Washington State requires heat pumps in new construction

Washington State has a lot of ecosystems. From soggy Puget Sound, to the flanks of Mt. Rainier, to arid Spokane, new construction everywhere will now have to install heat pumps.

Back in April, the Washington State Building Code Council (SBCC) voted to require the installation of heat pumps for new commercial and multi-family buildings. The council recently voted in favor of requiring it for new residential construction as well, both of which are expected to go into effect in July 2023.

While switching buildings to all-electric makes sense for the climate, it does pose some challenges. It will drive a need for more battery storage and renewable energy to meet the increased demand. According to the Falcon Curve, the demand is likely to peak in winter instead of summer (creating a bird-like curve from Jan-Dec), when solar is less effective.

Figure 1. The “Falcon Curve” – Monthly average building total energy consumption from March 2010 to February 2020.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthybuildings/2022/08/15/3-key-takeaways-falcon-curve/

Without energy storage or other ways to manage the grid load, meeting the winter peak in electricity demand with renewable energy would require a 28-fold increase in January wind generation or a 303-fold increase in January solar energy generation. However, if buildings were to have efficient technologies like air source or ground source heat pumps, only 4.5 times more winter wind generation or 36 times more solar energy would be needed to meet the winter peak, ideally flattening the Falcon Curve to an extent.

https://www.popsci.com/environment/heat-pumps-washington-state/