Electric heat pumps have been touted as a cheaper, greener way to heat and cool homes. The units use power and refrigerant to transfer heat back and forth between outdoors and indoors. In cooler weather, it draws warm air into a home. in summer it sucks the warm air from inside and carries it outside. “You’re not generating the heat, you’re actually just gathering it and moving it around. It can actually be over 100 percent efficient,” said Sara Hastings-Simon, an energy transition expert and assistant professor of physics at the University. of Calgary. “You can put in less energy than the amount of heat you can move.” Installation companies say interest in heat pumps has increased tenfold in the past year. But in parts of the country like Alberta, uptake is slower. Cheaper pump models are often not powerful enough to heat a home during an Alberta winter, so they must be paired with a gas or electric furnace. “They don’t provide enough heat when it’s really, really cold,” said Adam Saunders, Canadian HVAC’s sales manager. The website of ProSolutions Inc., another heating and cooling company, says heat pumps are not working in Alberta because of the colder climate. Heat pumps are more energy efficient and less expensive to utilities than traditional air conditioning units. (Shane Hennessey/CBC) Hastings-Simon says the technology is available for colder weather, but access to supply and awareness can be a problem. “It’s not actually the case that they don’t work here. And I think the biggest problem is that we don’t have enough potential installers and things like that,” he said. “I think the biggest roadblock there is like it is [air conditioning] it’s normal practice.” The average heat pump unit will cost you about twice as much as a comparable air conditioning unit. A typical unit can operate as a heater down to about 0 degrees Celsius, but can also provide cooling in the summer. BC Hydro says heat pumps are up to 50 per cent more energy efficient than a window air conditioning unit. They cost anywhere from $6,000 to $18,000 for a complete system.
The federal government offers a home improvement grant that covers part of the cost of installing a heat pump. Devices must be installed by a professional and be on the eligible model list. For example, different kinds of units are eligible for a grant of $2,500 to $5,000. They also qualify for a zero interest loan through it Canada Greener Homes Initiativewith repayment over 10 years. New advances in technology have also adapted the units to make them more efficient in colder climates. However, these units can cost up to five times more than an air conditioner. “I think there’s a lot of interest because they’re seeing $5,000 down and zero-interest loans,” Sanders said. “But when homeowners actually ask about it, it’s probably more often than not they end up not going that route because of the things we just talked about.”