Heat pump power consumption

Video:Paul Ledman's net-zero apartment building in Portland, Maine which uses 100% solar for heating and cooling and will never need fossil fuel inputs.

Reduce your reliance on dirty, expensive oil heat with efficient heat pump heating technology.

Modern ductless, mini-split air source heat pumps (ASHPs) run 2-3x as efficiently as traditional 'resistive' electric heat, making the cost to run the units equivalent to .

Simultaneously, they provide air conditioning using half the energy as traditional window or central air conditioning systems.

Best yet - by installing a solar electric array to power the electric consumption of the heat pumps, you effectively have a solar space heating system. Your solar array will generate credits in the summertime (when it is sunniest) which allow you to run the heat pumps in the wintertime (when it is coldest). Your system will effortlessly generate all the 'fuel' it ever needs from clean, abundant sunshine!

0-down, 2.99% financing is available through ReVision's Own Your Power solar loan program.

Cost of Heating Comparison

Heat pumps are less than half the cost to operate vs. the equivalent oil or propane system on a per BTU basis. This chart gives you a quick breakdown of relative costs.

Fuel SourceCost per UnitCost per Million BTUsCost to Heat Typical Home

Electric Baseboard

Million BTUs

Electric Baseboard

$0.14 / kWh

$44

$4, 489

Propane

$2.73 / gallon

$40

$3, 873

Heating Oil

$2.70 / gallon

$25

$2.14 / kWh

, 489

Propane

.73 / gallon

, 873

Heating Oil

.70 / gallon

, 421

Heat Pump

$0.14 / kWh

$18

$1, 706

Heat Pump with Solar

$0.09 / kWh

$11

$1, 023

Based on fuel data and pricing from: Maine Energy Office. Assumes typical oil boiler operating at 65% efficiency, propane at 85% efficiency, resistive electric at 95% efficiency and heat pump at 250% efficiency (COP of 2.5). Solar PV kilowatt-hour cost of 8.5cents per kilowatt-hour based on typical pricing economics of a 4kw + system.

How Air Source Heat Pumps Work

Outdoor Mitsubishi heat pump unit, Greene, Maine.

Indoor Mitsubishi heat pump unit, Greene, Maine.

Air source heat pumps extract heat from the outside air using a reverse refrigeration cycle (imagine if you took a window air conditioner and flipped it around). By extracting heat from the the outside air and moving it inside, rather than directly heating the indoor air, the heat pump runs 2-3 times more efficiently than an electric baseboard heater. This is commonly referred to as a coefficient of performance (COP) of 2-3.

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