✏️Introduction to the Prep Section
This section calls out some of the biggest heat pump installation speedbumps we’ve seen while working with homeowners, like:
Ducts from the Dark Ages
Drafts that suck all the cool or warm air out of your home
Contractors who just want to do things their way
Electrical panel panic
This isn’t a list of chores—using the checklists on the next pages can totally change your home’s status quo.
Many people we’ve worked with believe their chilly toes and drafty bathrooms just come with living in an older home. The reality is that simple, inexpensive improvements can rid your home of those annoyances and make your heat pump more efficient.
Soon you’ll be wondering why you put up with an uncomfortable home for so long!
✏️Your Existing Heating and Cooling System
Your contractor will definitely ask you about your existing system over the phone, so getting your answers together beforehand will make getting quotes much easier.
Use the Guidebook Worksheet to record your answers!
✏️Energy Audits & Air Sealing
All homes have small (and sometimes not-so-small!) gaps and cracks in the roof, walls, windows, doors, and foundation where warm or cool air leaks in or out.
A leaky or drafty home doesn’t just mean you’ll have chilly toes in the winter—your heat pump will have to work much harder (which will increase your energy bills) to make up for the leaks. The heating system you have today also has to work overtime to overpower the drafts.
So, it's time to caulk and seal every leak, right? Surprisingly, no! A completely airtight home is impossible—it wouldn’t have doors or windows. Your goal is to find the “just right” zone.
Too drafty/leaky —> Your heat pump will have to work harder, or your backup heat source will keep turning on, which will cost you money.
Just right —> Your heat pump is sized properly and purrs along efficiently. There is enough incoming and outgoing conditioned air to keep you comfy.
The bonus is that you can often skip expensive whole-house insulation upgrades by sealing drafts! We feel cold and assume we need insulation, but it’s often the leaks that are making us shiver. Sealing leaks is much cheaper and easier than installing new insulation.
Finding Your Home’s “Just Right” Zone
Measurements beat guesswork every time—this is where we can let you in on one of the best kept secrets of the heating and cooling world: the📘blower door test.
Good contractors and Retrofit Advisors can’t recommend them highly enough—they are the only way to measure how airtight your home is scientifically.
They’re not scary or expensive. They’re included in an 📘Energy Assessment, which usually costs around $500. That’s not nothing...but having a less leaky home means no cold drafts on the way to the bathroom in January—and you’ll save that $500 on your energy bills in no time! The Home Renovation Savings Program also offers money back on Energy Assessments. It pays to get one done
See a blower door test in action in this PBS video. They're not scary!
With leaks and drafts covered, it’s time to move on to ducts.
✏️Leaky, Dirty & Undersized Ducts
You can skip this section if your home doesn’t have ducts.
Ducts are easy to ignore, but your new heat pump will rely on them to make you comfortable. Here are some common duct issues that could affect your heat pump:
Blocked ducts —> bad indoor air quality; your heat pump needs to work harder
Solution: Your contractor or Retrofit Advisor can diagnose the block and figure out the best way to clear it.
Leaky ducts —> rooms far away from the equipment won’t warm up.
Solution: leaky ducts can be fixed easily and relatively inexpensively with 📘Aerosealing.
Undersized ducts —> air will get backed up and not reach where it needs to go.
Solution: replace the grilles with less restrictive collars and/or install properly sized or additional ducts.
Like with measuring leaks, asking your contractor or Retrofit Advisor to measure your ducts is the fastest way to make sure that they’re heat pump-ready.
With your ducts in order, we can get some tips on choosing the right contractor. The next section is a little longer, so grab a cappuccino and settle in!
Use the Guidebook Worksheet to record your answers!
✏️Contractors
Contractors are the biggest make-or-break of your heat pump install. You want a contractor who shares your enthusiasm for heat pumps. If they don't encourage you to install one, keep looking.
You need to make sure your contractor:
1) Understands that heat pumps work in Canada.
2) Knows how to properly install them.
Most contractors we’ve talked to are warm towards heat pumps...until you ask them to remove the furnace.
A good shortcut to avoid wrangling with a contractor is to find one who will put your wants and needs first—we’ve written an article to help you find the right one.
You want a contractor who is:
Curious about your home and will do the work to find your heating needs (aka your heat load).
Open and enthusiastic about sharing previous work.
Recommended by their previous heat pump clients.
We know that asking these questions will make some people nervous, but it is essential to find someone who respects your needs and your home’s unique features—these questions aren’t rude!
Bedside manner is also crucial. If they sound distracted or annoyed with your questions, they’re probably not your Contractor Charming.
Use the Guidebook Quote Worksheet to keep all your quotes in one place!
✏️Electrical Panel
Adding a heat pump in place of a gas furnace means your electrical panel (aka the box with all the breakers or fuses) will have a new, large appliance that needs to be fed.
Warning! We’ve come across many contractors who insist you need to upgrade your electric service from Toronto Hydro and buy a bigger electrical panel before putting in a heat pump.
If that sounds expensive and time-consuming, you’d be right. Fortunately, most Toronto homes (even century homes) already have a big enough panel.
The confusion happens because these contractors add up the electrical demand as if every single one of your appliances were running at full blast at the same time, and then add 25% on top of that...that’s just not realistic.
Toronto Hydro recently released a tool to help you fact-check Panel Paranoid contractors. It’s called the Peak Demand tool, and it tells you the actual highest amount of electricity your home drew at one time. The article below links to it, but you only need to bother with this if a contractor insists that you need a panel upgrade before they’ll install your heat pump.
If you find a contractor that insists you need a new, larger, expensive electrical feed and panel before getting a heat pump, head to our article to avoid that fate.