This Secret Climate Weapon Needs to Get Less Secret — and Easier to Adopt
Heat pumps will heat your air and water in the future, but they should be doing that now.
This week, I’m taking a detour into one of my less-frequent but top-of-mind Flower Child topics, climate action. You may not care about heat pumps, but you should. Someday, you may be forced to. Heat pumps are such a critical component of climate action that prominent energy writercalls them a secret climate weapon. If you won’t listen to me, listen to him. If you’re still not convinced this applies to you, next week I’ll share something that definitely does — if you eat food, that is.
A couple weeks ago, a flurry of emails arrived in my inbox proclaiming that it was National Heat Pump Water Heater Day. I realize you may have missed it in all the excitement over World Energy Storage Day. What? You didn’t hear about that one, either? I mean, that wasn’t just national; it was “World” Energy Storage Day.
Considering a heat pump water heater
Okay, so let’s assume you somehow weren’t aware of either of these energy-related days. Heat pump water heater advocates were, and they wasted no time in making the most of National Heat Pump Water Heater Day.
As it happened, when that major national holiday hit on October 25, I was in the middle of some conversations with the super-helpful, free electrification concierge service QuitCarbon about — you guessed it! — switching to a heat pump water heater.
What’s a heat pump water heater? It’s a water heater that runs on electricity instead of gas, using the same principle as an air conditioner or a refrigerator, but in reverse. Instead of generating heat, which takes a lot of energy, it moves heat from the surrounding air into the water in the tank. That makes it 300% efficient, compared to the 95% efficiency of the most efficient gas water heaters.
Why do we want to switch? My main goal is to get off of fossil fuels; all we have left to convert to electric in our house is our furnace, water heater, and hot tub heater (I know, we’re roughing it). But another key goal is to control our energy bills and hedge against rising fossil gas prices (please, do not call it “natural” gas around me!). With the solar panels now on our roof, we can generate enough electricity to power our electric car and everything in our house — our LED lights, our computers, and all our electric appliances, including the heat pumps we don’t have yet — with clean, affordable energy.
Why haven’t we switched yet? We’re waiting for some big upcoming Inflation Reduction Act incentives to switch our furnace to a heat pump heater (which, again, runs on the same principle as an air conditioner, but in reverse). But some amazing incentives for heat pump water heaters are just becoming available in our Northern California region, so now is the perfect time to switch.
Or is it?
Why is it so complicated?
Articles like this one make it sound relatively easy and cheap to switch. But the average pre-incentives price they quote for the appliance plus installation, $2600–$4600, is much lower than the average Bay Area price, which comes in around $8000–$9000.
At the moment, we can get an astounding $7700 discount in the form of four different rebates and incentives, including the Inflation Reduction Act’s $2000 tax rebate.
After these expected incentives, the quote we got for a new heat pump water heater wasn’t bad — under $1800. But as it turns out, it’s not going to be that simple or affordable for us to switch. We might have to add a pump for a drip pan below the water tank, which will add $1437. Oh, and heat pump water heaters spew out cold air; since the tank will be in Rafael’s lair (aka partial finished basement), which is already on the cold side, we’ll need a vent to send the cold air to the outside of the house — another $1266. So our total, after the generous incentives, could be around $4500. Not so cheap.
Just as we were considering this cost, on National Heat Pump Water Heater Day I saw this thread from Nate the House Whisperer, a top electrification advocate. In case you’re not on the platform formerly known as Twitter, here’s how it starts:
This gave me pause, to say the least.
I don’t know yet how our heat pump water heater story will end. But I do know it will involve more research, lengthy discussions, and careful consideration of the risks and benefits. And that’s even with some pretty spectacular financial incentives, plus plenty of hand-holding on the part of QuitCarbon.
It shouldn’t be so hard to switch. But despite the current push for electrification, the technology isn’t where it should be. Many contractors aren’t knowledgeable about heat pumps and don’t want to deal with them — quite a few even discourage people from installing them — and they aren’t always able to get the latest heat pump models from their distributors. Heat pumps sometimes require expensive electric panel upgrades, adding to the cost and complexity of making the switch.
It shouldn’t be so hard.
Why electrify?
Whether we get a heat pump water heater this fall or wait till later, our goal remains to electrify our home. That will include switching to heat pumps to heat our air and water, sooner rather than later.
Everyone will need to do this at some point — again, sooner rather than later, if we’re going to have any chance of meeting our climate goals. It’s key for all homes and businesses to transition from fossil fuels. We need to electrify buildings and transportation to reduce fossil-gas pollution, and we need to use renewable energy sources to produce the electricity that will power our buildings and transportation.
It turns out that there’s yet another, sometimes-overlooked, reason to electrify.
You may have noticed that earlier in this post, I mentioned that it takes less energy to move heat around (like a heat pump does) than to generate it (like gas furnaces and water heaters do). By switching our furnace and water heater to heat pumps, we’ll also increase our energy efficiency.
An Oxford professor says that because of increased efficiencies like these, electrifying everything will reduce the world’s energy needs by 40%. And, you know, Oxford. It’s true that electricity demands are expected to increase at the same time — but that’s all the more reason for us to increase energy efficiency. Also, as we move from generating electricity with fossil fuels to generating it with renewables, the efficiencies increase even further.
So, Rafael and I will keep trying, despite the complexities. It’s not always easy being an early adopter; although heat pumps are common in parts of Europe and Asia, in the U.S., I think you can still call us that.
But if it’s this hard for people who are motivated and somewhat knowledgeable about heat pumps — I mean, at least we know what they are — imagine how hard it is for those who aren’t.
We need to change this, and fast. We need more and better heat pump options, more contractors who are willing and able to install them, more incentives, options for multi-unit buildings, and services like QuitCarbon to make it easier for everyone. The health of our planet and its residents depends on it.
This is the sixth in my electrification and renewables series. Previous posts:
I just wanna say: we LOVE our heat pump. There, I've said it. :-)
Rosana, several years ago I installed a tankless water heater which runs on electricity. I believe this option is less expensive than the heat pump water heater you describe. This water heater works fine for me, with the only downside is that you initially have to run a bit of cold water before the hot water kicks in. I suspect water usage might also be a problem with a heat pump water heater. Here is a link which describes tankless water heaters: https://bfplumbingbayarea.com/blog/are-tankless-water-heaters-worth-your-money/