An aging grid, increased demand for electricity, and volatile weather are all contributing to a burdensome surge in energy costs. However, Harvard researchers discovered that heat pump adoption could save certain households thousands of dollars each year.
One of the study's co-authors, Roxana Shafiee, broke down the encouraging findings in an article for The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization.
In short, your heat-pump savings will depend on where you live, as climate, pricing, and energy infrastructure vary across the United States. Still, the researchers found that "installing a heat pump would reduce heating bills across all parts of the country" for households that use oil, propane, or other forms of electric heating.
In the Northeast, for example, annual savings could reach $3,000 for consumers who rely on electric furnaces or baseboard heating.
An air-source heat pump pulls heat from the air, while a geothermal heat pump extracts it from the ground — but the concept is the same. Heat pumps move heat rather than burning fuel directly, making them much more efficient and cleaner than conventional furnaces.
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The researchers did find that certain households may want to think twice about switching to heat pumps, though.
Modern heat pumps are more than up to the task in cold-weather climates. However, their analysis showed that households in northern regions, where the energy infrastructure is much more reliant on gas, could experience higher electric bills.
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"A main finding of our analysis was that the cost of electricity is key to encouraging people to install heat pumps," Shafiee wrote for The Conversation.
In the meantime, reimagined and upgraded infrastructure will be a crucial part of "grid balancing" to meet increased electricity demand. In California, a $1 billion investment from UK-based clean-tech giant Octopus Energy is expected to help do just that.
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