After living in countries around the world, Frank and Anna Maria Buxton decided to settle in a century home in Douro upon Frank’s retirement 11 years ago. It was a place they could be within easy traveling distance of their family, while having the space to grow their own vegetables.
When their propane furnace was on its last legs in 2023, Frank and Anna Maria made the decision to give their home a major upgrade: an all-electric air source heat pump that would provide them with reliable heating, as well as cooling.
“The furnace had been dying for a long time,” explains Frank. “Every winter it would stop working once or twice and we would get it repaired. When we finally decided to replace it, we knew we wanted a heat pump because it was so efficient. We also didn’t have air conditioning in the home, so that was a great addition as well.”
The couple had GreenUP energy advisor Bryn MaGee perform an energy audit in order to access the incentive program available at the time.
“Bryn was very helpful — really good and thorough,” Frank says. “He showed us where air sealing was needed and I was able to fix the issues myself, mostly just with some cans of spray foam.”
“I had read about blower door tests, but after having it done I would highly recommend it to others. It’s so simple, but you get such valuable information from it that can easily translate to hundreds of dollars in energy savings.”
After installing the heat pump and improving the home’s airtightness by 12 per cent, the couple were able to lower their home’s energy usage by 35 per cent and their greenhouse gas emissions by a staggering 78 per cent — an annual reduction of nearly seven tonnes.
“Our heating cost is about one third of what we used to spend when we were heating with propane,” says Anna Maria. “We also found out where the mice were getting in during the energy audit.”
Frank and Anna Maria have now been heating their home with the heat pump for two winters, and find that the electric backup system rarely if ever needs to turn on.
Even though they were warned during the installation that their ductwork wasn’t the ideal, they have had no comfort issues. They are planning to install solar panels later this fall to further reduce their utility costs.
The couple has been recommending heat pumps to others since their successful retrofit.
“Some people are confused about them — they think because they’re called ‘heat pumps’ that they don’t also do cooling, but they do,” says Anna Maria. “And really, they have been around for a long time, especially in other parts of the world. My 80-year-old aunt in Italy had one in the 1990s.”
City of Peterborough residents can learn more about heat pumps at an in-person workshop. GreenUP and EnviroCentre, on behalf of Better Homes Peterborough, will host HVAC specialist Cory Rawn of 123 HVAC at the GreenUP office on Wednesday, September 10 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Sign up for the Better Homes Peterborough newsletter at betterhomesptbo.ca to be notified of registration details.
Additional workshops on other home energy topics will follow throughout the fall.
Peterborough County residents can enter to win one of five free EnerGuide assessments from GreenUP (each a $600 value) by filling in the Sustainable and Climate Change Action Survey at engage.ptbocounty.ca/sustainability-and-climate-change-action-plan before it closes on September 1.
Heat pump workshops are also planned for this fall in Peterborough County.
Follow GreenUP on social media @ptbogreenup for details to come.
