From flood emergencies to tornadoes, recent extreme weather events have made power outages all too common for many homes and businesses throughout the United States.
Texas homeowner, David Trumbly, area sales manager at Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US (METUS), remembers the Great Texas Freeze of February 2021 when about 10 million state residents lost power. Although fortunate enough not to be one of them, Trumbly decided it was only a matter of time until his northern Houston home suffered a power outage.
After researching residential generators, he purchased a mid-sized portable generator that works perfectly with his Mitsubishi Electric all-climate heat pump. He’s thankful he did. When Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas in July 2024, Trumbly’s home lost power for about 18 hours. However, the residential generator powered his 3.5-ton ducted, Mitsubishi Electric all-electric heat pump, and it kept six additional circuits for the refrigerator, a computer, and the lights running.
If David had a conventional HVAC system, which is usually fully on or fully off, he would have needed a large, whole-home generator to power it. Heat pump solutions, on the other hand, are more customizable, and homeowners only need to power the parts of the system that they need. Heat pumps are a perfect fit for smaller, mid-sized residential generators.
Empowering HVAC pros with generator-heat pump information
Trumbly decided to teach others about how well residential generators pair with heat pump systems. He shares the experience of his heat pump-generator combination by conducting 30-minute, virtual training sessions for contractors and distributors of Mitsubishi Electric heat pump solutions.
The training includes how to calculate the power/wattage needed to run the heat pump systems, appliances, and other devices; the pros, cons, and price ranges of different-sized residential generators; and more. The workshop also equips the audience with information to offer heat pump customers affordable recommendations to keep their power on during future outages.
Learn more about how residential generators work with powerful, all-climate heat pumps by downloading and reading the case study: www.mitsubishicomfort.com/case-studies/heat-pump-generator-pairing.
