How is heat pump uptake going in the US?

15 comments

1. They’re very popular in the south, and incredibly rare up in the north. In Wisconsin most people just use natural gas (what I have) furnaces, and the houses are well-designed to insulate. It gets down to -20f every year, you’ve gotta be ready for it. These buildings have had furnaces forever or they’d never be able to have people living in them.

   Heat pumps are most efficient in warm climates and can be added to AC, so it’s worth it for warm climates like Georgia or Texas where it’s not usually freezing. It’s more efficient for Wisconsin or Minnesota to use gas furnaces and it’ll take a long time before they every switch over.

   [Here’s an article about heat pumps in new home by region.](https://eyeonhousing.org/2022/09/almost-even-split-between-natural-gas-and-electric-heating-systems-in-new-homes/#:~:text=Almost%20all%20of%20new%20single,(99%20percent%20in%202021).)

2. I had one in my first house (purchased in 2008 in Virginia). Not sure other than that.

3. I have one for the new part of my house. Seems to work fine

4. Most new buildings have it. But, retrofitting old buildings is taking time. A lot of people don’t see it as worth the up front expense.

5. They don’t work well in extreme cold, so they are less common in colder climates as it would be an addition to the existing heating source. More common in the warmer sojthern states of the US where heating is not used to the degree as it is colder northern ones.

6. We got some put it in last summer.

   Our best estimate is that we saved about $400 in December and January for heating.

   The only issue was the heat pumps did not work when it got below 0F and we had to turn our oil heat back on for a few days.

7. What is “heat pump uptake”? I know each of those words individually but together they make no sense to me. I Googled the phrase and returned no helpful results either.

8. Every house I’ve lived in since the 80’s has had heat pumps. I’d say 95% of homes and businesses use them.

9. They’re not very popular in my area. While it isn’t super common in SE Michigan, we get sub-zero temperatures often enough that unless you get an absolute top of the line unit or use a geothermal pump, both of which are costly, you still need supplemental heat. So most people will just go with a furnace in the first place.

10. I mean it keeps me warm in Winter. So I’m happy.

11. They are pretty common in higher end homes in the Pacific Northwest. Our house has one, and it was built in the late 90s. All of the homes in our neighborhood have them and they went in when they were built. Coincidentally it’s the first house I’ve ever had Central air conditioning in, which is a nice benefit of a heat pump system.

12. They’re fairly popular in the south for sure, I don’t have one but my parents did and I know plenty of others who did/do. My understanding is that in cold climates their ability to heat drops off sharply to the point where the Texas snow storm a few years back caused many people to have massive problems heating their home because heat pumps can’t keep up and even in Virginia family up there had issues with heating the home to a comfortable temperature.

13. Around here I’d say they were about 50% when I was a kid, almost all new houses seem to have them, especially outside of cities where there is no natural gas lines. They work well for our climate. USDA says our average low is -5°F (-21°C).

14. Pretty common and getting moreso as time goes on. Local utilities are giving rebates to a homeowner for installing a heat pump in lieu of their existing gas system and companies are installing them like mad.

    Which is kind of funny because there is a shortage of really good techs in my area, and most here are trained on AC and gas furnace operation; a lot of them get uncomfortable when they have to diagnose a heat pump.

15. Gets too cold in the winter for it to be that useful.