Through the years, as an energy efficient home builder, I’ve seen quite a lot of technology change and grow. Although they have been around since the 40’s, the technology of heat pumps have changed significantly over the last 15 years. This new breed of heat pump, the cold climate Air Source Heat Pump (ccASHP), became a blip on my radar after attending a builders’ conference early this year.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we use energy in our homes and communities. For most of my life, fossil fuels were a given—used to heat our homes, fuel our stoves, and power water heaters. But now, more and more people are pulling the plug on natural gas and, quite literally, plugging everything into the wall. The “All Electric House” was a popular phrase back in the 50s, and now it’s back in the form of “Electrification” as one of the top buzzwords in the green home building community.