Energy Department Backs Heat Pumps

Scrolling through my newsfeed this morning, I came across this article in The Washington Post. As the title of this post suggests, the Department of Energy is promoting regular heat pumps as part of a broader effort to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions. Here's how the author of the article explains the agency's position: 

"Unlike furnaces, heat pumps don’t generate heat to warm a home. They transfer heat from the outdoors to inside your home. Thus, heat pumps are far more efficient than furnaces, reducing electricity use for heating by 50 percent, according to the Energy Department.

In recent months, home sustainability experts and the federal government have been pushing heat pumps as a way to address climate change and reduce energy consumption. Late last year, Vice President Harris said the government will partner with private companies to “drive innovation in electric heat pumps.”

Heat pumps have the potential to save an average American family about $459 annually when they switch from an electric resistant heating system and about $948 annually when they switch from an oil system, according to the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships."

The article goes on to mention some of the hurdles to promoting heat pump adoption. Namely, heat pumps have a bad reputation for being noisy that can be traced back to their earlier iterations in the 1980's and 90's. 

As so often is the case with residential energy conservation initiatives, a good PR push makes all the difference. Unfortunately it's much harder to reverse a bad reputation than it is to make a good first impression.