The city of Goleta is making it easier to adopt new, cleaner, efficient home technology with its new Heat Pump Permit Fee Waiver Program. The pilot program, which just started, will run until funds are exhausted.
To learn more, community members are invited to attend the Electrify Goleta Lunch & Learn at noon May 20. The city’s sustainability team will talk about the features of heat pumps and the benefits of electrification.
Attendees will hear from representatives of Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and the Tri-County Regional Energy Network (3C-REN) about the different financial incentives they provide to make it easier to electrify, with a Q&A session at the end.
To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/ElectrifyGoleta.
Electric heat pumps operate differently from traditional water heaters and cooling/heating systems, event organizers said.
Instead of burning fossil fuels in the home, such as gas to create heat that warms water, an electric heat pump draws in heat from the surrounding air and transfers it to the water.
Likewise, the city said, a standard heater or furnace will burn fossil fuels to generate heat that warms space, and traditional air conditioning units operate by moving heat from inside the building to outside with both systems performing just their one function: heating or cooling.
An electric heat pump can both heat and cool by moving heat from inside the home to outside in the summer and drawing heat in from outside during winter, the city said.
Electric heat pump benefits include:
• More energy efficient and cost efficient.
• Safer to operate (removing risk of flammable gas leaks and fumes).
• Improves quality of indoor air (reduces health issues such as asthma, particularly for children).
Installing heat pumps can require getting different city permits: a plumbing permit, and potentially an electrical permit for heat pump water heater projects, and a mechanical and electrical permit for HVAC systems.
These permit fees for a typical small residential project normally cost around $300. Goleta’s heat pump permit fee waiver program will waive those fees for qualifying heat pump projects and is designed to be utilized with other financial incentives and rebates available from utilities, state, and regional government programs to reduce the cost of converting household gas appliances to electric heat pumps.
“Don’t miss out on this great opportunity if you live in a single or multi-family residence to replace your natural gas space or water heating unit with an electric heat pump,” the city said.