Event Description

Electrifying most fossil-fuel-burning applications provides a pathway to achieving cost-effective deep decarbonization of the economy. Heat pumps offer a feasible and energy-efficient way to electrify space heating. This talk will discuss the impact on house sales prices and environmental consequences of heat pump adoption in the United States.

The first part of this webinar will present recent Environmental Science & Technology paper that focuses on the environmental consequences of electrifying space heating. In most parts of the U.S., a switch from natural gas to electric heat pumps would raise household heating bills and increase damages from carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants. For single-family homes in 658 of the 883 locations we analyze, a shift to heat pumps would increase annual hourly peak demand for electricity. For 265 of these 658 locations peak demand already occurred in winter; for the remaining 393 heat pumps would shift peak demand from summer to winter. An economy-wide tax on CO2 emissions designed to substantially decarbonize electricity generation would make a switch to heat pumps beneficial for the environment and make electrified heating cheaper than burning natural gas.

The second part of the talk will address a recent Nature Energy paper which shows a positive house price premium associated with air source heat pump installations across 23 states in the United States. Residences with an air source heat pump enjoy a 4.3–7.1% (or US$10,400–17,000) price premium on average. Residents who are environmentally conscious, middle class and live in regions with mild climate are more likely to pay a larger price premium. We find that estimated price premiums are larger than the calculated total social benefits of switching to heat pumps.