Why Heat Pumps are Essential for the Future - Explained 

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One technology that's far too often overlooked when it comes improving heating and cooling performance - insulation. It's not a sexy new technology but it's far and away the best method to improve thermal performance of a building. You don't even have to tear open exterior walls and add batts of insulation, adding blown insulation to your attic and changing to double or triple pane windows are easy fixes. I wish more people would talk about these simple fixes and think about responsible uses of energy as much as the latest technology.

I have a 220m deep hole in my garden here in Stockholm Sweden. The pump circulates the antifreeze mixture around as needed and normally draws out about 4-5 degrees celcius from the brine. Works great! COP of 4.8 producing up to 16kW. Running the system off solar panels would give you a double solar system as the heat from the ground (solar radiation) would be moved into the house by electricity generated from Solar panels :-)

I live in the middle of Sweden, so pretty far north. We use a heat pump. It's hooked up to our standard water radiators, and it produces our hot water too. Very efficient thing compared to the old electric heater. We've used it in temperatures of -20℃ with no problem 👍

I have an older home in Eastern Washington. I finally decided to upgrade to a heat pump a few years ago. Prior to having a heat pump, with baseboard heat, it wasn't unusually to see $300 and $400 during cold snap bills. I would turn my heat down and had plenty of throw blankets. Since installing the heat pump, my bills have averaged under $225 with the loan payment and during a nasty cold snap, my bill increased to $260, while keeping my house at 70. I'm amazed on how much money I save.

In europe, they're pushing for heat pump everywhere. You can't get classical AC anymore, you get heat pump. And they are not that expensive. And they work pretty well.

I'd love to see a collaboration between you and Technology Connections, the more people who know the benefits of heat pumps the better. It took me over an hour to convince my father in law that they aren't a scam and that in fact he's been using one (the air conditioner) for decades without realizing it.

Great stuff Matt. I am helping friends restore their 115 year old home, and I recommended their heat pump/air handler for heating and A/C. Also opened up the second floor walls and foamed them. Can't wait to see how well it performs. Looking into heat pump fro hot water. Replaceing the dehumidifier is brilliant! Wish I had done that in my home. My dehumidifier uses about a third of all my electricity keeping my basement dry. Sandstone foundations are sponges for ground moisture. I was doing heat loss calculations by hand in the late 70's. No software existed, no computers, just grind it out. This tech now was unimaginable then. Thanks for helping educate us on what the future looks like.

Ten years ago I installed an open-loop(no digging, just uses well water) geothermal unit, plus all new ductwork. It paid for itself in just under four years, and I've been saving ever since. Plus with the desuperheater and a new super high efficiency water heater(used the old one for hot water storage from desuperheater) I get all-but-free hot water. No net carbon expect for power plant fuel costs(NG).

I just built a house over the last 2 years with the geothermal hvac, hybrid hot water tank and will be getting solar and batteries soon. Love the system and the cost to run was way lower than expected. The one thing I would recommend for your home is zone control for your hvac system. We did this and imo was the best spent money. By moving conditioned air to only the areas of the house that need it increases the overall efficiency. Cheers

I wanted to get a heater for my pool. The up front cost to install a typical gas heater was too expensive because of the distance I would have had to run the gas lines so in exploring my options, I came across the idea of a heat pump. All of local the pool companies here in Texas said they won’t work well but the reality is that none of them had any experience with heat pumps. I found a company to install it and it’s been great. Not only does it keep the pool warm in the spring and fall, but it also can cool off the pool in the worst heat of Texas summer. No gas heater can do that.

Thanks Matt, pretty good. Heat pumps, including water heaters & dryers, are very interesting, but a couple clarifications! - First, outdoor heat pump compressor COP drops with outside temp. The Mitsubishi “Hyperheat”, what I own, has a COP of 4 @ 48 deg F but drops to 2 @ 5 deg F. I also have a condensing gas furnace (95% efficient) using traditional radiators. The cost cross-over point for me, for what I pay for gas & electricity is ~35 deg F (close to 0 deg C) meaning that based solely on cost considerations, I should turn on my condensing gas boiler when the outside air is below 35 deg F. If your heat pump takes its heat out of/ puts heat into buried underground pipes, this does not apply since ground temp, at a sufficient depth, is ~55 deg F in my area. Heat pump water heaters - Matt and/or the company he got his information from, makes a mistake here. The savings you get goes down in the winter. For example, in the winter, the water heater heat pump extracts the heat from your house, not from the outdoor air, so it adds to your heating bill. This is true even if the device is in the basement since a cold basement chills the floor of the upstairs. In the summer, you will get a little free cooling and also some free de-humidification, but not enough to replace your main A/C unit or even your basement dehumidifier (depends on how moist your basement is). This is like how in the summer your refrigerator, also a heat pump, blows hot air into your kitchen which then must be cooled by your home’s A/C (old cats like sitting at the base of refrigerators because of the heat). In short, it is best to have a ground water based hot water heat pump, or heat pump of any kind, but, as Matt said, it is going to cost more $. So who is going to invent a ground water based refrigerator, refrigerators run 24/7! Heat pump dryers with no vent to the outside - OK, I never heard of these until this video. My first thought was lint. Outside my house, by the dryer duct, there is always extra lint even though my dryer has a lint filter. Lint buildup can cause fires, which is why I have a metal foil dryer duct which I vacuum out every couple of years. Also, the savings are not that dramatic since dryers are only run once in a while. Using Matt’s numbers, an old-fashioned electric dryer costs a max of $0.55 per a single run and an electric heat pump dryer costs a max of $0.33 per run. I do 3 loads a week, 156 per year. That’s $85.80 for the old-fashioned dryer and $51.48 for the fancy dryer, a difference of only $34.32 per year (NBD). I am also dubious about the claim that the heat pump dryer lasts twice as long since it is arguably a much more complex machine. Complexity inevitably leads to a higher risk of breakdown and washer/dryer engineers, long ago, were instructed by their management teams to design washers & dryers to fail sooner than previous designs forcing consumers to by these gadgets more often. Final comment - I want to echo Matt’s statements about how weird heat pumps seem, where they can seemingly create, for example, 4 units of heat energy using only 1 unit of electrical energy. Matt gave an OK explanation, but not the best. It all makes sense if you draw an imaginary “control volume” around the entire heat pump system (including both the inside air handler and the outside compressor/heat exchanger) and then draw arrows representing energy into and out of the control volume. For example, during the summer, go outside when the outside compressor fan is on, and put your hand in front of it - the outside unit's fan sucks warm outside air into the outside unit and expels air much warmer than the ambient outside air, this represents a net energy flow exiting the control volume. Inside the house, the air handler sucks in your somewhat cool, but hotter than desired, inside air and expels into your house much colder air which represents a net energy flow entering the control volume. Lastly, electrical energy is being added to make the system go. Compare the difference in energy per unit time between the inside & outside air flows, which is the amount (rate) of energy being "pumped", with the rate of electrical energy used to get the coefficient of performance, COP (COP = (pumped thermal energy converted to Joules) divided by (electricity converted to Joules) for a chosen span of time, note: 1 Joule per second = 1 watt). Conversely, during the winter, the air coming off of the outside compressor will be colder than the ambient air around you and the inside air handler expels heat warmer than the inside ambient air (pumping direction reversed). The big clue is the word “pump” in the term “heat pump”. Stunningly, air-conditioners, since their invention, were capable of generating both heat as well as cooling. All that had to be added to the design of the old-school A/C unit, to enable both cooling and heating and which was mentioned by Matt, is an electrically controlled valve that flips the coolant lines. When petroleum was dirt cheap, back in the good old days, it was economically viable to ignore the energy savings inherent in a bi-directional heat pump. This is not the case anymore. BTW, this energy pumping business is philosophically the same as what you do when you carry a propane tank for your gas grill from your truck/car to your gas grill. Clearly the energy in the propane tank is much higher than the energy you expended moving the tank from your vehicle to your grill, therefore generating a huge COP. Hopefully this comparison did not confuse your further.

I installed DIYMr Cool Heat pumps up here in NH last year and they have been great but I honestly didnt realize just how efficient they were. I keep finding myself on this channel during random searches. Great videos! Keep it going

You weren't lying when you were hyping up your animation team. Once again, whoever you hired to do these animations are so good at making incredible visuals that are easy to understand. I really do think they aid a lot in easily understanding these concepts for visual learners, massive kudos for this overall fine level of detail work you put into these. Also, your throughput is surprisingly fast for the quality of content. Great work.

The only drawback with heat pump dryers is the difficulty level to clean the evaporator coil once is clogged up with lint. No matter how many filters they have to prevent them from getting any lint it always happens. You will notice the drying time increasing overtime. I love the idea but it still needs improvement. My A/C on the other hand is also a heat pump. Running for 16 years and not a single problem so far. Great video. Thanks for your dedication.

I’m glad you mentioned tumble dryers. I was wondering if the waste heat from a traditional dryer could be channeled towards a heat pump system, or efficiently stored rather than simply vented into the atmosphere. In the future I believe that most homes will have any many ‘closed loop’ systems as possible for heat, energy and water. These advances will likely be useful for environments where water and electricity are scarce - like in low earth orbit, the moon and Mars. This will be yet another arena where space tech helps us on earth and our improvements feed back to space tech. It’s not just about Velcro and Tang 🙂

I agree, a few years ago we added a 5 zone split system to the house as part of our solar install and due to the rebate. The ability to selectively cool or heat the rooms we are in versus the entire house was such a cost savings. It’s worked flawlessly and we love it.

I am an engineer and I love your videos. I disagree with you that the life span of a heat pump dryer is double of a traditional electric dryer. Traditional electric dryers are very simple. No matter where I have moved, I have always bought an old used dryer (with moisture sensor... important) and just repaired it if need be, at a very low cost. A new belt for my $150 used dryer, for example, was recently $14 and I installed it in 15 minutes. A heat pump dryer is much more complicated and I would argue practically not repairable by a homeowner. In contrast, an electric dryer, especially one with an easily-replaced mechanical timer, could easily last 20 years, or even infinitely if you know how to replace the drum bearings. The heating element is cheap and easy to replace. The motor can be serviced at a motor shop. They are about as simple as an appliance as you can imagine. My point in all this is that if you can hang dry your clothes, or at least 'some' of your clothes, and use a classic electric dryer 'only' for select items (towels, sheets, or things needed right away), you can reduce your total clothes drying costs to a very minimal amount without spending $2k on a complicated appliance with a lot of moving parts, refrigerant that can leak out, computer boards that can fail, refrigerant disposal issues, specialist repair technicians, etc. I just use a fold out rack in my laundry room and every item I hang on it costs exactly $0 to dry. I have my dryer when I need it. I've even taken 90% dry items off the rack and finished them in the dryer very quickly. If you are in the habit of taking your own bags into a grocery store, hanging a few items to dry on a rack is about that hard of a habit to form. Plus your clothes last longer. When you empty the lint filter, that lint you are throwing out is your clothes! There are some situations where my argument has less merit, of course. I admit that. A busy mom with kids in humid rainy Houston is not going to want to hang dry clothes. But I would still maintain that a simple old-school dryer with a moisture sensor and a mechanical timer can last decades.

As an HVAC Contractor... I can not thank you enough for creating this video for me to share with my customers. THANK YOU!!!

Ground Source Heat Pumps are amazing but it’s not only the upfront cost that is a concern…it’s also the complexity of the system. There are many more points of failure and they require more maintenance. I have an Air Source unit in central New England and my costs are very reasonable considering what hearing oil users pay in my area.

Working as a maintenance tech for Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club, I monitor 50 heat pumps. One for each room. Most are about the size of a 3 cubic foot freezer. Other than the network system circuit board and the system software that monitors all of the components of each heat pump via a computer interface, the 50 heat pumps are a very simple machine. I am amazed that one minute the forced air is putting out 53 degrees and after the switching valve changes when the tenet adjusts the thermostat wanting it warmer in the room, the air then turns to 82 degrees. 99% of the maintence on each unit is only changing air filters. That's it,,, they just work!

I've had my heat pump clothes dryer for over 10 years now, and at least in Finland, most of the clothes dryers being sold are now heat pump based. I see the cooler air as a pro, as it's more gentle on the clothes. The easiest way to shorten the drying time is to get a washer with a high RPM spin cycle (1400 or more) - which also means less energy is used for drying. In Europe, there are some washer-dryer combos, too, based on heat pumps, which wash and dry your clothes all in one go, no need to lift the clothes from the washer to the dryes.

I did a mini-split heat pump self install 3 years ago at my small ranch home and I have to say it's one of the best things I've ever spent money on. My heating is now primarily done through my heat pump instead of my oil fired boiler in all but the very coldest parts of winter. The savings are impressive...I've gone from buying fuel oil twice a year (it just cost me over a grand to fill my oil tank) to once a year and my electric bill has only gone up an average of 50-75 dollars a month during the heating season. I estimate I'm saving between 500-700 dollars per year in heating costs depending on how cold the winter is and will have paid for the heat pump in less than 5 years through my savings. The added benefit of having cooling in the summer is simply a bonus in my mind.

Heat pumps are fantastic way to go! Iv been in the HVAC business for 35 years and I’m installing HP’s on a daily basis and even installed one in my business. The key is to make sure you purchase a HP with an inverter. We are starting to install HP water heaters as well.

Wow nice broadcast on heat pumps. I am grateful you spent time with this.

Four years I had a petrol car and an oil fired central heating system. Now I have heat recovery ventilation, more roof insulation, an EV, solar panels and an air to water heat pump. Four years ago I used around 70 MWh of energy annually for my house and car. I now use around 18 MWh for the same thing (a little hard to exactly track all the energy used by my EV for public/work charging). Of that, around one third of that energy was locally generated. So yes, heat pumps everywhere.

We installed a new Miele clothes dryer last year. It works well. As mentioned in the video, it takes longer to dry clothes than the electric forced-air dryer it replaced. Also, it is not quiet, though it is less noisy than the dryer it replaced. One of the side benefits is you can reclaim the water from the dryer. When installed, you have the option to run a drain hose to the house drain. Or, the dryer has a built-in tank to collect the water. In the later case, you empty the tank manually. This water is kinda-sorta distilled. We use it to water plants in season, or use it for flushing toilets as needed. A load of bath towels gives up about 1/2 gallon of water. We we surprised! Another benefit over the forced-air dryer in the summer is that I'm not taking air-conditioned, cooled air, heating right back up and forcing it outside. There are savings involved, but I'm not sure how to quantify that.

This is good! As an architect whose main motivation is protecting our environment, I fully support conversion to heat pump heating and cooling systems powered by renewably-generated electricity! One thing Matt left out is the fact that the heated air coming out of a heat pump is about 90 degrees F, whereas heated air coming from a gas furnace is about 130 degrees F. So the way the heat FEELS to people in the house is different. With a gas furnace, you can sit near a heater register and get warm quickly. With heat pumps, that does not happen. If your home has spots that are particularly cold in the winter, they may get worse when you switch to a heat pump. Comfort is a huge factor in why it is more important to have good air sealing and insulation in exposed floors, exterior walls, and top level ceilings in buildings that use heat pumps (which is what I focus on in my work). An added advantage of that is that, in addition to increased comfort, the amount of electricity and cost needed for your heat pump to keep you comfortable goes down even farther.

Thanks for a great video. I went solar late 2021 and changed to heat pump dryer and hot water as well as getting rid of natural gas altogether. The savings are amazing. My total energy spend per year has been reduced by 74%. Cheers!

I had a Miele heat pump dryer for almost a year now and it's pretty great. What I didn't expect is that this dryer (and its companion washing machine) totally changed how we do laundry, for the better. The fact that the dryers don't get as hot is actually a good thing, because overheating clothes makes them wear out faster (even when accounting for the longer tumble time, you come out ahead). However, the lower temperature and just how the dryer works, means it's important to sort laundry into similar fabrics. For example, if you try drying some jeans and t-shirts together, the t-shirts will dry before the jeans. You should be sorting this stuff anyway, but a heat pump dryer really forces you to do this. So, we got 4 smaller laundry bins and now we pre-sort as we throw the dirty laundry in: towels/denims, dress shirts, cold, and regular/warm. This way, we're always ready to run a quick load, at the appropriate settings. No more time spent digging through a pile of laundry, sorting the colds from the warms. It's great.

10 years ago we built a house with an air-to-air heat pump, that heats the house as well as the hot water tank (combined). We also installed a heat pump dryer, which is very much standard here I believe. The energy prices are high enough already... Best regards from Switzerland.

So my youngest brother(civil engineer) had an oil fired forced hot air furnace and a broken air conditioner, he also had 12kw of solar panels on his roof. We replaced the old furnace and ac with a hybrid heat pump setup, his highest electric bill since the conversion was around $2. And he only used a quarter of a tank of fuel oil(60 gallons). New technology is amazing.

I sure hope the service business improves for mini-split heat pumps!! I installed three 12k btu mini split heat pumps in my Atlanta home 12 years ago that have worked flawlessly up until last summer. I noticed one wasn't cooling well and wouldn't produce heat in heat mode. I made several phone calls trying to get it repaired, but service techs wouldn't even look at it. Every one of them wanted to just install a new unit. The units I purchased 12 years ago were very efficient 14.5 EER (not seer), and I was reluctant to just throw it out. Finally, I convinced a friend of mine who does commercial HVAC work to come and have a look. The problem was simple. A service port schrader valve had a torn O-ring causing a slow freon leak. He replaced the schrader valve, recharged the system, and it's been running fine ever since. Good thing I didn't throw it out! Sheesh! I also have a DIY heat pump hot water heater (AirTap A7) in my basement that's been running well for 11 years. The A7 installs over a standard hot water heater tank and at $700 was pretty affordable. I love my heat pumps!!

My brother had a home that used a water to air heat pump system. There were two wells on his lot and heat was extracted from the water coming from one well and the cold water returned to the other. In summer the direction of water flow was reversed. He did live in an area where the water table was very near the surface, though, which helped keep the cost of drilling the wells reasonable.

Wish I was aware of any of this last year when I had to replace two HVAC units, a water heater & dryer in my house last year. Your programs are always so informative. Thx much

I do HVAC I'm in Phoenix Az the Home of the Heat Pump from Goettle. That was a great machine. Heat pumps are getting better all the time. 20 years ago they would Heat down to 40 degrees outside so for deserts they worked great. Now I have a WSHP that can Heat with water down to 34 degrees and cool with water Temps up to 120 degrees.

HVAC expert here, Heat pumps may not have less carbon footprint unless you are on solar. Because of the up to 10kw heat strips even in the southern states they end up pulling way more electricity up to 80kw averages for a 25F day. The water heaters are a different story these are much more green because they’re usually installed inside. And being compared to full electric water heaters. The 80% fossil fuel on the grid is again the major point. Great video, very good info!

In very cold climates you can build a small gas fire place with coils for the heat pump. Heat that normally gets wasted up a chimney can be pumped under the floor. Gas fire eliminates need for defroster, and gas heating becomes less wasteful.

I didn't realise these systems weren't as widely used in the rest of the world. In Australia, they're basically the only type of system you can get and are definitely very efficient. They work very well in our climate as we do experience all the seasons (tending more towards the warmer side), but without extremes. I have even automated my house to turn my split systems on in summer while there's excess solar generation in order to trap some of that cool air inside. It's especially good to come home to an already-cool house in Summer.

LOVE this video! Never knew about heat pump dyers and water heaters.Thanks.

We have had a heatpump dryer for 4 years and love it. We only use it in the winter though as we hang clothes outside to dry in the warmer months for free!

Another technology helping with this is energy recovery ventilators - pre conditioning incoming fresh air using the exhaust. That way you need less heating or cooling overall

My electric dryer is 20 years old and easy to repair. The two repair men who have serviced say it is a lot more reliable than modern fancier units. I wonder how many manufacturers are cutting corners that will affect reliability.

I live in CO. My friend did the heat pump water heater and he just exhausts this cold air out of a vent. Even better would be an actuated damper so you can cool in summer months from the exhaust.

Thanks man. I am in Europe and way behind the curve on varmluftpumpen. This video is quite helpful. Right now our per kilowatt charge is doubling (it was very low before) so there is motivation to install heat pumps. I've got a real screwy house layout so I will have to supplement with electric radiative heat, hopefully minimally. We looked at solar and we just don't have enough roof space to generate all of our needs. It has gotten quite windy here over the past few years so maybe a wind + solar solution might be the way forward. Hands down, the heat pump is our single best way to cut our electrical use in our home.

It's great that you're taking us along the jorney to your new home and deliver hands-on experience on future home technologies!

My dryer vent plate designed to open only during active drying, got stuck open and allowed wasps to build a nest around the vent hose. So, eliminating the need for an outside air vent connection is very appealing to me regardless of efficiency! Already have to drain water for the washing machine so can use that to empty moisture created by the heat pump.

I found a window mounted heatpump A/C that puts out 10k BTU for about a third the power of two, regular 1500W space heaters. About 5 amps @ 230v. When it's above 40°F outside, that's all I need for the whole house. When it's below freezing, it's break even with the built-in electric heater. The auxilliary power plant runs off natural gas, so I'm not replacing my ventless wall heaters yet. When they subsidize solar again, I'll put panels on the roof. Insulation is a huge factor that I'm not hearing about lately. That can easily cut your electricity use in half. There used to be grants for that too. I have brick walls, so I'm putting half inch polyisocyanurate foam on the inside with prefinished paneling.

Great video! As an engineer myself its always a challenge to get your info info down to the appropriate level to get thru to your audience. In this video (like most of your others) you hit the mark. BTW the curiosity stream deal isn't working anymore... Keep up the good work!

Great video Matt. Thanks!! You're preaching to the choir with me for sure. Had a ground loop heat pump in my last house and absolutely loved it. Wanted to do one for my new house but the costs didn't pencil out. Ironically a super energy efficient home has lower energy bills and therefore the ROI for a ground loop heat pump skyrocketed to around 69 years. LOL. So I went with an air source heat pump instead. Also the Rheem hp water heater you showed, which is amazing BTW. Even though air source heat pumps are slightly less efficient than ground loop, this is only the case a few months out of the year. It's been 3 years and counting with the HP water heater and air source HVAC heat pump. It's mind blowing to watch it run and heat the home when it's howling and 4°F outside.

Technology Connections channel has a very awesome series on this, he has been repping heat pumps for years.

Thank you!! I'm seriously researching Heat Pumps for my home.

Wish we had known about this when we replaced our oil furnace, blower and water heater about 5 years ago. Definitely will go this route next time we have to.

Pretty cool to see the appliance options. It would be nice to see some sort of whole home thermal management system that all of the appliances could tap into. Run a cold water line to from your house heatpump your refrigerator for a first past chilling with a compressor on the fridge cooling the freezer and dumping waste heat into the water line heading back to the house heat pump. so it could be used for heating hot water, heaters, clothes dryers, etc...

Nice thing (didn't mentioned) is that heat pumps have potential also in district heating. For example Stockholm uses couple of largest ever produced to warm up spaces for it's residents and it uses sea water in it's heat exchanger which unsurprisingly is much, much more efficient than both air and ground

I work at a major HVAC company in the states and am currently redesigning large cabinets with the new refrigerants. Heat pump is our new standard

11:45 The lower heat is an advantage, not a disadvantage! It’s way gentler on fabrics - in regular mode, a heat pump dryer is cooler than the delicates mode on a traditional dryer. In delicates mode, it’s cooler still. I’ve had a Siemens heat pump dryer for nearly a decade and I’m very pleased with the results.

I live in Wisconsin. Tho am still trying to make a decision on a new heating/cooling system due to my poor financial state couple with inflation. You are correct, the problem is the cheap natural gas. To run an electric heat pump in my winter means not only do I spend more upfront for the system but I also pay more for the fuel to run it. I do get the benefit of the heat pump system having a higher SEER rating on the cooling mode than a normal AC unit but the costs and savings still don't make much sense for me. If I do it, it's because I am planning for solar later which makes it more attractive and i have to work my ass out

I love your videos and always eagerly await the next! Thank you for all that you do, Matt!

I like your manner of delivery, your pace, and the graphics. Your English is easy to understand.

A couple of years ago we installed a LG minisplit air-to-air heat pump. When we built our house 40+ years ago installed a cordwood stove in the basement and electric baseboard heaters to keep the bank happy. We are in NH. Last year we used the heatpump for summer cooling and heating. This winter due to the high cost of electricity we decided not to use the heatpump and instead have gone back to 100% cordwood. It is nice to have an alternative source of heat. For domestic hot water we have a conventional electric water heater. However we augment that in summer with a solar batch heater in our attached greenhouse. That provides about 1/3- 1/2 of our summer hot water needs. In winter I installed a heat exchanger in our wood stove, that supplies almost 100% of our winter hot water needs assuming we heat exclusively with cordwood. Our electric utility offers a slightly lower rate for electricity used for water heating. Currently we have a conventional electric dryer. When it needs to be replaced I will check out heatpump dryers but I have a couple of concerns besides cost. The well documented lint problem and where does the moisture go? We live in a fairly high humidity area in summer and because the house is so tight we don't need to add humidity in winter so I'm reluctant to add more water vapor to the air. Good luck on your new house.

We bought our first heat pump dryer about 15 years ago. The power to run the dryer is 700 Watt, which means it can be on the same 16 A (230 Vac) circuit breaker as the washer.

Great video, thanks! The cooling gasses used in heat pumps are often a 100 times more greenhouse potent than CO2, so they must be very carefully installed (and disposed of by the end of their life!). I thought thats an important thing to mention.

First experience with a heat pump here in San Diego. Honestly can’t tell the difference between it and a conventional heating & cooling system. Definitely worth the investment.

Having a 15kW ground-to-water heatpump in Finland, works like a charm for 10 years now. It reduced my energy consumption by 35% while we simultaniously added 80% to the heated living area of our home. Floor heating running at 45°C, some radiators at 35°C and plenty of hot water of 55°C

Hey Matt, glad to hear you're going into net zero home. I recommend the book "Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy". It made me realize the orientation of a house is essential for a good solar gain and shading. I was amazed how good knowledge of sun's power was already in history and also how easy it wanes from society. tl;dr is orientation directly to south, with broadleaf deciduous trees east and west to provide shading in the summer but solar gain in the winter.

We're in our first year of using a heat pump. (It came with the house.) I've been happy with it (and the energy bill) so far. I hope that summer will have me feeling the same way :)

I install HVAC systems for work and an interesting thing I've noticed is that most heat pumps, furnaces, and central air conditioners that people purchase are on the lower end of the efficiency scale on the energy guide stickers. I don't believe I've seen any units past the halfway point

I have a Fujitsu mini-split style heat pump that heats and cools a small outbuilding. It is remarkably cheap to run, especially for cooling in the summer. I also have a Miele condensing clothes dryer. It has seen almost daily use for over 8 years now. Compared to a conventional dryer, at the end of the cycle, the clothing, bedding and towels do not feel bone dry, but a quick shake dissipates any residual humidity. The fabrics are warm, but not really hot as they are with a conventional dryer. It is very important to remove any lint thoroughly, and once very several months a thorough lint cleaning of the dryer’s internal ducting is needed. This is easy to do, though a little tedious. Overall I am very happy with both the Fujitsu and the Miele. They only regret I have is with the size of the Miele. I really wish we had opted for a larger unit. We have the smallest model they make. Perhaps if you are a small household, 1-2 people, and your laundry needs are quite modest you will be happy with the small Miele, but if you are an active family with several kids I would strongly recommend getting a larger dryer.

An additional angle for the geothermal is the use of ponds for your ground loops. You can also use abandoned wells. It eliminates digging and decreases the length of the coil needed. Even an evaporative water feature can be surprisingly effective.

I had my Rheem heat pump installed in Nov. 2020. It's a 5 ton 21.95 SEER and 11.5 on the heating side. Last winter here in southern NM was the first full winter with it. They also installed a 98% eff. propane furnace/air handler for the backup. I had put the heat pump lock out temp at 20 degrees, and I ended up using about 10 gallons of propane for the entire winter. Not bad. I think this next winter, I'll turn it down to 15 and I might not use any propane at all. The heat pump didn't seem to have any problems heating my 2200 sq. ft home last winter and we had a dozen or so nights in the teens. This would make me net zero as I have a 12.4 KW solar power system that more than supports my entire all electric home. I also put in a Rheem heat pump hot water heater, and a Samsung heat pump dryer. I've embraced heat pump technology, and I can say first hand it's the way to go.

I didn't realize that I had installed a heat pump heating and cooling system for my air conditioning until I watched this. I love it. In a few weeks we will have solar on our house. I am wondering how the dryer lint works with a heat pump dryer?

Really looking forward to your videos on the new house build. Hope it encourages people to adopt your ideas.

Watched a lot of your videos before I realized I wasn't subscribed yet (am now). Amazing they push to my home page anyway. Your videos strike a nerve with this versed ET. Thanks for the time and energy you put into production.

Thank you Matt. Another great video filled with information about how we can lessen the impact on our planet. Well researched, pointing out the wonder of heat pump technology, as well as the negatives. Best of luck with the building of your new home!

R410a is the most common refrigerant used today in the US. Love the channel!

We got an AtA type heat pump for our home. Stratigically placed it can heat/cool the ENTIRE House with ease. We love it and the saving are quite good. Best part about it was it cost us NOTHING!! It was rolled into a community action council weatherization program funded by the Federal Gov. and State of WA. Got a new membrane roof, Fully insulated the roof and Floors, Repaired the floor ducting from the electric furnace and went through and fully referbished that furnace too. New moisture sensing bathroom vent that can run on auto or manual and a full weather sealing of all doors and windows. If you OWN the home...LOOK INTO these programs!!! Totally worth the time!!!

Something that could help with efficiency even more is relaxing zoning laws to allow for more duplexes/quadplexes/apartment blocks/etc. since each home in those buildings shares at least one surface with another home, minimizing heat loss. Also has a lot of other benefits, like reducing the amount of driving that needs to be done, embedded carbon due to construction, less infrastructure needed to support, and so on

Great video Matt. I have been using ASHP for years. First the Mitsubishi, but since I live north of Albany, -15 wasn't good enough (it shut down often). When I built my newest net zero home, I used Gree sapphire, Seer 38 and down to -22.

As a Southern California resident it's interesting to hear how much emphasis you put on heating and then add cooling as an after thought. Everything is literally the reverse here. We almost never touch the heater but have to run the A/C many months of the year. We're all very familiar with air conditioners so if you just explain that heat pump is an air conditioner running in reverse then we'll understand. Of course we don't really think about how efficient our heaters are since we rarely use them. Even more rare is using the heater in a car.

So much great information - saving this video for when I build, with Net Zero in mind too. Thank you so much!

Lots more building videos please, especially on your decision processes, thoughts, ideas and opinions. As a former LEED specialist there are so many ways to achieve improvements. As others have said removing the need for energy is theoretically the best solution, but achieving that last 10% can be prohibitively expensive.

Yes - I’m all in on heat pumps! As an architect, I’ve been involved with both air source and ground source over the years, and here’s my take on the two: ground source is more efficient and will last longer, but installs are complex because you are never 100% sure on conditions until you start drilling/digging. Air source are much more predictable, but I worry about sending hot air back into the environment in urban settings, contributing to heat island effect.

What an excellent video! I installed a heat pump at my previous home with a natural gas furnace for augmentation. The home was relatively new and well. The furnace kicks in at outdoor temperatures below -5 [C], which occurs about 4 to 8 weeks each year. The way I see it, a heat pump is just an air conditioner that can run backwards. Our furnace and AC unit needed replacement, so it made more sense to spend a little more and get a heat pump instead of AC. The heat pump is better thought of as augmenting/replacing the use of the furnace for much of the year. It really doesn’t make sense to install AC in homes anymore. They should all be heat pumps. I now live in a condo which also has a rather sophisticated heating/cooling system that also employs a heat pump, but takes the concept even further. The building was constructed in 1852 and recently converted into condo’s. Individual units have AC and a heat exchanger with hot/cold water supplied by a heat pump/evaporator on the roof, augmented by natural gas boilers for the coldest months. The cool part is what happens during spring and fall. At those times of year, the air is still cold but the south facing units get a lot of direct sunlight, requiring AC, while the north facing units still require heat. The heat extracted by the AC is dumped into the water circulating the building, providing the heat necessary for the north facing units, which subsequently cool the water for use by the AC. So during these months, the entire building acts as a heat pump, effectively redistributing excess heat from the south side to heat the north side. Very efficient, and very cool!

Heatpump dryers are more or less the norm here in Denmark. You'd be very hard pressed to find a vented dryer in any store. I have an LG heatpump dryer and am very pleased with it. It dries everything in roughly the same time as my old condenser drier and only uses a third of the electricity (about 600w compared to 2000w).

Matt, thanks for the detailed overview. We installed a geothermal in our last home in Maryland and loved it. A very quiet system and had actual warm air coming out of the vents (our original air to air heat pump was cool air). It also had a ‘super heater’ that grabbed excess heat energy and sent it to our water heater.

I have been looking at this for my own space. The cheap install route is an air source heat pump. I really think, even in cold climates, with a COP of 3.5 to 3.7, your opex is flat and you can displace like 90% of your natural gas for heating in the Upper Midwest.

I just bought my first new home and am trying to make my home as energy efficient as possible. so when it came time for air conditioners I bought two new heat pumps. but I didn't know about the heat pump dryers. when we need a new one, that will definitely be the thing! I love all of the information I get on this channel. trying to choose solar panel Brands right now

Yep, we took out our natural gas furnace and water heater, and installed Trane Heat Pump and Rheem hybrid heat pump water heater 10 years ago, and have been overjoyed with out positive experience, which also included adding solar and powerwall batteries, and Tesla EVs (3 MS's and M3 thus far).

Just moved back from Scotland and lived in 2 houses 10 miles apart, similar build Era, first had a heat pump electric) installed 2019, 2nd had a gas combi boiler. 1st had updated insulation 2nd basic Fibre glass insulation. Heat pump house permanently cold and we ended up using wood burner to stay warm. 2nd was toasty warm with gas alone. Price for electric in 1st and gas/electric in 2nd was roughly the same but with wood for wood burner we were an extra £400 a year. Wouldn't touch electric heat pump. My experience was costly to run and house was permanently cold. Others in UK reporting the same including installers. Unit was a Modern, Mitsubishi electric heat pump. Be care full what u install!!

Another thing you might want to look into: induction stoves. They cook faster and more consistently, plus they use less energy. They beat out even the holy grail of cooking: gas stovetops. Downside: noisier, requires magnetic cookware, and a bit more expensive up front.

Fantastic video as always! Great information and I totally agree with the move towards net zero energy. One piece that is often forgotten is the embodied carbon component. Based on this channel I have a feeling Matt is conscious of this with his build and it warrants a mention here for others to be mindful of. As an architect we must practice mindfulness around both net zero energy and embodied energy as we make the transition.

This was extremely informative! A ventless dryer, does wonders for your envelope at around your house. It’s one less intrusion where you have to worry about energy leaving your house.

I've been working on a personal project involving a wall mounted a/c unit, and an exercise bike. Your channel is a huge inspiration for me to decrease my electricity usage.

Matt, you should research vertical geothermal installations - it´s the currently used method in Scandinavia. Horizontal ones are usually decades old tech - my neighbour has one installed in the 1980s - of course the indoor unit has been renewed and upgraded multiple times, but the pipes are still original. There might be also other innovations to derive in cold Scandinavia.

Great video! Love the info and the comparisons.

I use a large and bulky portable heat pump for my shed/music studio. In the summertime, I get inexpensive cooling and in the Fall to early Winter, I get less expensive heating. My problem is that the unit stops producing adequate heat when the temperature drops below 20 degrees F. Even though my unit is indoors, at Zero degrees it's entirely useless. I am encouraged that newer models use heat coils to provide additional heat, so thanks for alerting me! I love your channel! New subscriber!

I really love your work, Matt! Keep producing content and know you're an inspiration! I have heat pumps on 2 of my properties with solar and batteries and I've almost never paid an electricity bill... I mostly get $150 back from the grid each month in Brisbane, Australia

Technology Connections already had me fully convinced that we need to heat pump all the things. Boy was I salty when he revealed how close we already are to having this technology everywhere, because heat pumps are basically air conditions with just a few more parts. I can't believe we haven't been using it all along where possible. And good on Washington State for giving natural gas the boot. Climate Town blew my mind revealing that natural gas is worse than coal due to the leaks in natural gas infrastructure.

I am living outside the US, and have a heat pump dryer, though here they are called condenser dryers too. It does take longer but, I can just start it late in the night and by morning my clothes are dry and still warm. And I don't need a hole in my wall that lets my cold air out and hot air inside my home. Over all, I am happy with it.