The cool way to heat homes

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To meet the growing need for cooling, many people are buying central air conditioners and pairing them with their existing heating source. In doing so, they inadvertently miss an opportunity to get high-efficiency, low-emissions heating and cooling from a single piece of equipment: a heat pump.

New research done in partnership with the Building Decarbonization Alliance shows that making every new central air conditioner in Canada a heat pump instead has both affordability and climate benefits.

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The report finds that this change could save Canadians $10.4 billion in energy bills and cut the country’s emissions by 19.6 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent. This translates to an average energy bill savings of $349 each year per household.

It also lays out potential routes for policy implementation and shows that installing heat pumps instead of central air conditioners is a feasible and cost-effective strategy for meeting Canadians’ heating and cooling needs, while reducing climate pollution.

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The Canadian Climate Institute is also examining ways to reach net zero in the building sector for a future report. You can find more about that initiative here