Podcast
One weird trick to make heat pumps boom
A simple incentive could change the game for home electrification in America.
On The Carbon Copy podcast this week:
Heat pumps are the hot new thing in climatetech right now. The fastest way we can slash emissions from the economy is to switch as many buildings as possible to use electricity as their sole heating and power source. And the fastest way to achieve that is to deploy heat pumps.
If we want to decarbonize our homes quickly, we need to start replacing existing HVAC systems. A good place to start is installing heat pumps instead of conventional central air conditioners and heating units.
It turns out that the cost of manufacturing a two-way heat pump instead of a conventional air-conditioning unit is only a few hundred dollars per unit. What if the federal government incentivized manufacturers to make that simple switch?
Every minute, 12 central air-conditioning units are installed in homes across America. That’s 18,000 per week. Turning those one-way AC units into two-way heat pumps could help electrify millions of homes every year. A new federal bill could be the answer.
Guests:
- Nate “The House Whisperer” Adams, CEO of HVAC 2.0.
Alexander Gard-Murray, a political economist at Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab.
Recommended reading:
- A new bill could speed up American electrification by 20 years, by Nate Adams and Alexander Gard-Murray
The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.