A heat pump that can be installed in minutes is allowing the city of Boston to quickly decarbonize a public housing complex for the elderly and provide air conditioning as climate change-driven heat waves intensify.
The Boston Housing Authority on Wednesday will announce a pilot project putting small heat pumps made by San Francisco-based startup Gradient in a 50-year-old, 100-apartment building. The units fit in a window and can provide heating and cooling for a space of about 500 square feet. That replaces the complex’s inefficient electric-resistance heating and doesn’t require the expensive and disruptive renovations that accompany the installation of a centralized heat pump system.