More Camas and Vancouver homes are dropping gas every year, heat pump in, furnace out, induction range, maybe an EV in the driveway. It is a sensible direction in a region with clean, relatively cheap electricity. It also quietly doubles the number that a solar system has to be sized against.
If you are electrifying and thinking about solar, the order you do things in matters more than the brand of panel you choose.
How much does a heat pump change your electricity use?
A lot, and in the season when solar produces least. A heat pump moves your heating load from the gas bill to the power bill, which means your consumption peaks in December and January, exactly when a Pacific Northwest array is at its weakest.
That does not make the pairing a bad idea; heat pumps are far more efficient than resistance heat and the annual arithmetic still works. It does mean a system sized against last year’s gas-heated power bill will be too small the moment the furnace comes out.
Should you install solar before or after the heat pump?
Do the electrical work first, then size the solar against the house you are about to have. In practice that means this order:
- Load calculation. It decides everything downstream and costs almost nothing
- Service and panel decision, upgrade, manage, or leave alone, with the numbers in front of you
- Big circuits, heat pump and EV charger, run while the panel is already open
- Solar, sized against the new baseline rather than the old bill
- Battery last, once a year of real data shows what it would actually be covering
Done in that order each step informs the next. Done backwards, which is how it usually happens, you pay twice for panel work and end up with an array sized for a house you no longer live in.
Will your electrical panel handle it?
This is the real constraint in most older homes here, and it is rarely the roof. A heat pump, an EV charger and a solar breaker together are a serious addition to a 100-amp service, and there are limits on how much a panel’s busbar can accept.
What settles it is a load calculation rather than a guess. Where the numbers are tight there are often cheaper routes than a full service upgrade, load-management devices that stop two large loads running at once, or a supply-side connection. We look at those before quoting an upgrade, because an installer who reaches straight for a bigger service is not always doing you a favour.
How do you size solar for an all-electric home?
Against annual consumption, including the winter months, and with the equipment you are about to install rather than the equipment you have. If the furnace is going next spring, that goes in the model now.
Where a household has no full year of all-electric data yet, which is most of them, we size from the house itself: heating equipment, square footage, occupancy and charging plans, then design so the array can be extended once real data exists. That is a more honest starting point than pretending a gas-heated bill predicts an electric one.
Does a battery make more sense in an all-electric house?
Often, but not for the reason people assume. The case is resilience rather than economics: when the heat is electric, a winter outage stops being an inconvenience and starts being a cold house. A battery sized around a heat pump running flat out is expensive, so the practical answer is usually a critical-loads design (heat to one zone, refrigeration, water, connectivity) rather than whole-home backup.
Frequently asked questions
Should I get solar or a heat pump first?
Do the load calculation and any electrical work first, then size the solar against your new consumption. A system sized against a gas-heated bill will be too small once the furnace is gone.
Will a heat pump make my power bill go up?
Your electricity use rises because heating moved onto that meter, while the gas bill falls or disappears. The comparison that matters is total household energy cost, not the power bill alone.
Do I need a 200-amp panel for a heat pump, EV charger and solar?
Not always. A load calculation decides it, and where the numbers are tight, load management or a supply-side connection can avoid a full upgrade. We run the calculation before quoting anything.
How do you size solar if I have not electrified yet?
From the house rather than the history (heating equipment, square footage, occupancy and charging plans) and we design so the array can be extended once you have a real year of all-electric data.
Is a battery worth it with electric heat?
For resilience, often yes. Backing up a heat pump running at full output is expensive, so the sensible design covers heat to one zone plus refrigeration, water and connectivity rather than the whole house.
Planning an all-electric home?
Call 360-313-7190 for a free consultation and we will start with the load calculation, not the sales pitch. Sunbridge Solar serves Camas, Washougal, Vancouver, Portland and the Columbia River Gorge.
