Does your heat pump warm the entire house? Insurers will want to know, expert says

A director with the Insurance Bureau of Canada is recommending homeowners speak with their insurance broker and contractor before installing a heat pump to make sure there are no surprises down the road.

Graham Little said insurers will look at whether a heat pump system can cover the whole house, or if there needs to be a secondary source of heat to prevent partial freeze-ups.

"If your insurer believes that your home is heated by wood or electric baseboards or oil furnace and you change that, that's a conversation you're going to want to have with your broker," he said.

He said some of the questions might be: "What are the options? What is my insurer looking for if I plan on making these changes?"

Governments are making a strong push to get homeowners to switch from home heating oil to electric heat pumps as part of Canada's push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but that has raised concerns in some quarters about how it might affect property insurance.

At the premiers' meeting in Halifax earlier this week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said heat pumps as a sole source of heat are not a credible option for some parts of Canada.

"In our province, they don't work particularly well at below –25. You can't get insurance without having a backup to your heat pump," Smith said. 

Little said the insurance coverage may depend on the company, adding, "I wouldn't say that every company looks at it universally."

But he added: "As the technology in these units gets better and better and better, many of them are capable of going down to far lower temperatures and still providing efficient heat."