This is part two of a three-part series on the problem of home decarbonization in the U.S. Continue reading with part one.
Heat pumps have a messaging problem.
Almost every campaign, rebate program, and educational effort I see is aimed squarely at people who already care about climate change — the same people who also tend to be early adopters of clean technology. But the HVAC contractors who actually install the systems skew heavily conservative according to political donation data.
For years, I’ve watched this play out in HVAC Facebook groups, where the tenor of the conversation can be summarized by “Heat pumps are a liberal thing,” “They’re trying to force this on us,” and “It’s all climate hysteria.” We politicized the technology, and now we’re paying for it. The very people we need to get behind these systems, to encourage homeowners to try something new, are skeptical at best, and combative at worst.
There isn’t time to stick with status quo sales tactics. The longer the home decarbonization community spends optimizing our pitch to the 15% of early adopters, the more time we waste before figuring out what actually works for the other 85%.
