What's in a name?

When was the last time you met someone without a climate or HVAC background that knew what a heat pump was?

Never?

Same here.

That’s why so much heat pump advocacy has been focused around building awareness.

But this seems like a problem of our own making.

Think about electric cars. They’re a car that happens to be powered by batteries and electric motors. It’s easy to cross shop against ICE cars on merit alone. They’re more efficient, have lower operating costs, and you don’t have a hot metal box containing thousands of explosions per minute sitting 6 inches in front of you!

What if we had called them “Wheeled Electric People Movers” instead? They may have stayed a niche product for enthusiast customers.

What are people searching for?

Checking five different words to describe “magic box that heats or cools your house” on Google search trends - air conditioner, AC, HVAC, furnace, and heat pump - the problem becomes immediately clear. It turns out that heat pumps are in dead last across the country, and by a wide margin.

Well ackchyually, everyone around me knows what a heat pump is…

While it seems like few people are thinking about heat pumps, there are glimmers of hope. Let’s take Maine for example.

In Maine, searches for “heat pump” have already overtaken the industry acronym “HVAC”, as well as the longer form “Air Conditioner”. Search interest is within a few points of “Furnace”, and while “AC” is still far ahead, the gap is much narrower at less than 3X.

Maine residents have historically relied heavily on costly heating oil to heat their homes. This has incentivized finding more cost-effective options.

Customers are actively looking for something different, rather than a like-for-like replacement. It’s an environment ripe for a disrupter to topple an incumbent. Many have discovered heat pumps as a clearly better option.

Now, many contractors in the state brand themselves as heat pump specialists rather than general HVAC or furnace installers.

My hair is on fire!

Some might argue that what we are seeing in Maine could spread across the country. I’m not convinced.  

A “hair-on-fire” problem is something that causes customers so much pain that it takes priority over everything else - they’ll embrace any solution, no matter how unpolished.

If your hair's on fire, that’s the only thing that matters until you put it out; if you get a $2,000 heating bill in the middle of a frigid Maine winter, well…

While other states also have rising heating costs, they don’t face the same urgency. Cheap natural gas has made heating bills in other parts of the country less of a crisis. It’s harder for heat pumps to stand out as a clear winner on cost alone in these regions due to the smaller marginal cost advantage.

How can heat pumps stand out?

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a founder is that for your business to succeed, you must solve a hair-on-fire problem.

For most Americans, the hair-on-fire problem isn’t high heating bills; it’s when their furnace or air conditioner breaks down. At that moment, people don’t care about branding or aesthetics—they simply want the first available contractor to solve their problem and let them get on with their lives.

Startups face another fundamental challenge: brand awareness. Without an established name and reputation, you must shout loudly and often to get noticed; the same is true for the heat pump industry as a whole.

While many organizations and advocates are promoting heat pumps with everything from Halloween costumes to music videos, their efforts haven’t been enough to overtake awareness from more common terms like ‘AC’.

Time for a rebrand

Articles from Fast Company and The Washington Post have recognized this issue, and proposed rebranding the category, with suggestions like "climate-friendly furnace," "magic thermal energy transfer machine," and even "Heaty McPumpface."

All of these names - although quirky and fun - face the same issues that “Wheeled Electric People Movers” would have if applied to electric cars. They would just make the awareness problem worse, and would have to start brand building from zero.

A name that will stick

An alternate name that’s catching on in the industry is “2-Way AC”. It makes a ton of sense.

It presents itself as a kind of air conditioner. A better, more efficient version of something customers are already familiar with. Under this new naming system, standard air conditioners now become “1-Way” air conditioners, which are clearly inferior.

Won’t this just make people more confused?

Whenever you rename something, there’s a risk that it leads to more confusion. Most Chicago residents still call the Willis Tower the Sears Tower, 15 years after it was rebranded!

But in this case, we can still use both terms without issues. 2-Way ACs are powered by heat pump technology, just like electric cars are powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Let’s do it

This Christmas, instead of trying to talk to your friends and family about heat pumps, spread the good news about 2-Way ACs!

Start using #2WayAC when you talk about heat pumps online. And to make it easy, you can share this page that explains the fundamentals to a casual homeowner audience: https://www.2WayAC.com