Published Jul 24, 2024 Heat pumps, which can be a cost- and energy-efficient upgrade from traditional heating systems, are growing in popularity in Southeast Alaska - especially in Wrangell.
Charlie Hazel, one of two licensed contractors who installs the units in Wrangell, said when he moved to town in 2013, 60% of homes used electric boilers for heat. In the past 11 years, Hazel has installed around 120 electric heat pumps. For context, Wrangell has just over 1,000 residential properties.
While most models cannot efficiently heat a home when it is colder than minus 5 degrees outside - a handicap for Interior communities like Fairbanks - they are a good fit for Southeast, according to the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, located near the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Heat pumps include two large parts: an outdoor heat exchanger that sits outside of a house and an indoor heat exchanger mounted up high on an inside wall, the latter of which is the smaller and sleeker of the two.
"Because they use electricity to run a refrigeration cycle to transfer heat, instead of using electricity to create heat, they can reach efficiencies greater than 100%," the Fairbanks research center explains on its website. "Because most of the heat is transferred rather than generated, heat pumps are far more efficient than conventional heating technologies such as boilers or electric heaters and can be cheaper to run."
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