Why is Everyone Talking about Heat Pumps? 

Forget raid shadow legends, we are out here getting sponsored by local utilities now

Technology Connections just put out a video about this because of the recent spike in purchases of heat pumps in the US. Some important things to note; a lot of installers are currently taking massive margins on heat pumps because of the hype. Check the wholesale price before paying for instalation. Heat pumps are barely any more advanced than an AC, so they shouldn't cost double or triple. Also, your installer should be calculating new DTU requirements for your house, not going off of the old numbers, as furnaces were often over-speced. Also, there are new low temperature heat pump units that can run just fine in the cold weather you're describing. I live in New Zealand where our coldest days are -5C, we live entirely off of old, low-end heat pumps just fine and don't need central heating.

I’m an HVAC guy, R410A is 20 years old and not new and about to be replaced in less than 3 years by R-32 refrigerant.

Crazy how so many people here are surprised and impressed by heatpumps in 2024. We've been using heatpump to heat our houses in Quebec for what... 15 years+ ? Aux heat (either resistive or propane/natural gas) as back up and during very cold days only.

I dont know what it is about heat pumps, but for some reason the topic always tends to turn the comment section absolutely insufferable, ranging from "heat pumps are incredible!" to "heat pumps dont work if it's below freezing!" to "how are you just discovering heatpumps, we've had them installed where I live since the 4th century and we're also better looking than you."

Switched over to a Heat pump for just over a year now. Except for the few days that drop significantly below -10deg C, the house has used significantly less natural gas and kept the house warm. Very impressive tech.

New refrigerant??? lol 410a has been used for over 20 years and is about to be replaced.

4:15 Clean the copper before putting crimp on connectors, that can lead to a leak if the oxidation doesn't seal. 5:15 Those tabs are meant to be bent outwards as a sleeve for structural support to the connecting box. 5:55 Take the plastic covers off so they don't melt like they did. That's a seal for the inside/outside air, not anymore. I hope you didn't pay more than a few thousand dollars for that service, especially with the recycling discount.

I just had a heat pump put in 2 years ago and it really saved us tons of money. Living in central Wisconsin it gets cold really cold 30 to 40 below zero. We did have a new propane furnace and had a pellet stove installed to help keep the house warm in the winter. My neighbors have been over tons of times to check out the heat pump to see how well it works.

I am an Electromechanical Engineer and I used to configure Danfoss (A Danish) Variable Frequency Drives in dairy plants and the efficiency compared to a start-stop type system was incredible when you add it all up over a decade. I was always in search of that magic PID value for the control loop I miss that job!

Between Alec and now you, I'm extremely confused about the timing of this topic coming up on a second channel that I watch

I just got a Daikin a few months ago. It's been great so far and has cut my power usage in half.

People trashing heat pumps often overlook the dual fuel option (perhaps deliberately). It dips to -30C here a few weeks a year, but most of the time a heat pump would cover the majority of the heating and cooling needs.

In sweden HP has been extremly common in the last 30 years. I have a Air to water heatpump myself that gives heat to my radiators and hot water. Its great.

I work for Daikin, nice to see you went with the FIT systems! If you have any questions feel free to reach out. Beware of those press fittings they used though. They brazed on the units themselves I dont know why they just didn't braze everything. Brazing is much better long term. Press fittings will leak much more easily especially if installers don't prep and seat the pipes properly. Hopefully they were purging nitrogen through the system when they did braze.

Replaced our 20 year old standalone AC unit with a variable speed heat pump just two weeks ago. Our 6-year-old gas furnace remains to pick up the load when temps drop into the 20's as a cold climate model like your heat pump makes little sense in the Puget Sound area. Your description of the difference between how heat is delivered to the house from a furnace and a heat pump was the best I've heard yet.

After watching an hour and 45 minutes of Technology Connection on heat pumps this week (having watched more hours previously) I am happy you are also making a video. People need to be informed about how good these things are!

My dad does heating and cooling for a living so it's pretty interesting to see this kind of transformation in a household with insane insight, well done Jerry.

I’m an HVACR engineer. Do this day in day out. Strongly disagree on them using the ring lock couplers. Should ALWAYS be brazed unless unsafe or hot works not allowed. There’ll be a leak on them eventually, braze you’ll never have to worry. Many people use them to cut down on time. I get called out and it’s always them that are leaking.

Interesting that you refer to R410a as new..? Here in Norway its essentially completely phased out and replaced with R32.

Heat pumps should not cost much more than ACs, all these HVAC companies are price gauging hard. In addition a lot of HVAC companies just install the same capacity heat pump as the gas heaters which are often multiple x overpowered for the house driving up the price. Keep watch and calculate the capacity of heat pump you need yourself.

I've done HVAC-R for 25 years and we have had heat pumps in the south-central part of the United States longer than I've been doing this. The technology has finally made it efficient enough to use in the northern states. personally, I use a Wood firebox outside that heats a water loop that feeds a water coil as my main fuel with a gas Furnace as a backup. No 200-amp service is required and during a power outage, we can have heat still using s small generator.

As someone who lives in Australia it completely blows my mind split systems are new in America most rooms in Australia have their own systems

Dude these guys hacked your system up!! They didn’t flow nitrogen when they brazed and they knew they were being filmed!! That means they either don’t care or don’t know better . When your heat or ac stops working next season, hope they can fit you into their schedule. Also Your thermostat settings/ wiring are going to determine wether your electric heat is supplemental or auxiliary

Thanks for adding fahrenheit/celsius text overlay 😎 Very cool informative video!

Just installed geothermal heat pump.. hole drilled into the ground (250m), cold stuff goes in, warmer stuff comes out. Super convenient, basically "set and forget" and cuts my power usage by a ton. Can also be run "in reverse" during summer to get free cooling/ac. Yay for new tech!

Getting a Daikin heat pump with four mini-split heads installed this Friday. Current AC is a fan-forced 12 or 13 SEER unit. New mini-split units are rated at 18 to 20.6 SEER2. We are going to keep our propane furnace for the time being through next winter to see if we need any supplemental heat.

I am running a Daikin heat pump with in floor heating on my house we built last year. It was amazing over the winter here in the alps. Set and forget ❤

The moment where I find things really funny... my country house has heated floors, cold and heat air cons... for over 30 years, lately I replaced the outside units with inverter units as they are more efficient and can run the whole day, and I live in the Mediterranean. When they work for cold, the splits cool the air, when they work for heat, they pump hot water through the floor. They also heat the water accumulators for bath and kitchen use, either in the summer or winter. I also collect the distilled water. My system is also Daikin.

I updated to a dual fuel Heat pump 2 years ago and they are awesome, super quiet and efficient. I keep my blower motor on all day and it helps balance the temperature between basement and top floors. With the old system the delta between basement and top floors was 10degF. With new system down to 2-4degF delta. Also both the electric and gas companies will give you a rebate incentive. Don’t forget if you get a smart thermostat that’s also an extra rebate you can get.

I have been pushing heat pump technology since I was about 15. I'm pushing mid-40s. It's about time they start playing with it commercially.

In Norway about 40% of all houses use air-to-air heatpumps (27% in 2012), these have the ability to both heat and cool. In our house we got a heatpump in each floor with the support of a fireplace for the really cold winterdays.

Had a Daiken HP for 25 years in New Zealand. Just have to put half sheet of plywood over the outdoor unit when it snows to keep it from constantly defrosting itself.

I installed a 3 zone ductless heat pump in my house this year, and a single zone in my attached home office in 2020. Was very impressed with how quiet they are and how cheap it is compared to other heating method costs.

In 2022 57% of newly built houses in Germany installed heat pumps. Conversely, only 6% of existing houses use heat pumps, yet.

We ha ve had that in cold norway for decades. Having an AC that doubles as heat pump is perfect.

As a HVAC Tech I appreciate your interest in it all. It is fascinating, especially when you've got high end fancy equipment. I installed a Daikin three head a couple days ago. Plus they just made the new R-32 refrigerant that's much friendlier for the environment.

Just FYI, heat pumps can't handle hard winters. They're great in mild winters, though. It is possible to have a dual system, with a heat pump for mildly cold days and a furnace that will kick in when temps get really low. Edit: I guess I should have waited to the end to comment. Looks like you covered this. 😁

I got a Bosch IDP packaged unit a couple of years ago; thanks for helping me understand how it works. I live in Phoenix and find it doesn't heat too well when the outside temp is at or below 32 degrees. (This is a rooftop unit) Fortunately we only get that cold once or twice a year.

I work for an HVAC contractor as an installer. We are a certified Daikin dealer and work closely with the local Daikin reps. I've personally installed well over 100 Daikin fit systems. If the installers don't take the time to do the little things the right way, or if your duct work is undersized or bottlenecked, those systems will give you nothing but problems as they are extremely sensitive. If the installer doesn't purge the lineset with nitrogen when they braze there will be soot that forms on the inside of the lines and it will ruin the metering devices and the electronic expansion valve. And even if everything is done perfectly sometimes they just have problems bc Daikin has some pretty inconsistent manufacturing quality. I personally love the system because my coworker and I take the time to do the little things, but a lot of the guys hate them because they don't.

I have recently replaced my 20 year old heat pump with a new Trane high efficiency unit. Cut my power usage by almost half, not to mention a pretty nice tax credit. Definitely worth the investment.

Great explanation! We have ours here in Amarillo, Tx. Our coldest temps hover around the low single digits for about a week or two. Sometimes wind chills take us lower. We’ve been lucky our heat pump works great even at those temps. I’m honestly not even sure if our emergency heat has ever turned 🤷🏻‍♂️

That condenser shown at 1:25 is a 2000 Lennox HS21 "Innovator" series; the top-of-the-line Lennox model from the time. They were two-stage (featuring a Copeland 2-speed reciprocating compressor), and those old Lennoxes were made during a time when two-stage was luxury. A product ahead of its time for sure

As cool as this tech is, the sound in the winter hearing the furnace coming alive is peak core memory. The clicking, ignition, a few moments later the heat starts flowing through the vents. Granted my childhood home was a small house and my bedroom was right above the furnace

Crimp joints on refrigeration lines are a bad idea. The constant hot cold changes will kill the olives.

My geothermal system was just switched on yesterday. It's so cool (and warm!) not to need fossil fuel anymore. Where we live, we don't have gas lines, so I had oil deliveries. How awful. Why did the price of oil go up all of a sudden? Oh man, I ran out of oil? We need a oil delivery. There's a storm coming soon. Ugggh, so happy that's no longer a thing I have to think about. And we switched our cars to EVs (and one PHEV). The last step is getting solar!

I installed a daikin heat pump but keep my furnace as well , in Canada the heat pump can’t keep up when it’s very cold , but the daikin inverter technology is fantastic and I’m super happy with it !

We already switched. After some growing pains (ea configuration) it’s great now! We use the newest propane version 👍

Heat pumps? Here in Sweden they have been the standard way of heating buildings since the 90's. R22 is an excellent refrigerant, with almost the exact same properties as R290 that is replacing most older type refrigerants like R410a... Boiling temperature doesn't matter, since it's stated at atmospheric pressure. In a refrigerant system, pressures can go negative to lower the boiling point even further.

Our company is an authorized contractor for Daikin in our area and I am the service technician that installs them and fixes them and starts them up. There awesome equipment and have few to no problems with them. Good choice 👍

As heat rises too it's a good idea to put vent out fans in the tallest part or the ceiling too. In every room also makes cooling WAY more efficient and cools immensely faster also. And they are very very cheap to put in. It's good to pump out the heat and do air exchange Everytime they turn on. You can make them turn on with a thermometer hooked to it and turn on 10 minutes before the cooling starts.

Hey Jerry, I'm wishing I kept my old dehumidifiers to use as air source cold water warmers...

Daikin would probably supplied the system with R32 refrigerant in Northern Europe. Most system use it here. 1/3 global warming- half environmental tax and the gas price around the half versus 410A. R290 highly flammable, but environmental the best, seen installed in the US these days.

Heat pumps have had a big push in the UK too, but the problem is that electricity here costs 4x as much as gas, meaning they end up being equivalent in running cost. Given that a heat pump is more expensive and more specialised to install than a standard gas boiler, and takes up some external space that not everyone has, it's fair to say most people haven't bothered switching.

The ancient heaters don't last forever. Four times more efficient.

I just installed a MrCool DIY ducted system in my home, it's amazing! Electric Bill cut in half!

Hey! HVAC tech here. The EPA just released a new refrigerant guidelines they want to implement that they are going to be forcing change to through their normal insane price gouging.(and they are going to do it REALLY quick *from what I have heard*) I highly recommend you contact your company who installed it about an extended parts and labor warranty because you , unfortunately, are most likely going to need it regardless what brand you buy and part cost for your units with 410a are going to skyrocket. (The new stuff is either r-32 or r-454b)

I live in a mobile home (1,250 sq. ft.) in Massachusetts and I had one of these systems put in. (different company) In a normal winter, without this system, my electric monthly bill would be $125. This January 2024, with this system in, my bill was $500+.(One month) GOOD LUCK !! Thank God I still have my kerosene heat for back up !! Now I only use the Heat Pump is when the kerosene goes out. They do say it works great in the summer, I'll let you know.

10 years ago I replaced an almost 1/4 ton 60 years old oil furnace with an expensive nat gas super efficiency boiler. It paid for itself in 5 years. It is amazing how far we have come.

Wait until you try floor heat. 😊 With heat pump. I have Mitsubishi

Excited for this!!!

Have had my Daikin for a few years now and I love it! No more burnt air, just nice warm air

You'd think the installers would have done a nice job considering they were being filmed and sheer number of people that what this channel, but they have proved me wrong.

Isn't R410a like 2 generations behind and has been replaced first by R32 while currently R290 (propane) is the new hot shit?

Only real fans know his name is Zack.

In Tasmania i have been using Heatpumps to heat and cool my home for the last 25 years, 10 years ago i installed an Air to Water Heatpump to replace our electric 300 litre water heater, they are both great systems and cheap to run. It amazes me how far behind America is when many parts of the world have been using this technology for 30+ years.

We installed three mini split units to replace our 4 ton heat pump from about 13 years ago. I ended up getting one of the outdoor units for free because I screwed something up and they were awesome and sent another one. I had a pro install it all after that. Best decision we made for the house after solar.

8:17 : "quiet on the outside" - I wonder if your neighbor has the same experience ;) They seem to be quite loud in this video. Unfortunately that's my experience with those heat pumps, the owner doesn't need to deal with the noise, because he chooses the most convenient place, but the neighbor having his bedroom window within 15 meters tells a different story.

What installers don't tell you is there is a HUGE market for that reclaimed R-22 coolant. Due to its being replaced by R-410A, the cost of R-22 has skyrocketed. Companies take that reclaimed coolant and resell it back to a customer or sell it to a company that redistributes it. If you have 8 lbs of R-22, your installer should credit you $800 to $1,200 for the coolant as they'll make that much or more.

I did some electrical work for the installation of one of these daikin heat pumps not too long ago. It was pretty insteresting to get such a close look at something you usually see at rooftop level or on private property...

R410A refrigerant is being phased out. Guys did a good job on installation. Good thing you got rid of those old R22 units. I won’t touch R22 units any longer unless it’s an electrical issue. Even then I recommend replacement.

Do you really need that extra heating? My 8kW (that's the electric rating) heatpump heats my 2 story home even when it's -25C outside. The only time I had to use separate space heaters was when the electronics failed. But other than that incident, almost 20 years of flawless and emissions-free heating.

Really hate how a completely new HVAC system costs $15K+ by the time the old unit is removed and new one installed.

Here in Norway heat pumps are on every other house and have been for a long time. It's great but as it's cheaper to use electricity some tend to use it more than they need creating a larger bill than if they used normal electric ovens. Still drilling down hoping it is not to long down to heat water. Using 2 pipes with a U-bend. It costs to get it started but then it's super cheap :-)

for the HVAC guy that did the brasing: dude really? no nitrogen or even removing the plastic panels or some wet rag? just make a brase so you can go propress? do better man. this setup is expenive and your work will shorten it lifespan. you give our field a bad name.

isnt it a reverse AC pretty much?

Just got one a few months ago... way less dryness in the house. My knuckles usually dry out and crack in the winter, no problems at all this year.

I wired in a custom home a few years ago that had 2 by6" fully insulated exterior walls and over R50 in the attic. The HVAC company installed two name brand highly rated heat pumps. One for each floor. First winter they had a service call for each unit that was covered under warranty. Next winter two more service calls that think it was the labor was not under warranty and it cost over $400. Third winter repeat but over $500. Finally after the warranty parts was over I convinced the home owner to just run the them in the emergency setting that used cheap natural gas. Homeowners wife was a CPA and keep all the cost and she said that yes running on gas cost more but with the gas furnace never requiring a service call it was more expensive to run the heat pumps with all the expensive service calls.

I live in Eastern Europe (Romania , the Transylvanian mountain area) and the winter temperature reaches -15/-18 C (-0.4 Fahrenheit for you Americans). I live in a new house, built in 2020 with porotherm bricks, triple glazed windows and very well insulated and for heating we decided to install underfloor heating with heat pumps similar to what is seen in this video and shocking, I know, the cost of heating is enormous...because I have 2 small children, I keep the temperature in the house at 21-22C (71F). After the winter of last year, we decided to give up the heat pumps and installed a gas central heating boiler with condensate pump and my heating bill is half in the winter months now....these heat pumps are not good when it is too cold outside and if you don't start digging trenches in the yard for geothermal heat pumps, it's not worth it... my advice is to stay away from them if you have gas. Edit: I forgot to put the cost...the heat pump sistem was close to 7000€ (Mitsubishi Electric ZUBADAN, 3 faze 380v unit) and the gas one was 2500€ (Ariston , 35kw unit)

Heat pumps are great if you don’t have natural gas. But unless you are getting into the exotic geothermal heat pumps, a heat pump isn’t cheaper to use to heat a home. And once you get below 30 F the heat pump loses a lot of performance. Heat pumps are rated at BTUH at 45F and 17F. Look at both numbers and find out what your balance point will be.

Run my Daikin 3H HT for a year now. Its working really good!

As someone who lives outside of the US, the hype you guys are generating over heat pumps is straight up hysterical. Im not sure exactly how long they have been common place here in Australia, but my folks built a new house when I was 8, and it was fitted with a heat pump, that was 24 years ago.

I will take effective over efficient any day....

i cant believe Americans are only just starting to use and and rave on about heat pumps. Australia and Europe has been using them since the dawn of time why is it suddenly such big news in north America

Here in the UK, a heat pump is about ten times the cost of an equivalent gas boiler, and electricity is four times the price of gas. No contest!

Last year i installed heat pump with R32 and i think next "gas" for heat pumps is R290. 410a is good for your area. No complaints. Daikin is also top notch.

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WOW! calling BS on more efficient than a gas furnace, unless You're going off of 400% efficiency for the heat pump and 80% efficiency for the gas furnace. But the gas furnace costs much less to operate than the heat pump. But the efficiency that the general population is talking about is the dollar

Woah that cutting attachment for the impact driver was pretty slick!

If it's not too late you may want to keep the A coils. In high school I made a super cheap AC unit in my bedroom above a garage by pumping well water through an A coil from the dump. I had to water the yard any time I wanted to cool my room, but it worked like a charm.

I have had my heat pump for 2 winters now (in Canada) and have been very pleased with it.

Our mini splits are actually very expensive to run in the winter here, surprisingly. We have a 900 sq/ft house with 13' peaked ceilings and the cost in MN mild winter with it set to 60 degrees most often is almost $200/month.

My house has a heat pump. I save money EVERY MONTH on electricity. I'm not wasting money by creating heat with an electric element, or firing a fossil fuel, but instead just moving the heat and cooling around inside the system. So when it's cold outside, the compressor runs in reverse and converts the cold into heat in the exchanger. And when it's warm outside, it again reverses the compressor and converts the heat into cold. Very nice (at least as how my uncle explained it to me. He's smart. He fixes x-ray machines).

I went with a dual fuel hybrid HVAC system last year. It’s been a great decision and I have saved a ton of money on my heating and cooling costs.

I also have a Daikin heat pump. What I don't love is the remote control's for the heads inside the house. And the fact that the multiple heads don't communicate with each other, if one head happens to call for heat while another is calling for cool, the whole thing shuts down. While I realize that the outdoor unit is not capable of performing both functions at the same time, a more elegant solution would be nice. And the snowflake (cooling) and the sun (heating) are the same basic shape making it difficult for some with visual impairment. I do like the efficiency of the heat pump.

My mini-split heat pump is 15 years old and my only heat source in the winter and my only AC in the summer. Its not very effective at -20 C, but it heats fine. (-4 F). Usually lose 2 degrees overnight, then when the sun gets up and it gets warmer it warms up again so it has never been problem. New heat pumps are more effective. Mine has never been serviced.

We have an inverter Fujitsu 32K heat pump for about 13 years. It’s amazing how it seems like suddenly now heat pumps and inverter tech is a new thing. But I find it amazing nonetheless. R410A too been around a while as well 😆.

Many heat pumps in Australia are swapping to R600. I have had a ducted Daikin heat pump since 2007 so it is R22.

For those who don't quite get it: Heat pumps are just two-way air conditioners. An air conditioner works by absorbing heat energy inside your house (resulting in a temperature drop) and wicking that heat energy away (so it doesn't just re-heat the house) and dissipating it outside. That's why the big fan box part of your air conditioner blows hot air outside. Now imagine if you turned that system around: you wick heat from outside and blow it around your house. A heat pump is a device that can run in either direction. It can wick heat from the outside even in very cold weather because the liquid it uses to absorb heat boils at a very low temperature, around -50 degrees. So as long as the outside temperature is above that, you'll get heating. However, the closer the ambient temperature gets to that -50ish number, the less "heating power" you get. So places that get below -10 may need a bit of help on those coldest nights, which is why his system includes a smaller fuel burning option to supplement the main system when required. This also doubles as emergency heating in case of a power outage. Bonus fact: Your refrigerator works the exact same way. If you wick heat from inside a sealed, insulated box, you can get the temperature very low and it will stay that way for a long time.

We have a heat pump mini split system and a heat pump water tank. They are awesome and i love being able to change the temperature in each room independently