A worker hooked up refrigerant lines to air source heat pumps on the roof of the 243-unit Waterford Bay apartment building in St. Paul. (David Joles/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

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Back in mid-April I had new air conditioning and heating installed. A huge expense, but one which I had been planning for more than a year, and so after some budget cuts and penny-pinching, I had saved up about $117 of the approximately $16,000 bill (see note at bottom).

My furnace and air conditioner were both beyond 25 years old, the age of an extraordinarily old cat, and while the air conditioner was definitely coughing up hairballs, the furnace seemed to be fine — yet it was an 80% efficiency model, meaning that 20% of the natural gas it used for heat went up in smoke, as they say, except that it did the opposite, heading straight into the atmosphere.

After doing some armchair googling, it seemed I could expect to pay around $9,000, but three quotes from local Twin Cities HVAC installers later — all in the same $15,00 ballpark — I regretted not scrolling past my first search result.

The first HVAC estimator gave me several options, from the perfectly functional and most affordable, to the option that I assume used a rotating team of young golden eagles to fan air never before breathed by a living being into my home. Each option was more efficient (and expensive) than the last, from 80% to nearly 100% efficiency.

The second estimator’s quote was much the same, though he made passing mention of the option of a heat pump, a device that heats air differently — more efficiently — than your typical HVAC system. The first technician made no mention of this at all.

After a little more googling, where this time I scrolled beyond the first search result, I learned that installing a heat pump is one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly things you can do for your home. And so the third estimator, surprised when I asked about a heat pump option, admitted that he had one himself and had nothing but good things to say about it. He’d had it for six years, he said, without any issues.

What of these things I’ve heard? I asked. That they don’t work in Minnesota? That they break down all the time? That they are noisy? They wouldn’t be selling them if that were true, and it hadn’t been his experience, he said, nor has it been mine so far (it’s much quieter than my old air conditioner). Plus, it has a 12-year warranty.

I don’t claim to be an environmentalist. I drive a Ford F-150 around the country towing a camper at 12 mpg and work from the road for part of each year. I eat red meat, too — way too much, according to my doctor, whose opinion I didn’t even ask for. And I fly to lands both foreign and domestic when I can afford it and have the time. It’s true that I love this planet, but my love is greedy, and I want to see what I can of it before I go.

I’ve also never been an early technology adopter, but I am thrifty, and after running through the options, we found that I could install a heat pump — one which cools air much like an air conditioner and provides heat until outside temps reach about 35 degrees — for the same price as the middle-of-the road traditional option. Included in that price was a 98.6% efficiency traditional furnace that kicks on to take over for the heat pump when temps dip below 35 degrees.

And so back to the internet, which told me that there were more than 300 days in 2023 where the high temperature in Minneapolis was at or above 35 degrees.

So I pulled the proverbial trigger, and after multiple rebates from Centerpoint and Xcel Energy totaling more than $2,000, plus a $2,000 federal tax credit (not a deduction, but a credit) for heat pumps, the heat pump option actually came in a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the traditional, less efficient technology. Not only that, but my gas bill is likely to be significantly lower this winter.

What’s more, the rebates on heat pumps are actually increasing, with many states (including Minnesota) getting on board and preparing to offer their own incentives. If I’d waited a year, it would have been even less expensive.

I’m not an astrophysicist, so I’m not going to try to explain to you how heat pumps work, except to say that they do a bit of heating and a bit of pumping. Which is nice. You might say, “You shouldn’t purchase something you don’t understand,” but I’d like to defend myself by saying that I don’t really understand a lot of things, including how a regular air conditioner or furnace works. That kind of stuff is for the guys at NASA to figure out.

Adam Overland, of Robbinsdale, is a writer and editor at the University of Minnesota. He writes about his travels and other experiences at adamoverland.com. He reports that after more than $4,000 in rebates, he paid less than $12,000 for his heat pump and high-efficiency furnace.