California Voice: Shopping for AC? Why you should consider a heat pump instead

The recent scorching heat wave is a reminder that our relentless march toward hotter temperatures with climate change continues.

Heat waves have already grown in frequency substantially across the Bay Area with climate change, and our exposure will only grow in coming years. As temperatures rise, so will the health impacts. On the average “heat day,” Santa Clara County sees an average of 504 excess emergency room visits, according to a mapping tool from UCLA, and these impacts fall hardest on low-income communities and communities of color.

As policymakers and the public prepare for heat waves to become more common, we must ensure that our homes, and especially homes in low-income communities, are climate-ready. While safe temperature levels can be achieved in many coastal regions through simple improvements such as shading, fans, and energy efficiency, in many California climates access to cooling can literally be life-saving.

But not all cooling is created equal. In fact, our cooling appliances choices could very well make or break our climate targets.

Here’s why.

Consumers have two primary technologies available for adding cooling to homes: central air conditioning and heat pumps. A heat pump is nearly identical to a central air conditioner with one small but important difference: a reversing valve that allows it to provide heating or cooling.

Heat pumps are a silver bullet technology in the fight against climate change because their heating capacity eliminates the need for a fossil fuel furnace in the winter months. Every AC-only installation is a missed opportunity to advance the clean energy transition with a heat pump.

According to new analysis from the Building Decarbonization Coalition, if California converted the entire market for central AC to heat pumps, we could electrify space heating in more than half of California homes by 2030, compared with just 19% of homes given our state’s current trajectory.

This single step would take a huge bite out of emissions from homes and buildings. Using heat pumps for both space and water heating cuts climate pollution from the average California home by more than half over the next 15 years compared to homes that burn gas.

Communities across California would benefit from a transition to heat pumps for cooling, but here in the Bay Area, the need is especially urgent. That’s because starting in 2029, when a gas furnace burns out, it will need to be replaced with a heat pump, thanks to newly approved air quality regulations.

Households in the Bay Area that install a central AC system now, just to have their furnace burn out a few years down the line, could end up paying for two expensive cooling systems when they could just pay for one.

Policymakers can help guard against this outcome. The California Energy Commission could encourage expired central AC systems to be replaced with heat pumps. This would help prevent households from making the mistake of purchasing a central AC system, when they could just as easily purchase a heat pump at a similar price point.

To lock in these benefits and protect Bay Area households from wasteful spending, California policymakers must move quickly. Millions of central air conditioning systems in California homes are approaching burnout. Without action, the vast majority of these systems will be replaced with AC, and we’ll miss out on the climate and economic benefits that heat pumps deliver.

It’s not everyday that such a simple fix to a big climate problem presents itself. Converting the market for cooling to heat pumps will enable our state to cost-effectively meet its climate targets, while improving the climate-readiness of our homes.

Merrian Borgeson is the director of the California Policy, Climate & Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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