A lot of heat pump systems have been installed in Campbell River and Quadra Island homes. Several companies offer this service, but Aerotherm Solutions also made close to 30 installations on Cortes Island last year. Tyler Woodward, of Aerotherm Solutions, was on Cortes recently.
He explained that Aerotherm is a relatively small Campbell River HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) business that also installs furnaces, natural gas, custom sheet metal and duct work, ‘and do any type of service work on that type of stuff and commercial refrigeration as well.’
“Everything is handled in-house from the design to the installation and we’ve also got a sheet metal crew. We’re involved in any sort of duct work, custom sheet metal, residential commercial, and some light industrial,” he explained.
“We’ve been installing heat pumps now in Campbell River, with this company, since 2016. In terms of new construction, the most common type of system that we’re putting in would be a heat pump for the primary source of heat, but also the retrofit market is quite large as well. That’s specifically folks that are looking to improve the efficiency of their home.”
As the summers continue to get warmer, there has also been more interest in air conditioning.
Woodward said heat pumps are catching on in the islands, as people move away from burning wood as their principal source of heat.
In terms of environmental impact, he said wood stoves ‘can be a pretty harsh contributor to the particulate matter in the air’ and in some neighbourhoods there are problems with smog.
It is difficult to compare the cost of wood heat versus heat pumps because some people cut their wood, but it can be expensive for those who purchase wood by the cord.
While electric heat is relatively clean, heat pumps produce anywhere from two to four times as much heat per kilowatt (depending on the technology). Woodward pointed out that this translates into a similar reduction in your heating bill.
Oil heat is very common in Campbell River, less frequent on Cortes, and roughly twice as expensive as a heat pump.
The price of propane fluctuates, but is similar to oil.
Natural gas is more efficient and comparable in price.
There is a significant capital investment in acquiring a heat pump system. In the podcast, Woodward explains that systems can cost anywhere from $4,000 to more than $10,000, depending on the size of the area to be heated. In time, homeowners will recoup this through reduced energy bills.
“If you’re comparing it to an electric baseboard, depending on how much electricity you’re consuming, you could see payback in as little as three or four years,” he said. “Typically a new system that’s installed by a certified contractor, should have a warranty of around 10 years and, with proper maintenance, I would say 20 years would be a reasonable life expectancy.”
The federal and provincial governments are promoting heat pumps and offering rebates to reduce the cost.
- there are grants to convert from other electric heat systems to a heat pump,
- grants for people converting from a fossil fuel system,
- and grants for people decommissioning their wood stoves.
Provincial grants typically range from between $2,000 and $6,000.
“The federal government is also promoting the installation of heat pumps. They’re offering a range of different rebates to the consumer and they’re not so concerned about the system you currently have. You don’t have to remove your wood stove. You don’t even really have to state your current primary sources of heat as long as the heat pump that you’re going to install meets their criteria,” said Woodward. “The federal government’s actually giving up to $5,000 to consumers who are willing to put a heat pump in that they’ve approved and go through their application process. So $5,000 is the biggest rebate. Another category they’re offering is $4,000, another category is $2,500 depending on the type of system you’re going to be installing.”
Aerotherm will help their customers navigate through the process.
“We take on the responsibility of making sure that all that technical stuff meets those certain criteria that they’ve set in order to qualify for these rebates,” said Woodward. “We’re certainly happy to assist the customer on their end. There’s a little bit of legwork to do in terms of filling out a few forms. You need to have an energy audit done on your home, which is offered as a service to give different ideas to the homeowner’s various recommendations on things they can do to essentially improve the efficiency of their home. You don’t have to do any of these things, but they’re just recommendations and they’ll give you the order of how important they are, and what they think would be the most important things to do first.”
Woodward said his company also works with a couple of financing companies, which offer interest rates of between 5% and 8%,
On their website, Aerotherm states that SNAP offers 100% financing with up to 12 years to pay.
Further information:
Top photo credit: Aerotherm van on the Cortes-Quadra Ferry – courtesy Aerotherm Solutions
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