HeatSmart Helps Homeowners Upgrade Heating & Cooling

After a year of spending more time at home than ever anticipated, we all have long home improvement wish lists. High on many of those lists is improving comfort, efficiency, and air quality, but where to start? New Yorkers struggling with high heating fuel bills and uneven hot or cold spots are increasingly turning to heat pumps as a clean, efficient alternative to furnaces, boilers, electric strip heaters, wood stoves and air conditioners, and significant grants and rebates are now available to help make the switch.

Indoor Air Quality is an important aspect of your home for health and safety for you and any occupants in your home. As modern homes are built much tighter and sealed, homes are often overly humid or filled with airborne contaminants such as mold, dust, pollen, and other allergens. A good provider like Coastal Cooling offering air conditioning services in Fort Myers that can improve the air quality of your home. You can head to the Total System Services website for additional guidance.

Visit a helpful site like www.airnowhvac.com/air-conditioning for any HVAC concerns that are just too bothersome for you. You can also  rely on some professionals, such as Air Conditioning by True Air Systems, that are well-versed in air conditioning units. Read more here.

Both National Grid and NYSEG now offer rebates through the NYS Clean Heat program for all income levels. Federal tax credits for geothermal heat pumps have been extended until 2022. And in response to the hard times of the pandemic, New York State has expanded the eligibility and grant amounts available to low-to-moderate income households to assist in improving insulation ( read more in the article to know why this is important) and upgrading to clean, efficient heating and cooling with heat pumps. Finally, Heat Smart CNY and other community campaigns help owners learn about these systems, connect with other heat pump homeowners, and access reliable installers.  For additional HVAC options and guidance visit nanceservices.net.

But what is a heat pump? The most common type of heat pump is the air-source heat pump, which uses electricity to run a system that works like an air conditioner in the summer, but in the winter can reverse, pumping heat into your house even when temperatures are as low as -15°F! Today’s cold climate heat pumps can reduce your energy use for heating by approximately 50% or more compared to oil and propane furnaces and baseboard heaters. High-efficiency heat pumps also dehumidify better than standard central air conditioners, resulting in less energy usage and more comfort in summer. However, it can be costly to get a brand new one, so if you have a broken air conditioning unit, it’s better to just have it fixed by an air conditioning service in Pearland.

Air-source heat pumps have been used for many years in nearly all parts of the United States, and in recent years, technology has advanced and cold climate air source heat pumps are found everywhere, including Canada and Alaska! You can contact a duct cleaning Melbourne service from time to time to keep it operating at peak efficiency. For homes without ducts, air-source heat pumps are also available in a ductless version called a mini-split heat pump, if you want to learn how all these works and maybe work in this area in the future you could find HVAC tech schools in Michigan here to help you with this.

Geothermal heat pumps achieve higher efficiencies by transferring heat between your house and the ground or a nearby water source. Although they cost more to install, geothermal heat pumps have low operating costs because they take advantage of relatively constant ground or water temperatures. 

Heat pumps offer many advantages over other systems, including lower running costs, less maintenance, greater control of your comfort, more convenience, better safety, long life spans and lower carbon footprint. Many homes in the region are close to “net-zero” -producing as much energy as they use- by pairing geothermal heat pumps and solar.  If you really want to lower your energy bills, it might be best to take a look at other providers. In fact, the cheapest Edmonton electricity rates are available at Regional Energy.

To learn more about heat pumps, visit GetHeatSmart.org to find your local community group.  Heat Smart CNY, organized by the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board and Alliance for a Green Economy, hosts Heat Pump 101 webinars at 7 PM on the last Monday of the month; register at HeatSmartCNY.org.