Heat Pump Savings Guide: Lower Bills, Cleaner Heat, Smarter Grid

Heat pumps can help you use much less energy, but that does not always mean your bills will go down. Your savings depend on how much heat your home loses, how efficient the heat pump is during the year, local energy prices, and how well the system is installed.

If the system is designed well, it can handle both heating and cooling, help you avoid rising fossil-fuel prices, remove the need for burning fuel inside your home, and use electricity when it is less expensive. But if the system is not designed well, it might have trouble heating some rooms, depend too much on backup heaters, or end up costing more to run than you thought.

The equipment matters, but the building, installer, controls, and electricity tariff matter just as much.

How a Heat Pump Works

A furnace or boiler creates heat by burning fuel. An electric resistance heater converts electricity directly into heat. A heat pump uses electricity to move heat from one place to another.

In winter, it collects heat from the outdoor air, ground, or water and transfers it indoors. In summer, many models reverse the process and remove heat from the home.

Because a heat pump moves heat rather than producing all of it from electricity, it can…