Many of our projects start off the same. What we usually see is an eighteen to twenty year old furnace and A/C combo that’s often approaching end of life. Not only that, the system started leaking R22 refrigerant, which is not only terrible to leak into the environment, but extremely expensive as well.
Why is the leak repair so expensive? The R22 refrigerant isn’t made anymore, and was banned from production going back to 2020. Any R22 in circulation is now recycled or reclaimed, making it more rare and thus, more expensive to add to your old leaking system.
This homeowner decided it was time for a new system, but also wanted to look into decarbonization, efficiency, and electrifying their Washington Park home overtime.
This is a quick case study of how the homeowner and Just Heat Pumps arrived at installing a new fully electrified Bosch 5 ton heat pump system, and how they were able to cut the (natural) gas cord while removing their old furnace.
Home Preparation, Design, and Engineering
This townhome is a 2005 buid (or a scrape as they call it here locally) where it shares a north-facing wall with the east, west, and southern walls exposed to the outside. It’s three stories total, with a 10ft finished basement and two floors above grade (or ground level).
Being 3,000 square feet in total, this would need a bigger system, especially for the heat pump heating BTU requirements through the coldest days of winter. What’s nice in this home, and a perfect supplement for a heat pump during those negative degree days, is a fireplace backup that’s still natural gas.
As a nice feature for potential renters and part of the home itself, the homeowner decided to keep this installed for that warm feel of the home, and also again for those critically cold nights.
Due to the above reasons and more, the design called for a 5-ton system that would put out 50,000 to 60,000 heating BTU’s during those colder winter days.
Maximizing Rebates and Efficiency
While heat pumps can oftentimes be a bit more expensive than just a regular furnace and/or air conditioning replacement, you usually make up for it in longterm energy efficiency and available rebates and tax credits.
The homeowner definitely got to benefit from many of these. Here are some of the incentives that we were able to capture:
City of Denver CARES rebate: $3,500
Federal Heat Pump Tax Credit: $2,000 (prim
Xcel Energy Cold Climate Rebate: $3,250
State of Colorado Heat Pump Tax Credit: $499.95
If two more energy efficiency projects are done within a two year period, the home can also qualify for Xcel Energy’s Whole Home Efficiency Program, which is a 25% rebate bonus on all qualifying projects as well. This one starts and requires a BPI-certified energy audit (which we provide as well).
Just totaling the above, that’s a total of $9,249.95 in incentives!
This certainly helps with the install cost, as you could imagine. It does indeed take a bit of planning, design work, and correct equipment selection to make sure you do maximize and capitalize on all of the above.
Equipment Selection
There are some great heat pump units out there. For this project we zoned in on the Bosch IDS 2.0 Connected unit. There are a few reasons for this:
- Up to 20.5 SEER and 10.5 HSPF – almost double the efficiency of the old air conditioner
- Extremely quiet operation.
- Variable / modulating inverter compressor – you can finely tune your air inside the home.
- Multispeed motor in the air handler (inside unit) to modulate air conditioning needs automatically.
- Easy to diagnose and to see all system stats wirelessly, including the BCC100 Bosch thermostat we used.
- Perhaps the most important – meets cold climate specifications for all rebates and tax credits, and will work down to -4F or lower with the option for backup electric strip heating if needed.
There’s a lot more, but this is what really spoke to the homeowner as features that would lead to an exciting upgrade.
Furnace Removal Day
Here are some pictures from the install. This is a Bosch IDS heat pump install, but many heat pumps will install the same way.
First we had to remove the old furnace, air conditioner, cap the gas line, and many other things to prep for the new equipment.
What often happens is that HVAC gets put in first on these new construction homes, not allowing any space to put insulation! We found this out here, and added insulation to the exterior wall before putting in the new Bosch heat pump air handler.
From a building science perspective – this lack of insulation is a huge heat loss/gain spot for the home. It’s worth spending a few minutes to do this since the new system will be in for ideally another 15-20 years.
Heat Pump Install Day
With all the old equipment removed and recycled, it was time to install, setup, and commission the new heat pump.
We ran new linesets, installed a new condenser pad, and riser pad as well. Heat pumps in Colorado need to be raised up off the ground a good bit to prevent snow from impeding the air circulation unit.
These cold climate systems also have a defrost mode, where it uses heat to literally melt the snow and ice that accumulates on the outdoor unit in the winter. This melted ice and snow needs a place to drain to, which is why we elevate the unit. The technology is seriously awesome.
Wrapping it Up
Turning on the system for the first time never gets old. Even in the hottest August summer months in Denver, the new heat pump cooling system was cranking out cold air, and cooling the house much better than before as well.
In the end it was a huge success. We were able to remove a gas appliance and to electrify heating and cooling, all while being much more efficient at that.
If you’re considering a heat pump for your own home, feel free to reach out to us here! We’ve got a number of blog posts on heat pumps also, and you can even take our Heat Pump Home Readiness Quiz to see how your home might do with one.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
