Dave Nutini was crooning when he switched out his 70’s era baseboard blowers for a slim pair of heat pumps. Straight up, this was money for nothin’ and heat for free!

“I’m saving $200 per month at least, ”Nutini said. “We installed the heat pumps ourselves and had them paid off in just two years. Even if we’d hired a pro, the payback would only have been four years.”

Here’s the magic: In typical Rossland winter conditions, Nutini gets three times more heat energy out of his system as electrical energy supplied. Whoa there, you might say, that’s crazy.
But it’s true! A typical baseboard is 100% efficient, which means you get the same amount of heat energy out of it as electricity put into it. But on a -5°C day, Nutini’s heat pump is 300%
efficient, and in spring and fall the efficiency is even better. If this all sounds impossible, we’ll get there…

Dire Straits had just released their 1985 classic “Money for Nothing” when Dave and Marjorie Nutini bought their poorly insulated house in upper Rossland. With four-inch walls and six-inch ceilings stuffed with fibreglass, they found themselves spinning the meter to keep warm. They made the most practical and cost-effective changes first, plugging drafts and adding insulation all over the house, especially in the ceiling.

 

That helped, but they weren’t happy with their vintage wall-unit blowers. First one and then another would rattle away, blasting dry heat. They considered central heating, but the hassle and expense to install ducts seemed unreasonable. “We’d have had to rip the whole place apart,” Nutini explained.

 

Six year ago, Nutini struck gold: A “mini-split heat pump” that’s easy to install in virtually any situation. A retired math and science teacher, Nutini takes pride in calculated decisions, but also in boldly trying new technologies. This new heat pump was a perfect fit for him, their house, and for Rossland. It’s deceptively simple to look at. Outside, a small, three-foot cube houses a quiet fan and compressor that are connected by some wires and pipes to an elegant indoor unit that blows heat gently and quietly into the room. It’s a "mini-split” because the two small components can each be mounted separately in a convenient spot.

 

But hang on, what is a heat pump? Like the coils on the back of a refrigerator (but in reverse) a heat pump literally extracts heat from the cold outside air and pumps it indoors. Yes, even in air that seems really cold, heat energy is there for the taking. The key is a refrigerant that boils at a very low temperature. Outside in the cold air, liquid refrigerant under high pressure expands in fins like a car’s radiator as cold air blows over them, causing the liquid to boils as it absorbs heat. The hot gas is pumped indoors where it condenses to release its heat, and then is pumped back outside. In the summer, most heat pumps can also be run in reverse to cool a room.

 

Heat pumps are especially appropriate for Rossland’s relatively mild winters. Efficiency drops as temperatures get really cold. While it still “doesn’t skip a beat” at -20°C, Nutini said, the heat pump is not much more efficient than a baseboard heater in that kind of cold, running at one-to-one heat out for energy in. Three-to-one efficiency is reached at outside temperatures of about -5°C. And when the weather hovers at or above freezing during the shoulder seasons, efficiency gets even better.

 

Dave and Marjorie agree, living with a heat pump is great. Since installing two mini-splits six years ago, they’ve never had to use any other source of heat, even on the coldest nights. The fans are quiet, gentle, and easy to program, and the unit automatically ramps up or down according to the need. Maintenance is minimal—almost non-existent—and in Marjorie’s words, “it’s acomfortable heat.”

 

Nutini is unstoppable; he’s talking about adding solar panels, solar hot water, and more to keep their electricity bill and ecological footprint low. He gets dreamy as he envisions modern homes with tight, highly insulated envelopes that a heat pump could keep warm “for pennies.” But perhaps he’s done one better than perfection, demonstrating how a simple retrofit to any old home in Rossland can save money and energy.

– Article By Andrew Bennet