Unleashing the magic of heat pumps

10 November 2022

Despite all the buzz around this super-efficient technology, adoption of heat pumps has been slowing in the U.S. What gives?

On the Catalyst with Shayle Kann podcast this week:

What’s not to love about heat pumps? Well…a few things, actually.

Don’t take this the wrong way: Heat pumps are magic. They heat. They cool. They’re way more efficient than gas boilers. Switching to one can save a household hundreds of dollars in energy bills and lots of carbon emissions. It’s why governments are incentivizing and even requiring them.

But heat-pump adoption has slowed nationally. It’s even declined in colder regions. What’s holding back widespread uptake of this technology?

In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, managing director for research and innovation at Energy Impact Partners, a climatetech venture capital firm.

Andy and Shayle talk about the state of heat pump technology and what we need to fix to speed up adoption. They cover topics including:

The relatively high upfront costs and messy customer journey to installation.
What mass adoption would do to peak demand on the grid in cold climates.
How heat pumps dramatically ramp up the electrical load in a typical home and on the grid.
The key differences in heat pumps powered by natural gas or hydrogen.

Plus, they chat about why Andy would be a great early adopter for any company that wants to pitch Shayle on solving these problems.

Recommended resources:

U.S. Department of Energy: Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge
Canary Media: Heat pumps now required for new homes in Washington state
Canary Media: One weird trick to make heat pumps boom
Canary Media: Will tough standards for heat pump tax credits hurt adoption?
Canary Media: Window heat pumps will help electrify New York City’s apartments

Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.

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