Electrical warmth pumps are shifting entrance and middle in Connecticut’s vitality effectivity program because the state seeks to hurry adoption with a free session service and important rebates.
EnergizeCT has contracted with Abode, an vitality administration firm, to function the session service and develop a statewide community of educated warmth pump installers. Abode, based mostly in Harmony, Massachusetts, operates related applications in that state which have to this point resulted within the set up of near 2,200 warmth pumps in 13 communities, stated Christopher Haringa, the corporate’s program supervisor.
Ratepayers can join a digital chat session with a warmth pump professional on the EnergizeCT web site. Because the service began in late Might, Abode has carried out greater than 100 consultations lasting a median of 45 minutes every, Haringa stated.
“Owners are terrified of creating the improper resolution, particularly once they’re going to be spending $10,000 or extra on their set up,” he stated.
Eversource and United Illuminating, which run EnergizeCT, are additionally within the strategy of overhauling this system’s web site to higher promote warmth pump know-how, stated Ronald Araujo, director of vitality effectivity for Eversource.
Air-source warmth pumps are heating and cooling methods that run on electrical energy as an alternative of fossil fuels. They transfer warmth exterior in the summertime and inside within the winter. They’re extremely environment friendly and might considerably decrease vitality payments when paired with house weatherization.
A earlier small-scale warmth pump pilot program that started in 2019 validated the client financial savings from warmth pumps once they displace oil and propane methods, Araujo stated.
“So we requested of the Division of Vitality and Environmental Safety if we might transition the pilot to a full-fledged program this 12 months,” Araujo stated. “That means we wouldn’t lose any momentum.”
Clear vitality advocates have been pushing the state to place extra assets into selling warmth pumps for a number of years. The difficulty appeared to realize higher urgency final 12 months after an annual greenhouse gasoline stock report confirmed that constructing emissions within the state are rising.
The state’s newest Conservation Load and Administration Plan, primarily the blueprint for EnergizeCT, particularly directs the utilities to prioritize transitioning prospects to warmth pump applied sciences. And state regulators have taken the main focus off of pure gasoline enlargement by ordering the utilities to finish incentives for owners changing from oil to gasoline.
Bernard Pelletier, vp of the nonprofit Individuals’s Motion for Clear Vitality, which promotes warmth pumps on the group stage, stated he thinks the warmth pump pilot program took far too lengthy, however he’s impressed that the utilities have introduced in Abode. An informational webinar carried out by the corporate final month was “actually the perfect presentation I’ve ever seen on warmth pumps, from a lot of standpoints,” he stated.
Throughout that webinar, Melanie Shea, a residential decarbonization advisor for Abode, sought to dispel a standard delusion that warmth pumps don’t carry out properly in excessive chilly. Excessive-performing items function properly right down to -15 levels, she stated. And whereas they’re much less environment friendly at very low temperatures, they’re nonetheless extra environment friendly than combustion methods.
Learn extra: In Maine, warmth pumps are proving themselves even towards excessive chilly
Ratepayers can use the session service to first get primary details about warmth pumps, and be taught what inquiries to ask contractors. As soon as they’ve some quotes in hand, they’ll arrange a follow-up session to assist them examine system designs and costs.
“We have now to be completely agnostic in the case of manufacturers and contractors — we’re not right here to promote you something,” Haringa stated. “We are going to have a look at the quotes objectively, and assist you determine how the efficiency compares between methods.”
A calculator instrument on the EnergizeCT web site might help owners work out how a lot they may be capable of save in vitality prices by switching to warmth pumps. The instrument additionally provides a tough estimate of how a lot a system may cost based mostly on home measurement, and the way a lot could be out there in rebates.
A single ductless warmth pump prices round $5,000, together with set up, in line with Shea. A ducted system is not less than $15,000 put in. Complete-house methods may embrace a mix of the 2, she stated.
The out there rebates are in two tiers. An immediate low cost is offered to all utility prospects when a professional contractor purchases the gear. A better, mail-in rebate is barely out there to prospects who’re changing oil or propane heating methods.
These rebates aren’t but out there to prospects who’re changing pure gasoline methods as a result of the fee financial savings from changing these methods are “marginal” at the moment, Eversource’s Araujo stated.
The utmost rebate per family is $15,000.
Rebates are additionally out there for ground-source warmth pump methods. These methods function in the identical means, however make the most of the earth, via an underground pipe system, to behave as a warmth sink in the summertime and a warmth supply within the winter.
Dandelion Vitality, which just lately opened a brand new facility in Windsor, has put in 92 geothermal methods in Connecticut, and one other 315 are underneath contract, stated Heather Deese, director of coverage and regulatory affairs.
Installations are costly — a geothermal system serving a typical 2,500-square-foot house can run $40,000 to $50,000, she stated. However with federal tax credit and state rebates, Dandelion tries to get the out-of-pocket price right down to $18,000 to $25,000, she stated. The corporate additionally presents no-money-down financing.
“The state incentives have been crucial to our resolution to develop into Connecticut,” Deese stated.
However she wish to see the state increase the rebates to additional cut back the price of transitioning away from fossil fuels, and in addition make them out there to pure gasoline prospects and to homebuilders.
