Heat pumps are awesome, but they are hard for American households to adopt. Gradient and Bloc are trying to solve this for apartments. For single family, there are many barriers to adoption:
- Awareness: not enough people know about them.
- Installer specialization: Split heat pumps require specialized contractors who understand both hvac and plumbing
- Invasive retrofits: For larger homes, installing split pumps can require intensive interior piping for refrigerants
- Channel conflict: most people learn about hvac through their contractors. Most contractors can't do heat pumps or aren't current on heat pumps. Many advise customers in continental climates that heat pumps won't work in their areas.
- Replacement lifecycles: heat pumps replace A/C and furnaces. It's rare to find both at the ends of their life cycles, forcing costly early retirement of existing systems.
- Electrical systems: For people without central A/C, moving to a heat pump may require new 240v outlets or even panel upgrades. For people with central A/C, heat pumps can work with existing wiring, but backup heat systems for extreme temperatures (where heat pumps may fail) may still require electrical upgrades.
- Expensive: American options (other than classic minisplits) are really expensive!
- Insulation: The best hvac systems in the world can't make up for poorly insulated buildings. Much of the country is under-insulated.
- Ugly: Mini splits are ugly.
Platform Company
President @ Valen Foundry
"Heat pumps are 2-3x more efficient. Also, they are powered by electricity rather than dino juice. Also, the planet is melting."
What a glib and confusing answer
Co-founder & CEO @ Rx Studio Inc.
I just faced this decision due to a failing water heater, and most local service providers pushed back due to an additional factor: the permitting loop inefficiency that is needed, and recommended the switch only if we were at a point where we could shed all other natural gas dependencies (stove, dryer, fireplace etc.). Looks like this problem could roll up as a component of the broader gas->electric transition barrier. A bundled "go off gas" solution might reduce barriers implicitly.
CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio
Clean Energy Homes is our existing solution to this. Currently in Stage 2.
https://os.platformstud.io/guild/companies/clean-energy-homes