Heat Pump: Efficient Heating for Winter

What can skyrocket your electricity bill? Heating your home in winter. Indeed, Quebec winters are harsh and test our morale and wallets. To reduce heating costs during winter, opt for the most cost-effective heating duo in Quebec to date: the heat pump, paired with an electric heating system, such as electric baseboards. Adding a heat pump to your electric heating can indeed save you several hundred dollars per year in heating costs… provided you use it correctly.

Heating Your Home This Winter with Your Heat Pump

What’s the secret to maximizing your heat pump’s performance during the winter? Knowing how it works can help you understand the logic behind our tips. The heat pump is a heating (and cooling) system that reverses its cooling cycle to produce heat. It absorbs heat from the outside to transfer it inside your home. Thus, it’s a perfect heating system to use in winter, up until the outdoor temperature reaches -10°C or -12°C. When the temperature gets even colder, the heat pump extracts only a minimum of heat and loses efficiency. Nonetheless, an air source heat pump achieves a coefficient of performance (COP) of 2.3 (at -8.3°C outside), compared to electric baseboards used alone (1.0), to high-efficiency gas furnace heating (0.95), or, as another point of comparison, to an old oil heating system (0.65).

Your Heat Pump to the Rescue of Your Home This Winter

The secret, then, is to use your heat pump as the primary heating source this winter until the outdoor temperature reaches about -10°C. At that point, it’s recommended to set your heat pump one degree higher than your electric baseboards. For example, set the temperature your heat pump aims to reach to 22°C, and your baseboards to 21°C. When the heat pump can no longer provide heating for your home, the baseboards will take over until your heat pump is able to pick up the slack. By doing this, you’ll make the most of your heating throughout the winter.

Maintaining Your Heat Pump Before Winter

Don’t forget that a well-maintained heat pump is an efficient heat pump. Learn more about maintaining your heat pump, or contact GestionAir to receive help from professionals. Are you looking to acquire a new heat pump? Choose it appropriately, or do not hesitate to call us for a quote.