Getting Ready: Weatherized homes and heat pumps stand up to extreme cold
I love my heat pumps. I love them mostly in summer because I know home air conditioning is a true gift, even in Maine, where unbearable heat is rare. But when I learned about the multi-functional nature of heat pumps, and the ability of a single unit to both heat and cool, I was sold. Still, even though everything about my purchase sounded great, I worried about extreme temperatures and whether two heat pumps (one on the main floor and one in the basement of my new house) would meet the challenge.
Last weekend, I girded myself for the coming deep freeze. I stared into the souls of my two heat pumps, which normally produce enough heat to keep our entire home toasty and begged them to keep up the good work through the coming cold. My home is entirely electric, so while some electric baseboard heat, if needed, could help warm the bedrooms, the heat pumps were facing a true test.
Nevertheless, in this particular winter cold snap my two mini-splits combined to exceed their promise. They kept us warm despite sub-zero temperatures that lasted for almost 24 hours.
Fortunately, not only do I have an efficient heating system, but the walls are incredibly well-insulated. Before moving into the house, the person building it frequently touted the benefits of thorough insulation and tried to help me appreciate R values and wall thickness and the like (“R-Value is a measure of insulation’s ability to resist heat traveling through it. The higher the R-Value, the better the thermal performance of the insulation.” energystar.gov).
At the time, I was desperate to get out of temporary living quarters, and insulation was not at the top of my concerns. But four years down the line, I am thankful for the installer’s dedication to building a weather-tight house with an incredibly efficient heating system, which, in addition to protecting us from the extreme cold, will result in a very small electric bill for the month.
Getting Ready: Engaging with climate action
Many of you may have read the Washington Post article this past week about the boom in heat pump technology in Maine households. “Heat pumps are defying Maine’s winters and oil industry pushback. Fossil fuel industry groups say the technology isn’t ideal for the state’s climate. Mainers aren’t buying it.” (Anna Philips, Washington Post, February 7, 2023) If you haven’t read it, I urge you to seek it out. The fact is heat pumps offer an affordable heating and cooling system that can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This article not only reaffirms this point but also outlines some of the ways that oil and gas companies are working to dissuade their customers from electrifying their homes and businesses.
This change to heat pumps is a conceptual shift in how we imagine heating homes, and it may take more convincing if you’re not already sold. Would you like to learn more about the technical side of how heat pumps work? Next week, York Public Library and York Ready for Climate Action are presenting a program entitled “Weatherization and Heat Pump Heating Solutions.” The program will offer an introduction to the ways weatherization can help you seal your home against exterior temperature shifts and will offer information about heat pumps. Experts will be available to share more information and answer your questions. Register online at yorkpubliclibrary.org to attend this virtual program, Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. on Zoom.
Sophie Smith is the assistant director of York Public Library and volunteers with York Ready for Climate Action. YRCA is a nonprofit 501c3 grassroots citizens’ organization dedicated to increasing awareness of the causes and effects of climate change and advancing environmentally friendly and inclusive policies and behaviors. For more information, visit yorkreadyforclimateaction.org. Information about EcoHOMES is on the same site.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Getting Ready: Weatherized homes, heat pumps stand up to extreme cold
