Sales are growing so quickly that some installers wonder whether heat pumps could even wipe out the demand for new air conditioners in a few years and put a significant dent in the number of natural gas furnaces.
Sales are growing so quickly that some installers wonder whether heat pumps could even wipe out the demand for new air conditioners in a few years and put a significant dent in the number of natural gas furnaces.
Yeah. Heat pumps are pretty shitty in Alberta. Even in Calgary with our chinooks, the cold snaps hurt them.
I’ve got a heat pump on my swimming pool. If I forget to shut it off at night, it turns into an ice cube the minute it hits about 12 degrees. They are a bit different than the heat pumps for houses, but having a heat pump in our winters isn’t going to work. That much is clear. Like everything else, when they say it’ll work till -30, it’s really only good till about -5, then it’ll have to pull so much energy to grab that heat out of the air, it’s no longer efficient.
The idea is great, but I’m not sure they will be the ultimate solution in Alberta. Our altitude also has an impact on them too.
For sure. I lived in Penticton for a bit and the heat pump became more or less useless at around -10/-12, even down there. High efficiency gas is the best we have right now