This report presents findings from the California HVAC Contractor & Technician Behavior Study undertaken by Energy Market Innovations, Inc. (EMI), Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC), Verified, Inc., and Better Buildings, Inc. (BBI), on behalf of Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). The purpose of the study was to gain a greater understanding of the HVAC market and to inform future California IOU HVAC program design. This project addresses the behavioral research area, Phase II, as recommended by Phase I, of the “HVAC Maintenance Energy Efficiency Study.”
Through early conversations with key stakeholders, the research team identified the following research objectives to guide the research:
- To document contractors’ and technicians’ understanding of HVAC maintenance, installation, and service, and the protocols that exist within their companies for each.
- To identify contractors’ and technicians’ knowledge and use of industry standards such as ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180 and Standard 4 (defined by the industry as “quality maintenance”) and ACCA Standard 5 (defined as “quality installation”) used by the IOUs.
- To understand how contractors and technicians conduct diagnostics and remediation.
- To identify how contractors and technicians sell HVAC maintenance including product offerings, pricing structures, value propositions, and selling strategies.
- To document existing contractor business models.
- To identify contractors’ and technicians’ experiences with, interest in, and barriers to participating in utility HVAC maintenance/installation programs.
- To develop a sampling frame and a repeatable sampling frame definition process that best defines and characterizes the true population of California HVAC contractors.
The report is available for download below. The file is separated into two PDFs due to the file size.
California HVAC Contractor & Technician Behavior Study (1 of 2)
California HVAC Contractor & Technician Behavior Study (2 of 2)
Summary of HVAC Contractor and Technician Behavior Study