Group buying is still a relatively new concept in HVAC, and companies are experimenting with different ways to encourage participation. According to DR Richardson, CEO of Elephant Energy in Boulder, Colorado, “The common goal is to aggregate homeowner demand through a trusted community organization — such as a municipality, nonprofit, homeowners’ association (HOA), or local partner — and make it easier and more affordable for residents to upgrade their homes.” 

Typically, a community partner promotes the program and encourages homeowners to sign up. Once homeowners enroll, they're matched with a prequalified contractor — like Elephant Energy — who performs the home assessment, designs the heat pump system, provides the proposal, completes the installation, and supports the customer throughout the project.  

For participating contractors, the biggest advantage is a more efficient sales pipeline, said Richardson. “Rather than acquiring customers one at a time through traditional marketing and sales, contractors receive a larger volume of qualified leads within a concentrated area. That reduces customer acquisition costs, improves scheduling efficiency, and allows contractors to offer lower pricing while still growing revenue…It also helps smooth seasonal demand by generating work during slower periods.” 

In addition, group buying programs tend to generate higher conversion rates, said Richardson, because homeowners have already expressed interest and are participating through a trusted organization. 

The programs also simplify the purchasing process for homeowners by providing educational resources, connecting them with prequalified contractors, and helping them navigate available rebates and incentives. In Elephant Energy's markets, Richardson said homeowners participating in a group buy typically save 10% to 20% compared to prevailing market prices. 

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Contractor selection varies by program, but most group-buy initiatives use a competitive vetting process that evaluates technical expertise, licensing, customer satisfaction, pricing, project capacity, and experience with heat pump installations. Richardson added that most programs are performance-based rather than brand-specific, allowing contractors to recommend equipment that best fits each home, as long as it meets applicable incentive requirements. 

Equipment is typically sourced through local distributor partners, with inventory planning coordinated before a group-buy campaign launches. Richardson said Elephant Energy works closely with distributors to increase inventory ahead of anticipated demand, particularly when new rebate programs begin or existing incentives are about to expire. 

Early results suggest the group buying model is paying off for Elephant Energy. Richardson said the company's 2025 heat pump campaign with community partner Switch Together generated more than 85 heat pump installations in about three months, while achieving an 80% conversion rate — roughly double the 40% to 50% conversion rate the company typically sees through traditional sales channels. 

The California-based heat pump installation company Vayu has teamed up with Heatpumped.org to market group buys of heat pumps directly to homeowners through its newsletter, social media, and by word of mouth. The program encourages homeowners planning a heat pump purchase to wait until the shoulder season, when contractors typically have more availability. 

"HVAC is a pretty seasonal thing," said Shreyas Sudhakar, founder of Vayu. "Most HVAC replacements are on an emergency basis." Heat pumps, however, are often planned purchases, giving homeowners more flexibility to schedule an installation. By shifting those projects into slower periods, Sudhakar said the model benefits everyone involved. 

"For technicians, it's like they get a steady stream of work through the shoulder season," he said. Homeowners who are willing to wait a few months can save money, while manufacturers and distributors can move additional equipment during periods of lower demand. 

Unlike a traditional contractor, Vayu does not employ installation technicians. Instead, the company handles system sizing, Manual J calculations, permitting, equipment procurement, distributor relationships, and customer communication, while a network of licensed contractor partners performs the installations. The model is designed for smaller HVAC businesses, allowing one- and two-truck contractors to focus on installing equipment, while Vayu manages the sales process and administrative workload. 

The company is selective about the contractors it brings into the program. Sudhakar said they look for licensed contractors with at least 10 years of field experience who follow installation best practices and are willing to collaborate on system design. "The type of company that we partner best with is craftsmen that have been in the trade, that love the work and do the work really well, but hate all the other stuff," he said. 

Sudhakar cited Department of Energy data that shows 70% of new HVAC businesses fail in the first year of operation and 20% in each following year. He explained that their partnerships allow experienced technicians with young businesses to focus on the parts of the business that they are best at and gain a consistent source of revenue. 

To simplify the program, Vayu currently limits its group buys to ducted heat pump replacements. Sudhakar said the company included ductless systems in its initial pilot but found there were simply too many configurations to make group purchasing practical. Instead, Vayu standardizes around a single variable-speed inverter heat pump for each group-buy campaign. Once enough homeowners have committed, the company negotiates with manufacturers and/or distributors to select the equipment that offers the best overall value for that group. Rather than promising a specific brand, Vayu guarantees a system that meets defined performance standards, with units typically in the 17-18 SEER2 range that qualify for available rebates and include long-term manufacturer warranties. 

So far, Vayu's summer group-buy program has generated encouraging results. Homeowners are typically saving between $3,000 and $6,000 compared with purchasing a similar system on the open market, while contractors receive a predictable stream of planned installations during slower periods of the year. The deadline to join the summer cohort is July 31, with installations slated for September through December on a rolling basis. Based on the response to its initial pilot last year, Sudhakar expects participation to at least double or triple in future group-buy campaigns. 

Boston-based Laminar Collective launched its bulk-buying program in late 2023 by organizing groups of homeowners who were interested in purchasing heat pumps at a negotiated price through specific contractors. At the time, those contractors handled equipment procurement and project management. 

"We were just a community email list, and you can view this as community-driven lead gen, in a way," said Kit Wu, founder of Laminar Collective. 

As the organization evolved, Wu wanted to give homeowners more information about equipment brands and installation costs, so the group launched a newsletter and research blog. “At some point, we realized that if we wanted to do a really good cost analysis and figure out where the money was going, we would need to buy equipment directly, because these contracting partners are understandably unwilling to share their financials,” said Wu. 

In mid-2025, the group started directly coordinating installations and negotiating group rates on equipment from manufacturers and supply houses. Today, the organization coordinates approximately 100 heat pump installations annually in the Boston area through its installation arm, Manatee Energy. 

Purchasing equipment directly has given Laminar Collective greater insight into equipment pricing, allowing the organization to publish pricing benchmarks that help homeowners better understand typical heat pump installation costs. “This is something that is fairly unique to us, because contractors technically have no incentive to publicize their competitors,” said Wu. "Consumers, however, love this." 

They also love saving money, and Laminar Collective helps reduce both costs and the time homeowners spend researching a heat pump purchase. Participants typically save about 15% compared to average market prices by joining a group purchase scheduled during the spring or fall, when contractor demand is lower. 

Like other group-buying programs, Wu sees this as a way to shift planned installations into the shoulder seasons, which benefits both homeowners and contractors. “Instead of waiting until the a/c breaks or paying prices at the peak of summer, [homeowners] can wait until spring or fall when the weather is nice and get their installation at a discount.” 

For contractors, Wu said group buying programs reduce the amount of time and money spent generating new business, while increasing the likelihood that homeowners will move forward with a project. “It means they get to spend less money on sales and more money on project management and installations,” he said. “You can think of a group buy as a more effective sales and marketing tool for contractors.” 

Laminar Collective focuses on whole-home, air-source heat pump installations, both ducted and ductless, to better align with Massachusetts' incentive structure. Wu noted that ducted projects can be more difficult to standardize, because existing ductwork varies from house to house. As a result, homeowners with aging or deteriorated ductwork may need additional repairs, which can increase the cost of a group-buy installation. 

The organization primarily procures equipment from Daikin and Mitsubishi, because their distribution networks can support both peak and off-season demand, said Wu. “I suppose we can spend money on a warehouse, but we're just not ready to make that step yet.” 

While group buying programs differ in how they organize homeowners and source equipment, they all offer HVAC contractors another tool for growing their business while making heat pump installations more accessible to homeowners.