Are you curious about heat pumps? These are relatively new heating appliances that can help make your home more energy-efficient year-round. Especially for those who live in cold climates as we do in Caledon, it is important to understand what installing a heat pump can achieve for you and what it cannot.
Heat pumps can be used as both cooling and heating appliances in summer and winter respectively. In Caledon, it is common for homeowners to use a heat pump in combination with a hybrid system to keep the home warm in the depths of winter. Here’s what you need to know.
Canadian Home Energy Grant is available for heat pumps! Learn more and if you can apply here.
Heat pumps literally pump heat. They take heat from one space and then move it into another. This means that in summer they can pump heat out of your home and in winter they can pump it into the home. Heat pumps run on electricity and do so very efficiently. They don’t need to generate heat, unlike furnaces and other home heating options, and it takes much less energy to move heat than to make it. In Caledon, our electricity is mainly from hydroelectric power, so you can feel good about using this fuel source.
Heat pumps need sources and sinks. The source is the place the heat pump takes the heat from, and the sink is the place where the heat pump delivers the heat to. In the winter, the air can be your heat source, and your home can be the heat sink. If it sounds funny to pull heat out of winter air, remember that absolute zero is much lower than zero degrees Celsius. There is still heat in the air in the winter, and a heat pump can concentrate it in your home.
In the summer you reverse your heat pump. The heat source is your home, and the heat sink is outside. The heat pump takes the heat out of your home and releases it into the air. That is, assuming it is an air-based heat pump.
There are three basic types of heat sources you need to know about:
- Air-source: These air pumps use the air outside of your home as either the sink or the source.
- Ground-source: These are geothermal heat pumps that use the ground as the sink or source of heat. Below a certain depth level, our ground is a consistent temperature, and heat pumps of this kind take advantage of that consistency.
- Water- or other source: Heat pumps can distribute heat generated by other systems, including that produced by boilers in water or by other heat-generating systems. In Caledon, it is common to use a heat pump in combination with a boiler to keep the home warm in the winter.
There are so many benefits to heat pumps, including better energy efficiency and lower heating bills.
If you want to install a heat pump in Brampton, Halton Hills, Caledon and Mississauga, contact us today to learn more.
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Federal Government Energy Rebate
Up to $7100 in Rebates
Homeowners are eligible for up to $600 for the cost of pre- and post-retrofit EnerGuide evaluations and up to $6500 total for the implementation of eligible retrofits.