A KeepRite heat pump on a pad against a stone house wall, with a pond and neighbouring homes behind

Yes, it works in a
Canadian winter.

You may have heard that heat pumps give up when it gets really cold. This one does not. It keeps heating down to −30 °C. On the coldest nights your furnace starts by itself and helps out. You do not have to do anything, and you never run out of heat.

Which system is heating your house, by outdoor temperature A temperature scale running from plus 10 degrees Celsius on the left to minus 30 on the right. From plus 10 down to about minus 17, the heat pump heats the house on its own; most Southwestern Ontario winter nights fall in this part of the scale. From about minus 17 down to minus 30, the gas furnace starts automatically and helps, so the house keeps up on the coldest nights. about −17 °C HEAT PUMP ALONE FURNACE HELPS +10°0°−10° −20°−30° most winter nights are in here

Rated to keep heating at −30 °C. The changeover point is set when we commission the system.

What a heat pump actually is.

It is an air conditioner that can run backwards. In summer it takes heat out of your house and dumps it outside, which is exactly what your air conditioner does now. In winter it does the same thing in reverse: it takes heat out of the outdoor air, even cold air, and brings it inside.

That sounds like a trick, and it is the useful kind. There is still heat in air at −15 °C — plenty of it — and moving heat that already exists takes far less energy than making new heat by burning something.

The older ones did struggle in the cold, which is where the reputation came from. The cold-climate ones do not, because the compressor varies its speed instead of switching on and off, and it can work harder as the temperature drops rather than giving up.

Why we pair it with a furnace.

Two reasons, and neither is that the heat pump cannot cope.

The first is cost. There is a temperature below which gas heat is cheaper to run than electric heat, and where that sits depends on what you pay for each. Having both means the system can use whichever is cheaper on the night, instead of committing you to one for the next twenty years.

The second is that a furnace is a very good insurance policy. If anything ever goes wrong with the heat pump in February, you are not cold while you wait for a part.

You do not operate any of this. The thermostat knows the outdoor temperature and the changeover point, and it switches on its own.

$15,337 to $16,565.

Plus HST, installed, with the matched furnace, the coil, the formed transitions, the thermostat and the ten-year parts and labour warranty. About sixteen hundred more than the same system with air conditioning instead.

Find your exact price See what is included

Worth knowing before you decide.

A heat pump costs more up front and less to run. Whether it pays back, and how quickly, depends on your gas and hydro rates, how much of the winter you spend below the changeover point, and how well the house holds heat. Anyone who gives you a payback figure without asking those things is guessing.

We will tell you honestly whether it makes sense for your house. Sometimes the answer is that a furnace and air conditioner is the better buy, and we would rather say so than sell you the dearer one.

Heat pump specifications

Model
KeepRite DLCURAH18ABK · DLCURAH24ABK · DLCURAH30ABK · DLCURAH36ABK
Capacity
1.5 to 3 tons, sized to your home
Heating range
−22 °F to 86 °F (−30 °C to 30 °C)
Efficiency
Up to 18.0 SEER2 cooling · up to 10.0 HSPF2 heating
Compressor
Variable-speed inverter
Paired with
The same two-stage gas furnace, which takes over below the changeover point
Matched coil
EVD4X19M17A · ENDWX24L17A · EAMWX30L17A · EVD4X36M17A
Manufacturer warranty
Ten years parts, registered within ninety days, by us
Our warranty
Ten years labour

The ABK in those model numbers is what makes the −30 °C rating. The otherwise identical AAK models stop at −15 °C. If anybody quotes you a cheaper DLCURA, check the suffix.

DLCURA product data PDF · shareddocs.com
Call (519) 702-4725
(519) 702-4725