Catherine Gibson hopes she and her husband can age in place in their south Regina home.
That’s one of the main reasons she installed an air-source heat pump this past summer.
“I had been hearing … about heat pumps and how they were the thing of the future,” said Gibson. “We had an old furnace and we had an even older air conditioner, so it seemed like a no-brainer.”
Gibson uses the electric-powered heat pump — along with a natural gas furnace she purchased in 2022 — to heat her home in the colder months. It also cools her home, like an air conditioner, in the summer.
A heat pump cools a home by absorbing the heat inside and releasing it outside, but reverses that process in winter — extracting heat from air outside, even when the temperature is well below zero, and transferring it inside.
Gibson says she noticed a drop in her power and gas bills with the new gas furnace, and she’s hopeful they’ll continue to drop now that her pump is carrying part of her heating load.
Simon Landsman, a salesman with Regina Plumbing and Heating, has also noticed the growing popularity in the pumps. He estimates he’s sold about two dozen so far this year.
Heat pumps becoming more popular in Saskatchewan
Featured VideoMore Saskatchewan residents are turning to heat pumps to warm and cool their homes.
“A lot of people want to go greener [and get] a little bit better savings on your energy bills,” he said. “It’s just clean energy.”
Landsman thinks their popularity will only increase, especially since the outside units are smaller than an air conditioner.
Pumps can work in Prairie winters, say experts
In a statement to CBC, the Saskatchewan government says it won’t offer rebates through SaskPower and SaskEnergy for heat pumps because “they simply do not work as a primary heat source in the climate across the Prairie provinces.”
The government of Canada — which offers up to $5,000 in rebates for pump installation and now up to $15,000 for those switching from heating oil — notes on its website on heat pumps that newer models can provide heating in temperatures as low as –15 C to –25 C.
“Below this temperature, a supplemental system must be used to provide heating to the building,” it says.
How heat pumps can cool a home in the summer and provide heat in the winter
Featured VideoPeter Messenger with A1 Air Conditioning and Heating and University of Calgary’s Sara Hastings-Simon explain how heat pumps work.
But Sarah Riddell, a policy researcher in clean heat at Efficiency Canada, says laboratory and real-world studies have found newer cold climate heat pump models can heat to around –30 C because of improvements in technology. Even if the temperature drops further, their backup resistance heating will kick in.
“You’d still have a completely warm home that can heat to really any temperature that you’d ever see in Canada,” said Riddell.
There won’t be an immediate strain on electrical grids from heat pumps, she said, because around 40 per cent of homes in Canada already use electrical heating through baseboards and boilers and heat pumps won’t be installed all at once.
Martin Luymes, a vice-president with the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute, agrees heat pumps are an effective replacement for any other source of heating.
“To suggest that we cannot heat a home without natural gas or oil is false,” said Luymes. “Really, every household in the country should be at least contemplating purchasing a heat pump.”
Greenhouse emissions would increase in some cases: study
But in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Luymes said heat pumps may be a “less attractive” option partly because electricity in both provinces is generated from fossil fuels.
A 2022 Natural Resources Canada study — using data from 2020 — found greenhouse gas emissions would actually increase if a two-storey home built after 1980 in cities like Regina, Calgary and Edmonton switched from natural gas heating to a heat pump.
A house built in 1980 or after in cities in Alberta and Saskatchewan would actually emit more per year with a heat pump than with natural gas, because those provinces’ electrical grids use fossil fuels, according to a Natural Resources Canada report. (Duk Han Lee/CBC)
Despite this, Riddell points to a 2022 report from the International Energy Agency that shows heat pumps still reduce emissions by at least 20 per cent worldwide compared to gas and up to 80 per cent in countries with cleaner electricity.
The Natural Resources report noted reductions in greenhouse gases are possible if Prairie homes switched to heat pumps from other electric heat sources (a reduction of up to 11.2 tonnes per household a year) and oil (2.7 to 12.2 tonnes a year).
The report also notes yearly savings of over $3,000 on energy bills when switching to a heat pump from oil in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Cost was front of mind for Jake Dingman, who lives on an acreage near Saltcoats, Sask.
He made the switch this fall from oil heating to a ground-source (or geothermal) heat pump — which uses heat from the sun stored in layers of the earth near the surface to warm a home.
He was paying nearly $4,000 a year to heat with oil.
Digging into claims heat pumps won’t work during prairie winters
Featured VideoSaskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has claimed heat pumps aren’t viable in his province because it gets too cold, but some experts say newer models work in lower temperatures even if a backup is encouraged.
“I looked at natural gas but it’s about four miles to get it trenched in here, which was going to be $100,000 plus,” said Dingman. “I just decided to go with the geothermal because I figured at least the price would be flat once I have it in.”
After paying $45,000 to have his pump installed — with help from a federal government loan — he believes it will cost him $100 to $200 per month on his electricity bill.
Savings with a heat pump compared to a natural gas furnace are not high on the Prairies, since a unit of energy for gas is cheaper compared to electricity, according to the Natural Resources report.
The Natural Resources report says there’s little difference in yearly utility bill savings if switching to a heat pump from a natural gas furnace on the Prairies. In fact, it may cost more in some places. (Duk Han Lee/CBC)
“West of Quebec, the estimated costs of operating heat pumps and gas furnaces are approximately equal,” the report says.
A cold-climate heat pump would save homeowners in most regions $50 to 150 per year compared to gas heating, it says.
A Canadian Climate Institute report released earlier this year found a heat pump with a gas backup was about $100 cheaper per year than gas heating alone for single homes and townhouses in Edmonton built around 1980.
Gas was still the cheapest heating option for a 20-unit building built around the same time.
The same report found upfront costs for air-source heat pumps across the country range from $5,000 to $19,000, while an air conditioning unit is around $5,000.
The cost for a natural gas furnace is between $4,000 and $6,500, according to a survey of customers on FurnacePrices.ca.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
