emerging technology

In New England, it’s starting to look and feel like fall. And the change of season brings with it a change in appetite. As we look around, we see apple and pumpkin spice flavored foodstuffs with more regularity. It’s time for serving up soups, comfort food, and crock-pot based meals.

All I want is a heat pump for the holidays. You think that I’m joking, but I’m not. My room is FREEZING in the winter and a sweatbox in the summer. I’m getting tired of having to wrestle with the three (3!) blankets necessary to survive the Bostonian winters.  I haven’t forgotten last year’s winter, nor the high energy bills, which is precisely why I’m in the market for an energy-efficient cold climate heat pump.

While you probably won’t find Rooftop Units trending on Twitter anytime soon, you will continue to find them on roofs of commercial buildings working tirelessly to keep you cool. And, like many of their HVAC counterparts, rooftop units are due for an energy efficiency overhaul.

Last we left Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), they were overseas playing a major role as Energy Continuity Systems (ECS) in Japan after the devastating Fukushima disaster disabled forty-eight of Japan’s fifty nuclear reactors. Rolling blackouts and sporadic outages plagued the Land of the Rising Sun years after the monstrous earthquake rocked the world, instilling a heightened awareness of energy reliability and a towering demand for homes equipped with HEMS.

While the oil bills from heating your home are still fresh in your mind.  While you still seethe from the snow and slush, I want to offer a suggestion.

Air-Source Heat Pumps.

Thanks to Jake Marin (HVAC Program Manager) and Efficiency Vermont for contributing this especially relevant piece on burgeoning heat pump products. Heat pump technologies transfer heat much more efficiently than traditional methods and are quickly becoming a financially viable alternative. 

The ability of an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) to heat homes in the dead of winter may seem too good to be true. This technology is no figment of your imagination - it has us quite excited because it promises to deliver heat in subzero weather. ASHPs warm our houses by extracting heat from the outdoor air. But, if you live in a cold climate, it’s hard to extract warmth from temperatures near or below freezing.