I don’t like the concept of heat pumps as they produce air conditioning, which is something I don’t believe much in a temperate climate like our own. I think air conditioning, while nice in automobile stuck in traffic or in a corporate office, kind of makes people lazy and isolates them from the outdoors.

That said, they probably are an excellent way to heat suburban and urban residences efficiently. Heat pumps produce no local pollution and maximize the value of the energy contained in electricity. Electricity can come from many sources, both carbon-based and otherwise. A lot of people want air conditioning in the city, as it’s hot, and in suburbs it’s become a standard part of McMansion living.

But I am not sure if I want to include a heat pump in the initial construction of my off-grid cabin. For one, heat pump compressors use a fair amount of electricity, especially for heating in the winter when solar is week. That said, I do expect my battery bank and solar set up to be fairly well sized, as it’s going to have to operate a well pump, which has a heavy inductive load when first started. As such, a heat pump might not actually be as energy intensive as you might think, and heat pumps are increasingly popular on off-grid applications down south, where it’s not as cold and air conditioning is more popular. But I don’t want to include air conditioning in my building.

I want to use “real” tangible source of energy, namely wood as my primary heat source, though I may want to have propane as a back up just ensure pipes don’t freeze or batteries get too cold when I’m away from the property for an extended period of time. But maybe it’s a potential future upgrade.