Modern equipment lets you heat a home at the press of a button whatever the weather outside, and keeps a stifling summer from taking over the house. Better still, one machine does both jobs: a heat pump.
The least expensive way in is a wall-mounted heat pump. Price, straightforward installation and running efficiency are what have made it so popular in Quebec. If you need to cover several rooms independently rather than one, a multizone system applies the same idea at a larger scale.
What to compare before you buy. Five things separate one model from the next: how efficient it is, what it can do, who makes it, what the warranty covers and what it costs. Take them in that order, because the first two decide whether the unit suits your house at all.
Efficiency. A seasonal efficiency rating tells you how much heating or cooling a unit delivers across a whole season for the electricity it draws, rather than at one ideal moment. Higher is better, and the gap between an entry-level unit and a strong one shows up on every bill for the next fifteen years. What matters more in Quebec is the second number: how much of its rated heating capacity the unit still produces at −25 °C or −30 °C, because that is the night you actually bought it for. Efficient models also qualify for government rebates, which changes the real price.
Features. Every heat pump heats and cools. Beyond that, the useful additions are a variable-speed compressor, which holds a steadier temperature and runs quieter than one that cycles on and off, scheduling, a sleep mode, and app or Wi-Fi control if you want to set the house before you get home.
The brands we install. We fit wall-mounted heat pumps from Mitsubishi, Moovair and Fujitsu. Which of the three suits you comes down to how cold the room gets, how large it is, how quiet you need it to be and what you want to spend. Those trade-offs are quicker to settle in a conversation than on a page. Tell us about the space and we will tell you which one we would put in, and why.
