The Wilson family's home in Langford near Victoria is now equipped with a heat pump that has helped foster harmony In the heat of summer. And even with two Teslas charging, electricity bills have been about the same as they were a year ago.
'I know it sounds over the top, but this has changed our lives'
"When you have kids, you love them to death," says Sarah Wilson, a mother of twin boys living in a three-bedroom home in the city of Langford on Vancouver Island. "But in summer, you also sometimes wish they'd go away to school for eight hours."
In past summers, the stress of having the kids at home full-time had combined with hot nights and interrupted sleep to create tension and a fair bit of bickering in the Wilson home. But that all changed this summer as the Wilsons swapped out their portable air conditioners ('Those units are loud, awful – I hate them', says Sarah) for an electric heat pump.
"I know this sounds over the top, but this has changed our lives," says Sarah, who lives with husband Mike, sons Tyler and Scott. "The cooling has had a material impact on our quality of life as a family. We're all sleeping better and getting along much better."
The Wilson family has had a heat pump in the home since January when they used BC Hydro's rebates – qualifying customers can get up to a $4,000 rebate – removed a few of their baseboard heaters and left a couple around as back-up for the coldest of days. They discovered the heat pump delivered far more even, less-dry heat, with fewer "cold and hot spots" around the home. And gone was condensation on the windows.
Sarah loves the way air now circulates around the two-storey home. She tested it early by using a fragrance diffuser: after a few minutes, she was delighted to discover the scent had made its way upstairs.
She admittedly struggled at first to get the temperature right, but has since largely settled on the recommended set-it-and-forget strategy that's the most efficient way of using a heat pump. And while the family also purchased two electric cars and installed a pair of Level 2 chargers, she recently checked her energy use on MyHydro and found that – even with summer cooling by the heat pump – the home's energy use has almost been identical to last summer.
"That tells me that the heat pump is way more efficient at cooling than those three standalone AC units were," she says.
Certified heat pump installer was skilled, friendly
To be eligible for a rebate for replacing your electric heating system with a heat pump, you need to have a qualifying heat pump model installed by a member of the Home Performance Contractor Network (HPCN) to ensure it's done properly. The contractor will also assess your home's heating and cooling needs to determine the right size heat pump is selected.
Wilson said she had initially dreaded starting what she thought would be a complicated rebate application process. But with the help of the contractor, things went smoothly.
"We're really happy with the contractor," she says. "They were friendly and responsive. We hired RedBlue, and they also helped take the complexity out of the application. It turned out to be quite easy."
Did you know? BC Hydro now offers rebates for energy efficiency rebates – including for heat pumps – in apartments and condos? And if you qualify by income, you could get heat pump rebates through CleanBC's energy savings program for condos and apartments.