Air Source Heat Pumps

Taking the first step to replace your home’s heating and cooling system can be overwhelming. For one, it’s your home – no one wants to feel uncomfortable in their living space and it can be a scary thought to make a wrong decision. For two, no two homes are exactly the same – there are many factors that leave consumers confused when deliberating the “right” type of heating system for them, especially when it comes to heat pump technology. They ask multifaceted questions, like “How do I know if I’m a good candidate for a complete system replacement?

There is no denying that the impacts of global warming have created a sense of urgency to accelerate decarbonization efforts in all sectors – from transport and electricity generation to building and industry.

Last month in Woburn, Massachusetts, 135 air source heat pump (ASHP) stakeholders gathered to discuss market transformation strategies for ASHPs. NEEP has been hosting this annual in-person workshop since 2014 and this represented our largest event yet. The workshop is a critical opportunity for regional stakeholders to focus on collaborating towards market transformation.

In this issue of Building Decarb Central, we look at some of the critical discussions and findings from NEEP’s recent 2019 Air Source Heat Pump Market Transformation Workshop in Woburn, Massachusetts. The two-day event drew about 150 people from all over the U.S. and Canada who focused on building the market to provide low-carbon space heating for buildings.

Natural gas creates carbon dioxide when we burn it to heat buildings and water. But it also leaks methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere when it does not make it all the way to our furnaces and water heaters. Older natural gas lines are more likely to leak. Sometimes the leaks get to explosive levels and make the evening news, but on a regular basis there are smaller leaks that emit methane into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

Do you remember where you were on June 2, 2014?

Some of you may have been in Newport, Rhode Island at NEEP’s first in-person Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) Market Transformation Workshop: Air Source Heat Pump Workshop – Warming Up the Market. Months before the workshop, NEEP had published a market transformation strategies report that had established a roadmap for regional stakeholder collaboration towards market development of ASHPs.

In January of 2015, NEEP launched a new program to more effectively differentiate air source heat pumps (ASHP) capable of high performance in cold-climate applications. A new specification had to be developed and manufacturers were invited to provide the necessary information to have their products included on the list NEEP creatively dubbed the Cold Climate ASHP Product List. NEEP has maintained and housed the list of products in an excel spreadsheet for download on our website ever since.

Every year in the fall, I head to Cape Cod for a last-ditch vacation before the year-end work crunch hits and the New England winter begins to take hold. 2018 was no different. At least as I headed to Provincetown.

Three days before I was supposed to return home, vacation was cut short. While I was at the beach without cell service, my family frantically called and texted. “Turn on the news,” all the messages said. And, just like that, life changed.

The energy and carbon intensity of existing buildings has been a vexing problem for more than three decades. While lighting, appliances, and a wide variety of other technologies have significantly upgraded energy performance, the buildings that they are placed into have been remarkably resistant to major change.