As temperatures drop in the cooler months, it’s time to start bracing for the elements—and the soaring utility bills associated with them.
And while homeowners prepare to fire up their furnaces, the conversation around low-carbon-emission heat pumps continues to, well, heat up. Pv Water Heating System
Heat pumps heat and cool your home with a system that’s powered by electricity. They’re being lauded as especially efficient in reducing energy emissions compared with traditional natural gas heating systems. However, there can be substantial costs to switch from a gas-furnace system to a traditional all-electric heat pump (even with economic incentives like tax rebates).
HVAC provider Trane Residential is finding comfort in the middle ground by helping homeowners understand the benefits of transitioning to a dual-fuel, or hybrid, heating system.
"Just like a hybrid car runs on electricity as often as possible and switches to gas when it can’t, it’s the exact same thing for a hybrid system. It runs on electricity as often as it can and switches to natural gas as a backup," says Mark Woodruff, a senior product manager at Trane Residential.
Woodruff hopes to educate building owners about the value of hybrid systems because, he says, they virtually eliminate most of the costs associated with converting from a furnace-only to a heat pump–only system while still giving you the vast majority of the benefits.
"Air-conditioning and furnaces are about 70 percent of all the installs across the country, if you look at the industry numbers," Woodruff says. "And so that means there is an opportunity to reduce fossil fuel use in HVAC systems by 70 percent of all the homes across America."
If you are considering an upgrade to hybrid heating, take a peek inside a dual-fuel project in Austin, Texas, and learn more at dwell.com/trane.
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