Are you looking for a way to improve energy efficiency in your home, lower your monthly energy bills, and reduce your carbon footprint? Good for you!
When you live in Ottawa, a great place to start is with your heating and cooling system. HVAC typically accounts for a large portion of our energy consumption, due to our extreme temperatures in both winter and summer. Installing a high-efficiency heat pump system will reduce your energy usage and cut down your HVAC costs all year long.
How Do Heat Pumps Work During The Winter?
You’re probably wondering how this energy-efficient heating system works in cold climates. A heat pump’s function is to move heat (thermal transfer), rather than create heat. In winter, your heat pump will move heat from the ground or outside air into your home heating system. By contrast, conventional furnaces and boilers produce heat — by burning eco-UNfriendly fossil fuels like natural gas.
The internal mechanics of a heat pump are similar to that of an air conditioner, which moves heat from inside to outside in the summer. Today’s heat pumps use an eco-friendly refrigerant, outdoor compressor, and an indoor coil to lower your energy costs and provide heating/cooling for your home.
In the past, this heating method had one drawback — poor performance at temperatures below 5 degrees C. In the frosty Ottawa winter climate, they had to be used with conventional furnaces as a backup.
However, over the past decade, there have been remarkable advances in heat pump technology, and today’s cold climate air source heat pumps (CCASHP) provide cost-effective heating even when outside temperatures plummet to -25 degrees C.
How Do Heat Pumps Work During The Summer?
In summer, a heat pump works as your cooling system, using the same process of heat transfer to moderate your home’s temperature. However, this time, the heat pump acts to cool your home by moving warm air outdoors, just like an air conditioner.
The system simply makes some minor adjustments at the start of the cooling season in order to switch the direction of heat transfer. And just like a regular air conditioner unit, your heat pump will dehumidify to keep you extra comfortable.
Learn more to decide whether an air conditioner or a heat pump is best for your Ottawa home.
Are Heat Pumps Energy-Efficient?
Heat pumps are extremely energy efficient. In fact, the Department of Energy states you can reduce your heating and cooling costs by as much as 75 percent when you install a heat pump. So the answer to “do heat pumps save money” is a resounding YES!
How can we compare HVAC energy savings? The coefficient of performance (COP) measures the heating or cooling output in proportion to the energy input required to run the system.
Typically, heat pump equipment has a COP of 2.0 to 5.4 at 8 degrees C, which means that it can provide between $2.00-$5.40 worth of heat for every $1.00 spent in energy. No other heating or cooling unit has a COP greater than 1, meaning they use more energy.
Are There Any Heat Pump Rebates?
You’ll be happy to learn that the Canada Greener Homes Grant program offers qualifying Canadian homeowners up to $10,600 as an incentive to make energy-saving retrofits. Plus – the Canada Greener Homes Loan program gives Canadians the option to tap into an interest-free loan worth up to $40,000.
Register for the program before installing energy-efficient home improvements such as a heat pump and you could receive a tax-free rebate of as much as $6,500, plus helping with upfront costs with a $600 pre-retrofit consultation fee. So take advantage of this great offer to save you money, start heating and cooling efficiently and save money on your HVAC energy bills — with a heat pump!
Ottawa Home Services Will Help You Save On Your Electric Bill
We are Ottawa experts in heat pump installation, and we carry today’s leading brands of heat pumps — Moovair, Mitsubishi, Lennox and Carrier. Talk with us about saving money on your energy bills — and help save our planet at the same time — with an energy-efficient heat pump for your home heating and cooling needs.