Heat pumps have big climate benefits
Just replacing furnaces with heat pumps in worst 10% of commercial buildings hits 1% of climate targets
There are almost 5 million commercial buildings in the USA, and another 500,000 or so in Canada. The median size of these buildings is only 5,000 square feet, or about about 465 square meters. And the worst 10% of them are leaky, have natural gas furnaces that belch carbon dioxide, and have old air conditioners which leak refrigerants that are absolutely nasty in terms of global warming potential.
How nasty? Well, that’s a bit of a story. And as for what one thing will solve a huge portion of the problems, you’ll have to wait for that.
Let’s start with the several sources of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, and why some buildings are a lot worse than others.
Some Buildings Leak Energy More Than Others
The first is that some buildings are just really drafty. They leak. They have poorly fitted doors and windows, cracks in the walls, and holes in the roof. This is something that building efficiency experts measure with positive pressure tests. They seal up the intentional holes in the building envelope required for ventilation systems, they set up a big blower in a doorway…
