Lower Bills, Better Grids

This RMI fact sheet outlines the economic, grid, and environmental benefits of replacing electric resistance heating and water heating systems with heat pumps in US households.

• Replacing electric resistance heating and water heating with heat pumps offers significant financial savings for households and the broader economy. A single household can save an average of $1,530 annually, totaling $23,000 over a 15-year equipment lifetime. If all single-family electric resistance homes in the US upgraded, annual energy bill savings would reach nearly $20 billion, with Texas alone seeing $2 billion in annual savings.
• Heat pumps improve grid reliability by reducing peak electricity demand due to their higher efficiency and ability to provide both heating and cooling. Transitioning would result in a 51 GW reduction in winter peak demand and an 11 GW reduction in summer peak demand.
• Switching to heat pumps reduces carbon and air pollution. For single-family electric resistance households, this transition leads to a 40% reduction in carbon pollution. Nationwide, upgrading all such homes would reduce annual CO2e emissions by 38 million metric tons, with a reduction of 2.8 metric tons of CO2e per home in the first year.

APA

RMI (2026). Lower Bills, Better Grids. https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/ER-to-HP-Flipbook_3.2026.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Lower Bills, Better Grids. 2026. https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/ER-to-HP-Flipbook_3.2026.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Lower Bills, Better Grids |date=April 2026 |url=https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/ER-to-HP-Flipbook_3.2026.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2026lower, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Lower Bills, Better Grids}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/ER-to-HP-Flipbook_3.2026.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }