The Human Side of Heat Pumps: Behavioral Insights for Customers and Contractors

‘Buildings Don’t Decarbonize Themselves, People Do’ is a Clean Energy Transition Institute webinar series highlighting how the social and behavioral sciences are essential to achieving building decarbonization goals. The second webinar in the series will focus on heat pumps, given that they are a keystone technology that enables building decarbonization. The session will provide two parallel perspectives on the heat pump journey–that of a customer and a contractor. Four core questions will be answered from both perspectives based on social and behavioral science research informed by the technical specificities of heat pumps. The questions include: 1) What are heat pumps and why should I care?; 2) Will they work in my/this house?; 3) What will it cost/how much should I charge?; and 4) How do I get one? CETI Research Director Dr. Stacia Dreyer will moderate the discussion with presentations from Dr. Sarah Outcault (Market Transformation Research Director at the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute and Western Cooling Efficiency Center) and Dr. Jen Loomis (Market Research & Evaluation Senior Manager at Resource Innovations).