Executive Summary
British Columbia faces a triple heat threat: summers made dangerous by more frequent and more intense heat waves, rising electricity demand that puts home energy affordability at risk, and worsening climate impacts from planet-heating emissions. But what if one technology could help tackle all three?
Enter the electric heat pump, which heats as well as cools. In the summer, it provides safe, reliable cooling while filtering out some wildfire smoke—something air conditioners do far less effectively. In the winter, it delivers efficient, evenly distributed heat that outperforms both gas furnaces and electric baseboards. And it does all of this year-round with zero emissions.
Despite these advantages, many British Columbians still face real barriers to adopting heat pumps—including high upfront costs, building restrictions, and challenges for renters. But what happens if those barriers are removed? What scale of benefits could greater access unlock?
To find out, Clean Energy Canada commissioned new independent modelling to examine what a provincewide switch to heat pumps for space heating—paired with electrified water heating—would mean for affordability, climate resilience, and the electricity grid.
The results are impressive.
British Columbians would save a collective $675 million a year on energy bills, while total electricity use would fall, thanks to heat pumps’ much greater efficiency—even with cooling expanded to every home that currently lacks it (44% of households). Emissions would also drop by 3.5 megatonnes, roughly 6% of B.C.’s total.
For individual households, this translates to savings of about $358 a year for those currently using natural-gas heating with standalone air conditioning, and $1,039 a year for those using electric-resistance heating with standalone air conditioning.
But unlocking this opportunity will require provincial leadership, without which many renters and low-income households will remain locked out. As for how, the report proposes CoolBC, a six-pillar action plan that outlines how to leverage the transformative power of clean technologies to deliver lasting affordability, comfort, and climate resilience for all British Columbians.
