Oregonians’ experiences with heat pump installations

Lisa Timmerman (left) and partner Cliff Heaberlin pose for a photo on April 4, 2023 with the exterior heat pump unit outside their home in Southeast Portland, Oregon.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

Lisa Timmerman

Job: Program manager at PGE

Location: Portland

House: 1911, two stories, 2,600 square feet

Occupants: Two adults, three pets

Cost: $10,712 for heat pump system, $7,500 for insulation and $7,150 for electrical panel upgrade and wiring

Incentives: None for heat pump; $550 rebate for wall and attic insulation from Energy Trust of Oregon

When Timmerman and her partner bought their house in 2018, they knew its gas furnace was reaching the end of its life.

At the time, Timmerman was helping to run Portland's Home Energy Score program – which conducts home energy audits – so she was keen on finding the most efficient heating system for her new house. When the furnace failed three years later, the couple installed a ducted heat pump system.

"It was a values-based decision," Timmerman said. "I feel strongly about climate change and I know that to address the problem we need to get away from natural gas and electrify pretty much everything in our home."

There was also the practical motivation of increasingly frequent summer heat waves that left Timmerman "roasting inside" her house. During the heat dome, she had to borrow an AC unit from a friend. "With a heat pump, we got air conditioning on top of the heating," she said.

Because their Craftsman home is so old, they also needed new insulation, an electrical panel upgrade and new wiring – bringing the total cost to more than $25,000.

The heat pump wasn't large enough to properly heat and cool the finished attic office/guest bedroom, said Timmerman, who now works for Portland General Electric. But the couple plans to add a mini-split heat pump up there in the future if needed, at additional cost.

Despite these drawbacks, installing the heat pump was worth it, she said.

"I love it. When our gas furnace cycled on, it was really loud. There were hot spots and cold spots in the house, so I was running around in sweaters all the time. The heat pump works consistently and it feels more comfortable in the home."

Her advice: Be careful where you install the outdoor unit. While the heat pump works quietly inside the home, "we can hear it running because we installed it right outside our bedroom window."

A thick blanket of blown in insulation and sealed air vents help a high efficiency heat pump work more effectively. al.com

Mike Warren

Job: Retired store manager

Location: Stayton, east of Salem

House: 1912, one story, 800 square feet

Occupants: Two adults

Cost: $12,000 for ducted heat pump

Incentives: $1,650 rebate from the Energy Trust of Oregon

Warren and his wife decided to get a heat pump because their existing electric furnace was about 30 years old and very expensive to run in winter. Plus, the family didn't have any air conditioning and temperatures regularly reached 100 the past few summers.

On the Energy Trust of Oregon's website, Warren found out about the option of taking out a loan for the heat pump through his utility company. "That made it a lot easier for us to afford it. I didn't have to come up with a load of cash," Warren said.

The heat pump was installed in mid-December. It worked great during the February cold snap when the region was hit with snow and freezing temperatures, he said. Though the air handler is equipped with heat strips, the heat pump – which is rated to -4 – didn't use them when temperatures dipped into the teens.

And the savings on his electricity bill have been "huge," Warren said, from $280 to $150. With the $100 per month heat pump loan payment added in, Warren is paying $250 per month and looks forward to his reduced bills once the loan is paid off.

His advice: Investigate what kind of rebates you can get, shop around for a good installer and look at the models’ SEER ratings. "Basically, the higher the SEER number, the more efficient your heat pump will be and the more money it’ll save you in the long run."

Joe Hoffbeck poses for a photo with his heat pump compressor unit outside his home in Bethany near Portland, Oregon. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

Joe Hoffbeck

Job: Professor of electrical engineering

Location: Bethany, east of Beaverton

House: 1997, two stories, 2,340 square feet

Occupants: Two adults

Cost: $19,000 for heat pump system and wiring, $4,000 for heat pump water heater and wiring, $1,850 for induction stove, $25,000 for solar panels, including an upgrade to the electrical panel

Incentives: None for heat pumps; $800 rebate from Energy Trust of Oregon, $1,120 rebate from Oregon Department of Energy and $6,825 via the Federal Income Tax Credit – all for the solar panels

Hoffbeck and his family decided to go all electric to reduce their carbon footprint. Last fall, they replaced their old gas furnace – still in working order – with a high-end ducted cold climate heat pump, rated to minus-13 degrees.

They also switched from their gas water heater to an efficient electric heat pump water heater, removed their gas stove for an induction oven and installed solar panels.

Hoffbeck said his utility bill went up by $100 this winter, but the entire house is now electric and the solar panels will reduce bills when it's sunny.

Some people warned the family that heat pumps don't work when it gets cold. The verdict? "It works great," Hoffbeck said. "It got down to 16 degrees one day and it kept us warm."

His advice: "When you talk to a contractor, they tend to want to go with what they know. If they’ve been installing gas furnaces for 20 to 30 years, that's their go-to and they’ll push you in that direction. One contractor told me, ‘You really need a gas furnace as a backup heat source.’ I almost did that. But we ended up installing just the heat pump and it works just fine. Perhaps he wasn't aware that cold climate heat pumps are out there."

Michael Hall stands next to the compressor for the heat pump system he and his wife had installed in their Northeast Portland home.Dave Killen / The Oregonian

Michael Hall

Job: Retired educator, co-founder of Quiet Clean PDX, a nonprofit working to ban gas-powered leaf blowers

Location: Portland

House: 1929, two stories plus semi-finished basement, 2,500 square feet

Occupants: Two adults

Cost: $17,000 for both a ducted heat pump system and a mini-split heat pump, plus $4,000 for new electrical panel

Incentives: $500 rebate from the Energy Trust of Oregon

Hall took out his gas furnace last year and installed both a ducted heat pump system and a mini-split, the two heat pumps wired to the same compressor outside. The ducted heat pump heats and cools the first floor and basement, while the mini-split the attic bedroom.

Hall decided to get two heat pumps because the bedroom got very hot during summers and cold in winters and contractors told him it was unlikely the ducts could handle the job.

Overall, Hall and his wife are happy with their investment, though the ducted system doesn't work as well when it gets very cold.

"In the mid-range, it's a wonderful thing, but it struggles when it gets down to the very end of the teens," Hall said.

The family has kept their gas fireplace as backup heat on the main floor, he said.

The mini-split, on the other hand, keeps the upstairs bedroom very warm even during the coldest temperatures and cool during the summer, Hall said.

His advice: Secure your compressor (the outdoor unit) to the wall so it doesn't get knocked down in case of an earthquake. Shop around to find a knowledgeable contractor. And be patient because the best ones have a waitlist. "You’re going to be standing in a queue for a long time."

Lauren Fraser, a Bend homeowner, hugs the heat pump water heater she recently installed. She also installed a regular heat pump in the ADU next to her home.

Lauren Fraser

Job: Co-founder of Canopy, a Bend company that helps homeowners and businesses reduce their carbon footprint

Location: Bend

House: 2010, two stories, 3,000 square feet square feet; 1-bedroom ADU, 500 square feet

Occupants: Three adults, two children, two grandparents or other guests in ADU

Cost: $3,800 for heat pump water heater, including electrical work; $6,700 for cold climate mini-split heat pump, including electrical upgrades

Incentives: $500 rebate from the Energy Trust of Oregon for heat pump water heater; $300 federal tax credit each for heat pump water heater and for mini-split heat pump

When Fraser moved into her home in 2021, it was already equipped with a dual fuel system featuring a gas furnace and a standard ducted electric heat pump. Mostly, she said, the family relies on the heat pump for heating, but the gas furnace kicks in automatically when it's cold, usually below the low 30s.

That experience and the desire to further reduce fossil fuel consumption led the family to replace their aging gas water heater with a heat pump water heater two years ago, which reduced their monthly bills by $30.

They also bought a cold climate mini-split heat pump system for their ADU, which had no air conditioner and an electric resistance heater.

"My parents come to visit a lot and they’re in their late 70s and 80s, but we couldn't have them out for a month in the summer because it got so hot," Fraser said.

The mini-split heat pump in the ADU is incredibly comfortable, she said. A bonus: The unit head (which disperses the hot/cold air) is built into the ceiling, giving it a nicer appearance than the typical head installed up on the wall.

Once the gas furnace reaches the end of its life, the family plans to upgrade its heat pump to a cold climate model, eliminating the need for another gas furnace as a backup.

"We love our heat pump appliances for the great comfort, reduced fossil fuel use and cost," Fraser said.

Her advice: Get an energy audit on your house, which can tell you what upgrades are needed and help decide how to space them out over time.

Maria Talledo-Rivera, 71, and puppy Bonita pose at her Northeast Portland apartment on April 6, 2023. Talledo-Rivera received a free portable heat pump from the Portland Clean Energy Fund.Dave Killen / The Oregonian

Maria Talledo-Rivera

Job: Retired, sells tamales

Location: Portland

House: 1-bedroom apartment in small apartment complex

Occupants: One adult

Cost: Free

Incentives: None

Last summer, Maria Talledo-Rivera had nowhere to hide from the heat in her modest apartment complex on North Lombard Street.

Her bedroom and living room turned into an oven, said the 70-year-old Talledo-Rivera, and even a fan bought by her son didn't help.

"It got so hot I couldn't breathe," she said.

She also worried for her grandchildren who often visit or stay overnight.

Talledo-Rivera, an immigrant from Mexico who washes dishes in local cafes and sells tamales in front of a store on Alberta Street to pay her rent of nearly $1,500, couldn't afford to buy an air conditioner.

So when she heard from a neighbor that the city of Portland was distributing free cooling units through its Heat Response Program, she immediately signed up. The heat pump was installed last May, and it's been a blessing, she said.

"It cools the whole apartment, it feels very cold."

But Talledo-Rivera said she doesn't use the heat pump for heating because she's afraid of getting a large bill.

That's what happened in the past when she turned on her apartment's old electric resistance heater – and no one has explained that a heat pump is much more efficient, she said.

Instead, during the winter Talledo-Rivera put on sweaters, covered herself with blankets and used two open-flame gas cylinders to heat her home.

Though she opened the balcony door, her apartment smelled like gas.

Ricardo Moreno, a program manager with Verde, the nonprofit that helped install Talledo-Rivera's heat pump, said installers explained to her how the heat pump works.

He said the organization will follow up to see if Talledo-Rivera needs additional help.

Read more about heat pumps on The Oregonian/OregonLive's heat pump topic page.

– Gosia Wozniacka; [email protected]; @gosiawozniacka

Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe/

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.