Briar Hill Residents Show Ontarians the Way to Affordable and Sustainable Home Heating and Cooling

In this time of a rapidly changing climate and increasing fossil fuel costs, what can a household possibly do to contribute to a better climate and save on heating costs?

The forecast for natural gas prices according to ARC Energy Research Institute is that they will rise by 30% soon, and according to our federal government, the carbon price by 2030 will be $170 which will add an estimated $2,000 to a typical household’s annual heating bill.

What can you do?

Three homes, as part of a Greys-for-Green initiative within the Briars Hill Community, have just replaced their air conditioners with heat pumps. These devices which have been around for decades are extremely efficient since they just move heat from the outside of the house to the inside, rather than generate it. Despite what seems impossible to us mere mortals, these wonderful machines are very capable of pulling heat out of the air and circulating it within the home.

Come summertime, when the homeowner switches their thermostat to the cooling setting, the heat pump operates seamlessly in reverse. It pulls the warm air from inside the home and expels it outside thereby leaving a nice cool interior temperature. This is exactly how your refrigerator works.

The superior efficiency of heat pumps over conventional air conditioners and gas furnaces cannot be overstated. Cost savings for a typical four-bedroom home can approach $700 per household a year in gas costs and prevent 6,000 kg of carbon emissions. That is roughly equal to the number of emissions generated from driving a large gasoline car off the road every year!!!

If that isn’t incentive enough to do the right thing in this time of rising costs, here’s another consideration. The Federal government is currently planning to implement “EnerGuide” labeling of homes before any future house sale. The impact is if your home is not highly rated, it will sell at a lower price than a higher one.

So, what’s involved? Switching one’s air conditioner with a heat pump is done in a day at an incremental cost of about $3,000 over an air conditioner. For a full gas furnace and air conditioner replacement with a heat pump, the project cost can be approximately $20,000. But with the Federal Government’s Greening Home Grant, you can qualify for a $5,000 grant. The remaining $13,000 will be returned to you over about 8 years or at the time you sell your house.

There’s no time like the present for your family to step up to do their part to fight climate change.

 

~ Tim Short of CutYourHomeCarbon.com is a co-contributor of this article.