Electric heat pumps are winning big on comfort and cost in Canada, but experts warn of bumps in the road ahead as the industry adapts to new refrigerants, faces a shortage of skilled technicians, and navigates uneven regulations.
At present, heat pumps outperform gas furnaces, baseboard heating, and air conditioners in cutting energy costs, reducing emissions, and handling extreme temperatures, according to a cascade of studies and experts. A small pilot to test the effectiveness of heat pumps in combination with gas furnaces in Ontario’s Peel Region provided further proof of this last winter, the Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program reports.
Given their performance, there is little doubt about heat pumps doing some heavy lifting for the climate. However, like air conditioners, the devices rely on refrigerants to function, often using hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are powerful greenhouse gases, trapping heat and contributing to climate change when they leak into the atmosphere.
All the heat pumps in the Peel pilot used R-401A, a refrigerant blend that replaced the ozone-damaging R-22 in HVAC systems after the Montreal Protocol of 1987, a landmark global agreement to protect the ozone layer. R-401A is now widely used in heat pumps because it is extremely efficient. But it, too, is a climate killer, with a global warming potential (GWP) of 2,088, meaning it is over 2,000 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
Read more about what it will take to scale up heat pump installation and use.