I love heat pumps! Who wouldn't? They are three times more efficient to heat your home than resistance heat, such as baseboards. In BC our electricity is mostly non polluting from hydro power. Heat pumps don't emit carbon dioxide like propane heat. And they don't put smoke and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere like the burning of wood.

Like so many on Cortes, I burn wood to heat my house. It not only grows on trees, but it is part of my ritual of living. Every winter I am cutting wood for the following season's heat. Hard work. But satisfying. Of course, it can be quite smokey at times. And the carbon emissions are considerable. It is hard to find clear estimates of the carbon pollution from wood stoves. But is is probably just as great as propane, only more renewable.

So this year I decided to install a heat pump. I could have one installed. Or I could buy one and install it myself. They are not particularly hard to install. A friend even loaned me the specialized tools needed. But just as I was about to buy, I found out the dirty secret about the refrigerants in heat pumps.

All the heat pumps we might buy here in BC use R410a as their refrigerant. R410a is a horrible greenhouse gas. It has 2000 times more warming potential than carbon dioxide. Normally the refrigerant is contained within the heat pump system. So, not a problem...until they leak! And they do leak. I had a heat pump installed in Victoria. It lost all of its refrigerant. Some small leak in a fitting. Two different friends of mine with heat pumps lost all of their refrigerant twice!!

It turns out losing refrigerant is common. One estimate I read was they lose about 4% per year. Another estimate is 50% of the refrigerant is lost on average over the life of a heat pump.

So where does this leave me? I don't know. I am torn. I want to clean up my carbon emissions. Don't we all want to help reduce the impacts of global warming?

There are heat pumps with better refrigerants coming. Maybe in a year. But still they won't be anywhere near as good as they could be. And the heat pumps sold today won't be able to use better refrigerants. If they leak, we will have to continue using R410a.

So, what to do? I don't know. Contact the provincial (EMLI.ministergov.bc.ca) and federal governments. Why not? They don't seem to be motivated to solve this problem. A few voices might help. Otherwise, insulate and tighten up the houses we live in. Good windows can help a lot. And wait for better heat pumps!


Feel free to contact me with ideas,
Ralph Garrison
250-935-6966