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- Going electric
Four steps to electric heat — in the right order.
Most disappointing heat pump installs skipped a step. Here is the order we work in, for a house or a commercial building, and why each step comes where it does.
Seal, size, heat pump, backup.
Each step makes the next one smaller, cheaper or more certain.
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Seal
Find and fix the air leaks — attic bypasses, rim joists, leaky ducts in crawlspaces and attics. A blower-door test shows where the house or building is losing air.
Lower the load -
Size
Calculate the real heating and cooling load, room by room, for the sealed building — not the old furnace's nameplate, and not square footage times a rule of thumb.
Measure, don't guess -
Heat pump
Choose a cold-climate heat pump that meets that load: ducted where the ducts are good, ductless where there are none, rooftop heat pumps or VRF for commercial buildings.
The main event -
Backup
Decide what happens on the coldest nights: electric backup heat, or keeping a working gas furnace as a second stage. Either can be right; guessing isn't.
No surprises in January
We do the heating and cooling work ourselves. For insulation and larger air-sealing jobs we will tell you what the blower-door test found and who can do it.
Why sealing comes before buying.
A heat pump sized for a leaky house is bigger than the house will need once it is sealed. Bigger costs more up front, cycles more, and dehumidifies worse in summer.
Sealing ducts matters as much as sealing the house. Ducts running through an unconditioned attic or crawlspace can leak heated air straight outdoors — and that loss shows up as a bigger load.
Cold snaps are a design question.
Boulder winters are mostly sunny and mild, with a few nights each year that are properly cold. Cold-climate heat pumps keep producing heat at low temperatures, but with less capacity and efficiency as it gets colder.
So the question isn't whether a heat pump works here — it is how much of the coldest hours it should cover on its own, and what fills in the rest. We will show you both options and recommend one.
Homes and commercial buildings.
- Seal
- Blower-door test, duct sealing, and a list of attic and crawlspace fixes.
- Size
- Room-by-room load calculation for the sealed house.
- Heat pump
- Ducted, ductless or a mix — older Boulder houses often need ductless.
- Backup
- Electric strips or your existing furnace as a second stage.
- Seal
- Envelope and ductwork issues noted during a building walk-through.
- Size
- Load calculation per zone, with occupancy and ventilation included.
- Heat pump
- Rooftop heat pumps, ductless or VRF, depending on the building.
- Backup
- Staged electric heat or gas, and controls that use it only when needed.
About incentives
Heat pumps and air sealing are often eligible for utility rebates and state and federal tax credits. They change often, so we don't quote them on this site. Ask us and we will point you to the current programs, or check with your utility and a tax adviser.
For commercial owners
Boulder's Building Performance Ordinance requires larger commercial and industrial buildings to rate and report their energy use. If you are planning an electrification project, we can walk the building with you and your energy consultant.
Find out which step is yours.
Some buildings are ready for step three today. Some need step one first. A visit will tell.