Heat Pumps — Introduction (VIDEO)

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The renewable energy graduate student who got me to go give a guest lecture on renewable energy to his class just recently passed along some useful videos on different types of clean technology. These are introductory videos, but they’re not as introductory as our typical blog posts about such topics — they’re each about 30 minutes to 1 hour in length. Here’s the first one, on the topic of heat pumps:

Zachary Shahan (2363 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.


  • Tom G.

    If you are one of the several million people that live in the Southwestern part of the U.S. you most likely have an air source heat pump for the heating and cooling your home. If you have a newer home in California it will most likely have a heat pump. If you live in the Southeastern part of the U.S. you will also most likely be using a heat pump. In these areas air source heat pumps are quite common since normal low air temperatures seldom drop below about 20 degrees F At any temperature above that air source heat pumps work really well.

    If you live in a cooler area of the country many people are finding that ground source heat pumps work really well and often have efficiency levels that put 92% efficient gas furnaces to shame. Using a ground source heat pump for both heating and cooling eliminates the concern regarding low temperature operation.

    It is also true that many of our air source heat pumps manufactured in the U.S. have a long way to go when if comes to efficiency. Heat pumps manufactured In European and Asian countries have been using variable speed compressor technology for years which significantly improves efficiency. In the U.S. we are still manufacturing heat pumps and air conditioning units using 1950′s start and stop technology.

    • Bob_Wallace

      I’m not seeing much good information about ground source heat pumps. Especially cost and payback time.

      Does the industry have an organization that deals with issues like public information?

  • http://MrEnergyCzar.com/ MrEnergyCzar

    Most people don’t even know you can get an energy star electric heat pump hot water heater and save $350 per year in costs. I got one of the first ones a few years back, here’s a video of what it looks like etc…

    MrEnergyCzar

  • StefanoR99

    I spend a lot of time in both the USA and Europe and I have to say I’m surprised how far the US is behind on heat pump technology. It’s an ideal companion to solar, yet no one seems to know about them!

    Panasonic make a great range of heat pumps – the Aquarea line – yet they are not for sale in the US market at all?

    It would be great to have a list of heat pump manufacturers and vendors along with fair market pricing for those looking to install one of these in their home in the US.

  • jburt56

    An important but not very well known resource.