How good are heat pumps for the climate?
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I’m Grist reporter, Shannon Osaka.
The thing about a heat pump is that it doesn’t actually make heat — it moves it. The science here is a little bit complicated, but because a heat pump is moving heat, instead of creating it, it can reach efficiencies of 300 or 400 percent.
A heat pump can turn 1 kilowatt-hour, or kWh, of electricity into up to 4 kWh of heat. This means big potential savings for utility bills, and because of this efficiency superpower, heat pumps can actually save a whole bunch of greenhouse gases from spewing into the atmosphere.
But how much money do they save?
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Whether a heat pump makes sense for you is going to depend on what type of house you have, your existing fuel system, and all of these other little complicated details. But it turns out that for a lot of Americans, buying and installing a heat pump is going to make a lot of financial sense.
Heat pumps can help save the planet. But can they save you money?
What's th
e true cost of a heat pump?
By Shannon Osaka
Watch the video on Grist