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The UK declared a national state of emergency this week amid a historic heatwave that melted tracks, hampered train travel and broke temperature records. The devastation is particularly severe in a country like England, where 95 percent of the population does not have air conditioning.
In addition, the British government has provided grants for a little-known solution: heat pumps.
Bearing a misleading name, heat pumps are two-way air conditioners that move warm air from inside the home to the outside, keeping homes cool during the hot months. During the winter months they do the opposite, taking heat energy from the outside and bringing in warm air.
Energy officials, lawmakers and scientists tout the devices as low-cost, energy-efficient systems that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional heating and cooling devices.
Estimates show that 90 percent of Japanese households use heat pumps to heat and cool their homes, contributing to a 40 percent drop in the country’s electricity use over the past decade. In Italy, the government effectively pays citizens to use the technology; homeowners can get reimbursed for 110 percent of their heat pump costs.
Europe faced spreading wildfires and a rising death toll amid extreme heat on July 18. (Video: Alexa Juliana Ard, Rick Noack/The Washington Post)
But the devices lack traction in parts of the United States and Europe due to low public awareness and high installation costs. The UK failed to meet its annual targets for installing heat pumps in 2021.
Energy experts point to several reasons why heat pumps have not caught on. The first is the name, which makes it difficult for people to recognize that it heats and cools. “It’s confusing,” said Corinne Schneider, chief communications officer for CLASP, an energy nonprofit.
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The high cost of installation — systems can cost upwards of $10,000 to purchase and install — is also a deterrent for many users.
But with a heat wave forcing people to find ways to cool their homes while Russia’s war in Ukraine sends energy prices soaring, experts say heat pumps are a natural solution: an all-in-one system that cools during heat waves and reduces dependence on gas in winter.
“It’s a matter of home comfort. It’s a climate problem. It’s a security issue,” said Alexander Gard-Murray, a climate change researcher and economist at Brown University’s Climate Solutions Laboratory. “Any one of these would be enough to move aggressively on heat pumps, but taken together, I think the evidence is overwhelming.”
The technology behind heat pumps can be traced back to the 1940s, when American inventor Robert S. Weber created a prototype copper pipe heating unit in his basement. Over the years, Weber’s creation inspired the core technology that allowed modern refrigerators to transfer heat from the back of the refrigerator, keeping the interior cool.
There are two main types of heat pumps. During the warmer months, air source heat pumps draw hot air from the room, blow it through the coil and move it through a refrigerant so that the cold air is returned inside. During the cold months, the pump captures heat energy from the outside air and moves it through the machine to warm it and blow it inside. These pumps are similar in size to central air conditioning systems.
Ground source heat pumps bring heat stored in the Earth into a building in the winter and out in the summer. They are less common and more expensive than air sources.
Experts said one of the most common complaints about heat pumps is that they stop providing heat on very cold days. But advances in heat pump compressors have made them more efficient, cost effective and successful in providing heat at lower temperatures.
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As heat pumps have improved, lawmakers and policymakers have sought to make the devices more mainstream. In the United States, a tax credit program provides about $300 in rebates for people who convert their homes to heat pump technology. Amid Congress’ stalled climate agenda, one proposal increases the incentive to $600. States and local utilities also have their own rebate programs.
The pocketbook and climate benefits are reportedly significant, climate experts said.
In the United States, on average, about 16,000 air conditioners are installed daily. CLASP and Harvard University researchers predicted that if, over the remaining decade, all homes installing central air conditioners bought a subsidized heat pump instead, consumers would save an estimated $27 billion on heating and cooling bills while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 49 million tons of carbon dioxide by 2032.
Researchers note that much of the savings is due to the heat pump’s ability to heat homes up to 50 percent more efficiently than furnaces and water heaters. CLASP’s Schneider said the heat wave in Europe is a good time for heat pump technology to become more common as many buy air conditioners for the first time.
Other researchers note that the stakes are high. “Every day like this [people] fail to install as many heat pumps as physically possible means they lock themselves into greater dependence on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Russian gas this winter,” said Gard-Murray of Brown University.
Sam Kalish, a heat pump expert at Rewiring America, added that as climate change makes heat waves more common, cooling devices need to be low-emissions.
“More and more places that didn’t have air conditioning before are getting it,” he said. “So every time that happens, we have to think about heat pumps, because that allows us to … remove some of the demand for fossil fuels that we have right now.”
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Since heat pumps cost a lot, spending the money can seem difficult. And because most people buy air conditioners and heaters when they’re forced to, they often have little time to decide what to buy, Schneider said. They end up with what is found in stores or recommended by maintenance professionals.
“If you’re in a heating or cooling emergency … you’re going to take whatever’s in stock,” she said. “There has to be a way for HVAC installers to increase their stock of this technology and know about it.”
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