Insulation Institute Blog

The Inflation Reduction Act provides thousands of dollars in rebates or tax credits for homeowners installing heat pumps. However, even without those rebates, heat pumps would be cost-effective in 65 million U.S. households, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) research. Further, electrification with heat pumps can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in every U.S. state. However, there is broad variability in the economics of heat pumps after installation, depending on several conditions. Envelope upgrades being one of them.

Way back in the late 2000s, when I first took my BPI Building Analyst training and got into home performance, one of the first lessons I can remember learning was the importance of working through the proper order of operations. Things like “always seal the high and low bypasses first” and “air seal then insulate because the pressure boundary and thermal boundary must align.”