financially cheaper? At a 3x multiplier as long as your generator was at least 33% efficient you would be net positive. At a 5x multiplier you could get by with a 20% efficient generator.
I think natural gas power plants can be as good as 60% efficient, so anything better than a 1.7x multiplier would make it "better" to heat using generated electricity, but of course you aren't going to install that in your back yard...
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In San Diego, you don't need to heat all of your living spaces overnight, just the bedrooms. And you don't need to heat the entire bedroom, just the mattress. Maybe 100-200W average is enough to keep the bed toasty at night, so at 50 cents per kWh, that's about 5-10 cents per bed per hour.
The IRA was supposed to subsidize heat pumps. (Score:2)
Have reliable backup & clothing lest ye be sor (Score:2)
While discussing grid powered primary HVAC is well and good, failure to have ready independent backup can cost frozen pipes and much worse. (The fatalities from the Texas freeze show the cost of learned helplessness.)
Firstly, own cold weather clothing far more than you imagine you'll need. (It's cheap enough in summer.) Grid powered (anything) are primarily for comfort not survival, so even if yours has never failed
have at least one (oversized, there is no benefit to small backs in static locations while la
Sign of intelligence (Score:2)
I have been slowly succumbing to old people's disease ("Kids these days....") But this gives me hope. Heat Pumps are obviously better devices than current equipment, having finally overcome their own psychological weakness (Originally they were designed to maximize energy savings even if that meant they took forever to heat or cool your house. That gave them a horrible reputation until people realized they had to prioritize comfort and accept only saving 80% instead of 95%.)
Heat pumps -whether geo or air