Electric heat pumps are moving front and center in Connecticut’s energy efficiency program as the state looks to accelerate adoption with a free consultation service and major rebates.
EnergizeCT has contracted with Abode, an energy management company, to operate the consultation service and develop a nationwide network of trained heat pump installers. Concord, Mass.-based Abode operates similar programs in that state that have so far resulted in the installation of nearly 2,200 heat pumps in 13 communities, said Christopher Haringa, the company’s director of programs.
Taxpayers can Sign up for a virtual chat session with a heat pump expert on the EnergizeCT website. Since the service began in late May, Abode has conducted more than 100 consultations, each lasting an average of 45 minutes, Haringa said.
“Homeowners are afraid of making the wrong decision, especially when they’re going to spend $10,000 or more on their installation,” he said.
Eversource and United Illuminating, which runs EnergizeCT, are also in the process of revising the program’s website to better promote heat pump technology, said Ronald Araujo, Eversource’s director of energy efficiency.
Air source heat pumps are heating and cooling systems that run on electricity instead of fossil fuels. They transport heat outside in summer and inside in winter. They are highly efficient and can significantly reduce energy bills when combined with home air conditioning.
Araujo said a previous small-scale heat pump pilot program that began in 2019 validated savings for heat pump customers when displacing oil and propane systems.
“So we asked the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection if we could transition the pilot to a full program this year,” Araujo said. “That way we wouldn’t lose any momentum.”
Clean energy advocates have been pushing the state to put more resources into promoting heat pumps for several years. The issue appeared to gain more urgency last year after an annual greenhouse gas inventory report showed that emissions from buildings in the state are rising.
The last in the state Management plan and conservation charge, essentially EnergizeCT’s plan, specifically directs utilities to prioritize customers transitioning to heat pump technologies. And state regulators have decentralized the expansion of natural gas by ordering utilities to end incentives for homeowners switching from oil to gas.
Bernard Pelletier, vice president of the non-profit Popular Action for Clean Energy, which promote heat pumps community level, he said he thinks the heat pump pilot program took too long, but he’s impressed that public services have led to Abode. An informative webinar held by the company last month was “literally the best presentation I’ve ever seen on heat pumps, from a number of points of view,” he said.
During this webinar, Melanie Shea, Abode’s Residential Decarbonization Advisor, tried to dispel a common myth that heat pumps don’t work well in extreme cold. The high-performance units work well down to -15 degrees, he said. And although they are less efficient at very low temperatures, they are still more efficient than combustion systems.
Read more: In Maine, heat pumps are proving themselves even against extreme cold
Taxpayers can use the inquiry service to first get basic information about heat pumps and what questions to ask contractors. Once they have some quotes in hand, they can set up a follow-up session to help them compare system designs and prices.
“We have to be totally agnostic when it comes to brands and contractors — we’re not here to sell you anything,” Haringa said. “We’ll look at quotes objectively and help you figure out how performance compares across systems.”
A calculator tool on the EnergizeCT website can help homeowners find out how much they could save on energy costs by switching to heat pumps. The tool also provides a rough estimate of how much a system might cost based on the size of the home and how much might be available in rebates.
According to Shea, a single ductless heat pump costs about $5,000, including installation. A duct system is at least $15,000 installed. Whole-house systems can include a combination of the two, he said.
The available discounts are at two levels. An instant rebate is available to all utility customers when equipment is purchased by a qualified contractor. A superior mail-in rebate is only available to customers replacing oil or propane heating systems.
Those rebates aren’t yet available to customers replacing natural gas systems because the cost savings from replacing those systems is “marginal” at this point, Eversource’s Araujo said.
The maximum rebate per household is $15,000.
There are also discounts for ground source heat pump systems. These systems work in the same way, but use the earth, through a system of underground pipes, to act as a heat sink in the summer and as a heat source in the winter.
Dandelion Energy, which recently opened a new facility in Windsor, has installed 92 geothermal systems in Connecticut and 315 others are under contract, said Heather Deese, director of policy and regulatory affairs.
Installations are expensive: A geothermal system serving a typical 2,500-square-foot home can run $40,000 to $50,000, he said. But with federal tax credits and state rebates, Dandelion tries to keep the out-of-pocket cost between $18,000 and $25,000, he said. The company also offers financing with no money down.
“The state incentives were critical to our decision to expand into Connecticut,” Deese said.
But he would like to see the state increase the rebates to further reduce the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels and also make them available to natural gas customers and homebuilders.