Maine has been making national headlines for blowing past its goal to install 100,000 efficient air-source electric heat pumps. A better name for them might be “cool pumps,” as the main selling point for many Mainers is not the heating, but the cooling. Why install an air conditioner when you can install a heat pump that can cool air, dehumidify air, or heat air as necessary – keeping your family comfortable indoors no matter what is happening outdoors?

Heat pumps can work well in any climate, but they work best if your home is airtight. Gas furnaces or oil boilers typically have much more heating power than necessary, so they can suck cold air into your home when they operate. Heat pumps are often much less powerful; they
can keep you very comfortable all winter if all they have to do is keep indoor air at the right temperature. But if your house lets outdoor cold air come right through, replacing your oil boiler with electric heat pumps might leave you feeling a little chilly.

A sustainable home energy strategy is not to waste energy by installing more powerful heat pumps but rather solve the problem of cold air blowing through your home. Adding insulation or replacing windows might not solve air-flow issues. A specific technique called “air sealing” is the best way to help heat pumps work better. You can hire a contractor or take steps yourself to caulk and weather-strip to prevent cold air from pouring into your basement and forcing warm air out through your attic. Simply adding fiberglass insulation won’t seal up the holes that allow air to flow through your home and often just hides gaps that need to be sealed with caulk or foam.

But before you start crawling around your basement and attic with a caulk gun, know that leaky old houses were often intentionally built leaky for a couple of reasons. First, any appliance that burns fuel, such as an oil boiler, a gas hot water heater, or a gas range, needs a supply of fresh air to maintain its flame.

Second, any time you burn fuel indoors, you create a dangerous risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

In many homes, an oil boiler in the basement expects to be able to suck in outdoor air through he walls to supply oxygen whenever it wants to burn. In winter, it sucks dry cold air into your home. In summer, it sucks damp, warm air into your home. Heat pumps don’t do this. They use an electric pump to circulate hot refrigerant in a sealed tube, sending the heat through a tube into your home in winter and out of your home in summer. Heat pumps don’t need to suck outdoor air inside to work but often use a fan to circulate indoor air that stays inside.

The safest and most sustainable approach is to stop burning fuel indoors – it was never a good idea and is becoming less and less defensible as heat pump technology gets more affordable. If you upgrade to an all-electric home, you’ll provide peace of mind to yourself and future owners.

You can safely seal up all the gaps and cracks that your builder left in your exterior walls. This will save you money and help your heat pumps do their job better. If you must burn fuel inside your home, consider getting professional advice about air sealing.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports, “Any fuel-burning appliance can be a potential source of fatal or hazardous CO levels.” Carbon monoxide poisoning “associated with the use of consumer products” (including heating systems) in the United States killed an average of 180 people per year from 2015 to 2017. Be sure to install carbon monoxide detectors to keep your family healthy.

Mainers are switching from heating oil to electric heating much faster than anticipated. If done well, this home energy transition can save us money, improve our comfort, and protect our health and well-being.

To receive expert action guides to help your household and organizations become sustainable, visit SustainablePractice.Life and subscribe to “One Step This Week.” Fred Horch is principal advisor with Sustainable Practice.

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