Home Electrification
Planning a Heat Pump With Solar and Battery Storage
Heat pumps can change your electric load profile, which affects solar sizing, battery runtime, and panel planning.
Quick takeaways
- Heat pumps can raise winter electric use.
- Battery backup for heating requires careful sizing.
- Panel capacity should be checked before electrifying everything.
Model the new load
Replacing gas or oil heat with a heat pump can reduce fossil fuel use while increasing electric consumption. Solar and battery plans should reflect the future load, not only last year's bill.
Backup heating is a special case
Running heating for long winter outages can require significant capacity. Some homes plan backup for the blower, controls, or a small conditioned zone instead of the entire heating load.
Coordinate contractors
Heat pump, solar, battery, and electrical contractors should work from the same load assumptions. Otherwise each quote may solve a different version of the home.