Heat pumps on the BC coast
What they actually do, what they cost to run against what you have now, how they behave in a cold snap, and how to tell whether the one you have been quoted is the right size.
It moves heat. It does not make it.
A furnace or a baseboard heater makes heat by burning fuel or pushing current through a resistor. One unit of energy in, one unit of heat out, at best.
A heat pump does something different. It uses electricity to run a compressor that moves heat from outside to inside, the same way your fridge moves heat out of the food compartment. Because it is moving heat rather than creating it, one unit of electricity can deliver three or more units of heat.
That ratio is the coefficient of performance, or COP. A heat pump running at COP 3 is delivering three times the heat you would get from a baseboard heater drawing the same power. It is the whole reason the technology is worth having.
In summer it runs backwards and moves heat the other way, which is why a heat pump is also your air conditioning. You are buying one machine for both jobs.
The coast is the best climate in Canada for one
COP is not fixed. It falls as the outdoor temperature drops, because there is less heat outside to move. In a prairie winter that is a real problem. On the south coast it mostly is not.
Vancouver, the North Shore and Squamish spend most of the heating season in the range where a modern heat pump is at its most efficient. We get cold snaps, but we do not get months at −30 °C. That is why heat pump advice imported from Alberta or the American Midwest tends to be wrong here — it is written for a climate we do not have.
The practical consequence: a correctly chosen cold-climate heat pump will carry a coastal BC home through the winter, and the backup heat is there for the handful of days a year that need it, not as the main event.
Three ways it gets installed
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Ducted, whole home
Uses existing ductwork, often replacing a furnace. One indoor unit, heat to every room, nothing visible on the walls. Needs ducts that are in decent shape and sized for the airflow.
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Ductless, single zone
One outdoor unit, one indoor head on a wall. The usual answer for a home with no ducts, an addition, a suite, or one room that has never been comfortable.
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Multi-zone ductless
One outdoor unit feeding several indoor heads, each controlled separately. Common in older coastal homes with baseboards and no duct runs. How zoning works.
What it costs to run — the honest version
Most contractor websites imply a heat pump will slash your bill no matter what you have now. That is only true for some of you, and you deserve the real answer before you spend the money.
Replacing electric baseboards: the saving is large and reliable. You are going from roughly one unit of heat per unit of electricity to roughly three. On current BC Hydro rates that is a substantial cut to the heating portion of your bill, every winter.
Replacing a modern high-efficiency gas furnace: be more careful. At today's BC Hydro and FortisBC rates the running cost of a good heat pump and a good gas furnace land close to each other. The case for switching is then about the cooling you also get, the rebates, dropping the gas service charge, and emissions — not a dramatic drop in the heating bill.
Replacing an old, low-efficiency furnace or oil: the saving is usually real and worth having.
Rather than ask you to take our word for any of that, we built the comparison and published the rates it uses.
What about a cold snap?
The question everyone asks, and fairly. A few things are true at once:
- A modern cold-climate heat pump keeps producing useful heat well below freezing
- Its capacity drops as it gets colder, exactly when the house needs the most
- Which is why a correctly designed system has backup heat sized for the coldest days
- Frost on the outdoor coil is normal — the unit runs a defrost cycle and clears it
- A unit encased in ice that never clears is a fault, not weather
The failure we are called to is almost never "heat pumps do not work in winter". It is a system sized off a rule of thumb, with no real backup plan, installed by someone who never did the load calculation.
Been quoted a size?
Check it against a bracket before you sign. Oversizing is the most common and most expensive mistake in this trade — a too-big heat pump short cycles, never settles, and wears out sooner.
A proper CSA F280 heat loss calculation gives the real number, and several rebate programs require one anyway.
What goes wrong
In rough order of how often we see it.
- It was the wrong size. Usually too big. Short cycling, uneven rooms, poor humidity control in summer.
- Low refrigerant charge. Almost always a leak. Topping it up without finding the leak is money burned.
- Dirty coils or a blocked outdoor unit. The cheapest fault on this list and the easiest to prevent.
- Defrost control faults. Ice that builds and never clears.
- Airflow problems. Undersized or leaky ducts, blocked returns, a filter nobody has changed.
- Controls and sensors drifting. The system behaves oddly but nothing has actually broken.
Questions we get on the phone
Will one heat pump do my whole house?
If you have ducts in reasonable condition, usually yes. Without ducts it is a multi-zone ductless system, with a head in each area you want conditioned. Either way it comes down to the load calculation, not the square footage alone.
Do I have to get rid of my furnace?
No. A dual-fuel setup keeps the furnace as backup and lets the heat pump do the work for most of the year. It costs more up front and it is often the right answer for a home that already has good ductwork and a furnace with life left in it.
Is it noisy?
The outdoor unit makes some noise, more in defrost. Where it is mounted matters a great deal — against a bedroom wall or a neighbour's property line is worth thinking about before installation, not after.
What rebates can I get?
That depends on your home, your household income and what you heat with now. We do not publish a figure because there isn't one — our rebates page explains what decides your amount and points you at the official checker.
Should I repair my current system or replace it?
Start with the refrigerant on the nameplate — it is often the whole answer. Our repair or replace guide walks through the same questions we ask on site.
Thinking about a heat pump?
Call and tell us about the property and what you heat with now. We will tell you straight whether it is worth it for you.