Heat Pump All the Things!

Depending on where you live, you either love heat pumps, or just barely even know what they are. The heat pump is nothing new, in fact odds are you almost certainly have one in your home right now. But what if I told you in the next 5-10 years companies are going to start heat pumping all the things. Everything from whole house heating, to water heaters, pool heaters, and even your clothes dryer. In fact it’s already starting to happen, and it’s going to be awesome, here’s why.

By the way this isn’t our first video on the venerable heat pump, so if you want a deep dive on how they work, check out our other video links in the decription. But the TLDR version is this, heat pumps are all the rage right now because of their efficiency. More specifically their coefficient of performance. You see, conventional electric heaters are essentially 100% efficient and natural gas heaters well above 80%. Efficiency then, is of the input energy, how much of it actually is converted into heat. 100% is pretty good, so how can a heat pump possibly do better? Unlike conventional heaters that actually produce heat, heat pumps just move thermal energy around. Remember when I mentioned all of us have a heat pump in our homes already, well your refrigerator and air conditioner are both examples of heat pumps. Both those systems desire cold, so they pump heat outside, leaving their insides cooler. For heating, we just need to run the refrigeration cycle in reverse, bringing heat energy inside, and pumping colder air outside. By doing this, no “new” heat is created, well technically, the compressors and pumps of a heat pump do generate some new heat into the system. Therefore, if an electric heater can take 100 watts of energy to produce 100 watts of heat, well a heat pump, can use 100 watts of energy, and provide 300-500 watts of heat. Yea they have a COP of between 3-5!

Now this is all good and well, but why should any of this matter to you? Well the short answer is energy costs, which have been a bit crazy lately. A global pandemic, and now a war, things are a bit nuts… 

Let’s start with natural gas, which while really expensive in Asia and Europe, is relatively cheap here in the U.S. Being the world’s largest natural gas producer, most American homes rely on it for heating. Here is a chart showing just how dominant natural gas has been by region (link). 

You’ll see that the use of electricity for heating is on the rise, and generally natural gas is declining. But something interesting has been happening, most countries have natural gas reserves, and much like your checking account, the goal is to keep the gas being pumped in, close to the levels of the gas being consumed. However the US has been operating on a deficit, on its 5 year average levels. Ironically, for the US, all the reasons for this are climate change related, at least indirectly. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, caused such cold weather that natural gas prices skyrocketed and even led to issues with Natural gas Power plants. It’s not just cold weather that’s the concern, as more coal powered plants shut down, in favor of cheaper natural gas plants, record setting hot summer months, and increased AC usage, also results in higher natural gas consumption and prices.

My natural gas prices are insanely high, here in San Diego, in 2022, due to concerns over shortages in supply and demand, my utility raised my rates 50%. In my most recent bill, I used 45 Therms of natural gas which cost me $94.19. All in that’s over 2 dollars per therm. What is a therm you might be asking? 1 Therm is 100,000 BTUs or British Thermal Units. 1 BTU is 1,055 Joules so 1 Therm is 105 Mega-Joules. Before you tell me how stupid our units are, remember British Thermal Units, so blame them. Kidding aside, I agree, these are ridiculous units of measure, but I still maintain Farinheit is better than Celsius! 30’s is freezing, 40’s is cold, 50’s is brisk, 60’s is cool, 70’s is why I love San Diego, 80’s is warm, and 90’s is hot. 25 degrees celsius, is that good? But I digress. 

The only thing I hate more than my natural gas prices, are my electricity prices. During the same billing period, I used 1,012 kWh and paid $459.92. I feel ridiculous even saying this outloud. 

But I am starting a series on building a fully sustainable home, powered by solar and batteries, full rain and water capture, growing my own crops, and especially heat pumping all the things. 

So over the next two years I am going to make the following changes to my house. I am going to ditch my natural gas water heater, with a heat pump water heater. Swap my natural gas clothes dryer for a heat pump clothes dryer, and change my natural gas pool heater, for a heat pump pool heater. I also want a heat pump whole house heater, but I covered that in great detail in my first heat pump video, link in the description.

Let’s start by doing some shopping for a new water heater. By the way, one of the most sustainable things you can do is do energy efficient upgrades when your old appliances go bad. So if you have a newer water heater, you should probably just wait until its useful life is up before upgrading. Or maybe sell it second hand to someone hoping to save a couple of bucks. 

Looking at Home Depot.com I came up with the following three water heaters for comparison. One is electric, one natural gas and one heat pump. Looking at the price tags, the first drawback of the heat pump water heater becomes clear, it’s expensive. All three of these units are 50 gallon in capacity, the electric is the cheapest at $540 USD. Next is the natural gas at $680 USD, and the heat pump is a whopping $1700. 

So then why do I think heat pump water heaters are a good thing? Well even though they have higher up front costs, they use a fraction of the energy to operate. Here is a breakdown on yearly energy consumption and operating costs, average for all the the US, and specifically for me in San Diego.

Based on the US Average prices for gas and electricity, and the price difference, here’s the data. Switching from natural gas to a heat pump pays for itself in 6.4 years, and electric to heat pump in just 3.7 years.

But for me here in San Diego, with our looney tunes prices, the numbers are just 3.9 years and 1.5 years respectively. 

Ok real talk, when I started to research this video, knowing how high our electricity prices are, I thought I would have to end my ode to heat pumps, with a big “but.” But they don’t make sense for me, but I was wrong! Getting a heat pump water heater would pay for itself in just 4 years, and this is really good news because my current gas water heater is really old, really inefficient, and needs to be replaced sooner than later.

There is one consequence worth bringing up. Being a heat pump, while the water inside gets hotter, the room it’s sitting in, will get colder. Here in San Diego, our hot days vastly outweigh our cold, and the garage, being an unconditioned space, was always the hottest part of our house. Well when I upgrade, i’ll get the side benefit of cooler less humid air in my garage. Of course this also means a colder garage in the winter, and if you live in colder climates, this is something to consider.

But the Heat Pumpery doesn’t end here. The next appliance I want to upgrade is my natural gas clothes dryer. Now this one will be a much lower priority for me, because I have a nearly brand new gas dryer. But heat pump clothes dryers are a perfect example of how prolific heat pumps are about to become. Heat pump dryers are still relatively new but they have some really key benefits. For one they’re ventless, this means you don’t have to have any plumbing to vent the hot air away. This makes them much easier to place wherever you want. Also because they use the refrigeration cycle, they rely on condensers to remove the water, and require much less heat. This means lower temperatures and less damage to your clothing, meaning they’ll last longer. But that lower heat level also means heat pump dryers, at least today, are typically much smaller in capacity than their electric and natural gas counterparts. The smallest electric or gas dryer I could find was 7 cubic feet (around .2 cubic meters). In contrast, the most popular heat pump dryer at Home Depot, maxes out at only 4 cubic feet, or .11 cubic meters. Heat pump dryers also take longer per load, and so if you have a big family, kids, or do laundry constantly, that might be a limitation.

Some models of heat pump water heaters and dryers can run on 110 regular wall outlets, because they’re so low energy. But typically you’ll need a 240v outlet, and if you don’t already have one wired up, you need to also add the cost of hiring an electrician.

Being as heat pumps transfer heat to the surrounding air, you’ll also have air filters to check on probably once or twice a year, to clean, to ensure healthy operation.

In my last home I had a tankless natural gas water heater, which I thought was the coolest thing. That was before natural gas prices started soaring, and now that I’m trying to build a sustainable home, I want to move away from natural gas. So what about a tankless electric water heater? These are a total nightmare, let me explain why. A tank water heater has the luxury of using less energy over a longer period of time, and storing that heat. A tankless heater has to take water and heat it in a matter of seconds, which means they use an insane amount of power, for short bursts. In the case of an electric tankless water heater, systems capable of providing water for your whole home, can use up to 35 kW of power! That’s like charging 4 electric cars on level two chargers at the same time! The problem with these isn’t money, it’s the impact on the grid. First of all you’ll never have enough solar power to cover this massive spike, and second, massive spikes in energy are an absolute nightmare for grid operators. If we want to have a chance for a future of clean energy, we need to spread out our usage, and try to level our consumption. Just imagine millions of people taking showers, and seeing gargantuan spikes in energy usage, it would be a total disaster, even if it was only for 5 or 10 minutes.

No the future is coming very clearly into focus. Heat Pumps baby, everywhere. I should mention I have a pool, and I’m also going to replace my gas pool heater with a heat pump, but subscribe and stay tuned for a future video.

The heat pump is simply the most brilliant way to electrically heat our water or our homes. Just imagine they are 3-5 times better at producing useful heat than their counterparts.

This matters today, but it’s going to really matter in the coming years. Many new construction projects are being built without natural gas hookups, and to keep energy usage low, heat pumps have to be considered. Cities like Berkeley, where I went to college, ah uh, go Bears! And San Francisco, and New York, have already banned new construction from having natural gas. But others looking to take similar strides are facing major opposition. Twenty states with GOP-controlled legislatures have passed so-called “preemption laws” that prohibit cities from banning natural gas. (LINK)

In california, next years building codes, will require all new construction, to require running the necessary electric circuits to allow for heat pump water heaters, leaving builders to decide if they really want to then also pay to provide natural gas lines.

The war for the future of heating, is heating up, and the battle lines are starting to be drawn. But if you want to see a future free of natural gas, well then heat pumps are your best friend. Like I said, we have a series of future episodes planned, which we’ll link in the description, once they’re available, but in the meantime, you absolutely must go check out this video.

Depending on where you live, you either love heat pumps, or just barely even know what they are. The heat pump is nothing new, in fact odds are you almost certainly have one in your home right now. But what if I told you in the next 5-10 years companies are going to start heat pumping all the things. Everything from whole house heating, to water heaters, pool heaters, and even your clothes dryer. In fact it’s already starting to happen, and it’s going to be awesome, here’s why.

By the way this isn’t our first video on the venerable heat pump, so if you want a deep dive on how they work, check out our other video links in the decription. But the TLDR version is this, heat pumps are all the rage right now because of their efficiency. More specifically their coefficient of performance. You see, conventional electric heaters are essentially 100% efficient and natural gas heaters well above 80%. Efficiency then, is of the input energy, how much of it actually is converted into heat. 100% is pretty good, so how can a heat pump possibly do better? Unlike conventional heaters that actually produce heat, heat pumps just move thermal energy around. Remember when I mentioned all of us have a heat pump in our homes already, well your refrigerator and air conditioner are both examples of heat pumps. Both those systems desire cold, so they pump heat outside, leaving their insides cooler. For heating, we just need to run the refrigeration cycle in reverse, bringing heat energy inside, and pumping colder air outside. By doing this, no “new” heat is created, well technically, the compressors and pumps of a heat pump do generate some new heat into the system. Therefore, if an electric heater can take 100 watts of energy to produce 100 watts of heat, well a heat pump, can use 100 watts of energy, and provide 300-500 watts of heat. Yea they have a COP of between 3-5!

Now this is all good and well, but why should any of this matter to you? Well the short answer is energy costs, which have been a bit crazy lately. A global pandemic, and now a war, things are a bit nuts… 

Let’s start with natural gas, which while really expensive in Asia and Europe, is relatively cheap here in the U.S. Being the world’s largest natural gas producer, most American homes rely on it for heating. Here is a chart showing just how dominant natural gas has been by region (link). 

You’ll see that the use of electricity for heating is on the rise, and generally natural gas is declining. But something interesting has been happening, most countries have natural gas reserves, and much like your checking account, the goal is to keep the gas being pumped in, close to the levels of the gas being consumed. However the US has been operating on a deficit, on its 5 year average levels. Ironically, for the US, all the reasons for this are climate change related, at least indirectly. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, caused such cold weather that natural gas prices skyrocketed and even led to issues with Natural gas Power plants. It’s not just cold weather that’s the concern, as more coal powered plants shut down, in favor of cheaper natural gas plants, record setting hot summer months, and increased AC usage, also results in higher natural gas consumption and prices.

My natural gas prices are insanely high, here in San Diego, in 2022, due to concerns over shortages in supply and demand, my utility raised my rates 50%. In my most recent bill, I used 45 Therms of natural gas which cost me $94.19. All in that’s over 2 dollars per therm. What is a therm you might be asking? 1 Therm is 100,000 BTUs or British Thermal Units. 1 BTU is 1,055 Joules so 1 Therm is 105 Mega-Joules. Before you tell me how stupid our units are, remember British Thermal Units, so blame them. Kidding aside, I agree, these are ridiculous units of measure, but I still maintain Farinheit is better than Celsius! 30’s is freezing, 40’s is cold, 50’s is brisk, 60’s is cool, 70’s is why I love San Diego, 80’s is warm, and 90’s is hot. 25 degrees celsius, is that good? But I digress. 

The only thing I hate more than my natural gas prices, are my electricity prices. During the same billing period, I used 1,012 kWh and paid $459.92. I feel ridiculous even saying this outloud. 

But I am starting a series on building a fully sustainable home, powered by solar and batteries, full rain and water capture, growing my own crops, and especially heat pumping all the things. 

So over the next two years I am going to make the following changes to my house. I am going to ditch my natural gas water heater, with a heat pump water heater. Swap my natural gas clothes dryer for a heat pump clothes dryer, and change my natural gas pool heater, for a heat pump pool heater. I also want a heat pump whole house heater, but I covered that in great detail in my first heat pump video, link in the description.

Let’s start by doing some shopping for a new water heater. By the way, one of the most sustainable things you can do is do energy efficient upgrades when your old appliances go bad. So if you have a newer water heater, you should probably just wait until its useful life is up before upgrading. Or maybe sell it second hand to someone hoping to save a couple of bucks. 

Looking at Home Depot.com I came up with the following three water heaters for comparison. One is electric, one natural gas and one heat pump. Looking at the price tags, the first drawback of the heat pump water heater becomes clear, it’s expensive. All three of these units are 50 gallon in capacity, the electric is the cheapest at $540 USD. Next is the natural gas at $680 USD, and the heat pump is a whopping $1700. 

So then why do I think heat pump water heaters are a good thing? Well even though they have higher up front costs, they use a fraction of the energy to operate. Here is a breakdown on yearly energy consumption and operating costs, average for all the the US, and specifically for me in San Diego.

Based on the US Average prices for gas and electricity, and the price difference, here’s the data. Switching from natural gas to a heat pump pays for itself in 6.4 years, and electric to heat pump in just 3.7 years.

But for me here in San Diego, with our looney tunes prices, the numbers are just 3.9 years and 1.5 years respectively. 

Ok real talk, when I started to research this video, knowing how high our electricity prices are, I thought I would have to end my ode to heat pumps, with a big “but.” But they don’t make sense for me, but I was wrong! Getting a heat pump water heater would pay for itself in just 4 years, and this is really good news because my current gas water heater is really old, really inefficient, and needs to be replaced sooner than later.

There is one consequence worth bringing up. Being a heat pump, while the water inside gets hotter, the room it’s sitting in, will get colder. Here in San Diego, our hot days vastly outweigh our cold, and the garage, being an unconditioned space, was always the hottest part of our house. Well when I upgrade, i’ll get the side benefit of cooler less humid air in my garage. Of course this also means a colder garage in the winter, and if you live in colder climates, this is something to consider.

But the Heat Pumpery doesn’t end here. The next appliance I want to upgrade is my natural gas clothes dryer. Now this one will be a much lower priority for me, because I have a nearly brand new gas dryer. But heat pump clothes dryers are a perfect example of how prolific heat pumps are about to become. Heat pump dryers are still relatively new but they have some really key benefits. For one they’re ventless, this means you don’t have to have any plumbing to vent the hot air away. This makes them much easier to place wherever you want. Also because they use the refrigeration cycle, they rely on condensers to remove the water, and require much less heat. This means lower temperatures and less damage to your clothing, meaning they’ll last longer. But that lower heat level also means heat pump dryers, at least today, are typically much smaller in capacity than their electric and natural gas counterparts. The smallest electric or gas dryer I could find was 7 cubic feet (around .2 cubic meters). In contrast, the most popular heat pump dryer at Home Depot, maxes out at only 4 cubic feet, or .11 cubic meters. Heat pump dryers also take longer per load, and so if you have a big family, kids, or do laundry constantly, that might be a limitation.

Some models of heat pump water heaters and dryers can run on 110 regular wall outlets, because they’re so low energy. But typically you’ll need a 240v outlet, and if you don’t already have one wired up, you need to also add the cost of hiring an electrician.

Being as heat pumps transfer heat to the surrounding air, you’ll also have air filters to check on probably once or twice a year, to clean, to ensure healthy operation.

In my last home I had a tankless natural gas water heater, which I thought was the coolest thing. That was before natural gas prices started soaring, and now that I’m trying to build a sustainable home, I want to move away from natural gas. So what about a tankless electric water heater? These are a total nightmare, let me explain why. A tank water heater has the luxury of using less energy over a longer period of time, and storing that heat. A tankless heater has to take water and heat it in a matter of seconds, which means they use an insane amount of power, for short bursts. In the case of an electric tankless water heater, systems capable of providing water for your whole home, can use up to 35 kW of power! That’s like charging 4 electric cars on level two chargers at the same time! The problem with these isn’t money, it’s the impact on the grid. First of all you’ll never have enough solar power to cover this massive spike, and second, massive spikes in energy are an absolute nightmare for grid operators. If we want to have a chance for a future of clean energy, we need to spread out our usage, and try to level our consumption. Just imagine millions of people taking showers, and seeing gargantuan spikes in energy usage, it would be a total disaster, even if it was only for 5 or 10 minutes.

No the future is coming very clearly into focus. Heat Pumps baby, everywhere. I should mention I have a pool, and I’m also going to replace my gas pool heater with a heat pump, but subscribe and stay tuned for a future video.

The heat pump is simply the most brilliant way to electrically heat our water or our homes. Just imagine they are 3-5 times better at producing useful heat than their counterparts.

This matters today, but it’s going to really matter in the coming years. Many new construction projects are being built without natural gas hookups, and to keep energy usage low, heat pumps have to be considered. Cities like Berkeley, where I went to college, ah uh, go Bears! And San Francisco, and New York, have already banned new construction from having natural gas. But others looking to take similar strides are facing major opposition. Twenty states with GOP-controlled legislatures have passed so-called “preemption laws” that prohibit cities from banning natural gas. (LINK)

In california, next years building codes, will require all new construction, to require running the necessary electric circuits to allow for heat pump water heaters, leaving builders to decide if they really want to then also pay to provide natural gas lines.

The war for the future of heating, is heating up, and the battle lines are starting to be drawn. But if you want to see a future free of natural gas, well then heat pumps are your best friend. Like I said, we have a series of future episodes planned, which we’ll link in the description, once they’re available, but in the meantime, you absolutely must go check out this video.