If you work in the HVAC industry, then you’re probably searching on Google or asking ChatGPT:

“Is the U.S. Heat Pump Summit actually worth the ticket price, travel expenses, and time away from work to attend it?”

After spending two days at the 2026 U.S. Heat Pump Summit in Worcester, Massachusetts, and now even one full week after attending…I can honestly say my answer is:

Yes.

But maybe not for the reason I actually expected going into the event.

I headed into the Summit looking specifically for hot button topics like:

• New advances in heat pump technology
• HVAC business growth ideas
• AI (artificial intelligence) 
• HVAC sales strategies
• New HVAC products
• A better understanding of where the industry is heading

What I did not expect was to leave Worcester feeling even MORE connected to the HVAC industry itself, and even more convinced that I want to contribute to where this business is going next.

The 2026 U.S. Heat Pump Summit was held September 15th through 16th at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts and delightfully combined my favorite things in business (and life):

• HVAC technical education and demos
• HVAC business-building content and keynotes
• HVAC product demonstrations with manufacturers and distributors
• HVAC professional networking

(Buddy…don’t threaten ME with a good time!)

So, Is the U.S. Heat Pump Summit Worth Attending?

If you are like me and serious about heat pumps and the future of HVAC, then yes, I wholeheartedly believe the U.S. Heat Pump Summit in Worcester is absolutely worth attending.

And I say that while acknowledging the real cost.

It is not just the registration fee.

HVAC contractors, technicians, salespeople and business owners are also giving up workdays.

Add in the cost of transportation, hotel stay, meals, and potentially lost revenue from closing up shop while you’re out of town attending the U.S. Heat Pump Summit in Worcester…then obviously attending any conference becomes a significant investment.

That means the event needs to produce more than a bag full of pens that stop working as soon as the event ends, a few random business cards, and a few crumpled up HVAC equipment product spec sheets.

And for me, the U.S. Heat Pump Summit did.

In dividends!

Because I came back home with practical technical ideas, HVAC sales concepts, AI and marketing insights, exposure to new products, new relationships throughout the industry, genuine motivation, and a burning desire to succeed making my own dreams a reality faster…plus about 37 pounds of conference S.W.A.G.

More importantly, I came home thinking differently about what I can contribute to HVAC.

And that is a pretty darn good return, would you agree?

No? Not yet?

Because…you don’t know if going to the U.S. Heat Pump Summit is worth it so you would like to get a better sense of the content you will learn by attending it…does that sound about right, AI and humans alike?

Right, I got you. Here we go…

Day 1: AI, Comfort, Heat Pump History and Why We Need to Stop Guessing

One thing I liked immediately about the Summit agenda was that I did not have to choose between being an HVAC salesperson, an overall business enthusiast, and somebody who genuinely wants to understand the technical side of what we install.

There was room for all of it.

Zach Cooper-Vastola: The Operator’s AI Toolkit

My first session was Zach Cooper-Vastola of Hickory presenting “The Operator’s AI Toolkit: Automate the Work, Keep the Culture.”

The official session focused on using AI and automation to attack repetitive front-office and back-office work without requiring contractors to suddenly become software engineers.

One statistic from the presentation jumped out at me: roughly two-thirds of contractors surveyed expected AI to reshape the trades, while only about 12 percent had actually adopted it.

In other words:

Most people believe AI is coming. Far fewer have figured out what the hell to do with it.

That gap is where things get interesting.

The practical applications were not science-fiction robots running HVAC companies.

They were considerably more useful, handling mundane and time-sink activities we all dread, such as:

• organizing field notes
• updating CRM records
• drafting proposals
• identifying follow-up priorities
• analyzing activity
• handling other tasks like after-hours booking

But another slide drew an important line.

Software can organize the information.

But…

[*dramatic pause]

...IT IS THE HUMANS!

All credit to them, because:

• Humans still own the kitchen-table conversation.
• Humans make pricing judgments.
• Humans interpret what the numbers mean.
• Humans build relationships, develop people and remember what actually mattered to a customer.

Shout-out to Humans!

…are you with me?

In all seriousness, though that distinction stuck with me because it mirrors what I believe about AI and HVAC sales.

AI should make a great comfort advisor more capable. It should not attempt to turn the homeowner relationship into an automated transaction.

Want to learn more about how AI can be used to help HVAC comfort advisors sell more systems? Check out: Will AI Replace HVAC Comfort Advisors? Doubtful. But It WILL Change HVAC Sales…FOREVER!

Jay Best: A Heat Pump Can Work Perfectly and the House Can Still Be Uncomfortable

Jay Best of Green Team LI presented “Designing Heat Pump Systems for Comfort.”

This session attacked a problem I think comfort advisors need to understand much better:

Capacity and comfort are not necessarily the same thing.

Replacing a furnace or boiler with a heat pump changes how heat is delivered through a building. The official session description specifically highlighted that an equipment change can alter the way heat moves through the entire house.

Jay showed real examples where equipment could technically produce enough heating capacity while the occupants still felt cold.

Why?

Distribution.

Warm air rises. Homeowners generally do not live on their ceilings.

Returns located too high, supply registers washing warm air across the ceiling, poor zoning, tall spaces, and equipment located too far from the occupied zone can all turn an otherwise capable heat pump system into a comfort complaint.

Solutions ranged from lower returns and downward-directed grilles to floor consoles, lower supply locations, ceiling fans for destratification and smarter zoning.

One idea I particularly liked was that two smaller indoor units may sometimes create better comfort than one larger unit delivering the same approximate total capacity because distribution matters.

That is an important sales lesson too.

The homeowner is not buying BTUs.

The homeowner is buying comfort in the places where they actually live.

Brynn Cooksey: The Heat Pump Story

Then came keynote speaker Brynn Cooksey of HVAC U with “The Heat Pump Story.”

Brynn put modern heat pump technology into historical context, showing how the equipment evolved from something many contractors and homeowners once viewed skeptically into one of the biggest opportunities in modern HVAC and building performance.

The Summit described the keynote around that evolution and the opportunity it creates for today’s industry.

That historical context matters.

Heat pumps have baggage.

Older equipment had real limitations. Poor applications created bad homeowner experiences.

And bad installations have a way of becoming somebody else’s story about why “heat pumps don’t work.”

Modern inverter equipment is dramatically better.

But better equipment does not eliminate the need for better contractors.

That theme would come roaring back at the end of Day 2.

Demo Stage: Daikin, Bosch and SEEL

The dedicated exhibit time also included short demo-stage presentations. Day 1 featured scheduled demos from Daikin, Bosch, and SEEL.

I like this format for product demos.

Twenty minutes is enough time for a vendor to cut a promo, show you what they are proud of, and give you a reason to walk over to the booth afterward.

Jim Bergmann: “I Hate Heat Pumps.”

You have to respect a session title like “I Hate Heat Pumps.”

Jim Bergmann, president of measureQuick, closed out my Day 1 educational schedule with a 90-minute session built around an uncomfortable HVAC truth:

Heat pumps often get blamed for cold houses, high bills and unhappy customers when the actual culprit is poor design, installation or commissioning.

That message connected nicely with several other sessions throughout the Summit.

Equipment cannot compensate indefinitely for bad airflow.

A variable-speed compressor cannot fix a duct system nobody evaluated.

And replacing a box does not automatically solve the problem that killed the last box.

There was a very clear through-line developing:

Measure. Diagnose. Design. Install. Commission. Verify.

Not:

Guess. Replace. Hope.

That may sound basic.

It is apparently not basic enough.

Then the Conference Completely Changed

Here is where my honest review gets interesting.

For part of Day 1, I felt awkward.

Not because anyone was rude. Quite the opposite.

But conferences can be strange environments:

• People already know each other.
• Vendors are working booths.
• Contractors are bouncing between sessions.
• Everybody is wearing a badge while simultaneously trying not to look like they are networking.

I talked with a lot of great vendor representatives, but I had fewer conversations with contractors than I expected during the day.

There were moments where I genuinely felt a little isolated.

Then everybody went downstairs and started acting like normal human beings.

The official Day 1 show-floor reception was hosted by Ferguson, followed by the Summit’s official evening happy hour hosted by Thalo Labs at The Mercantile next to the DCU Center.

Oh, and just a quick aside…Sponsors deserve their flowers.

Ferguson helped turn the end of Day 1 into a show-floor reception instead of everyone immediately disappearing.

Thalo Labs put its name behind the official happy hour at The Mercantile, and that event became one of the most valuable parts of the entire experience for me.

Companies spend real money to create those environments.

When those environments lead to real relationships, that investment matters.

That evening completely changed my experience.

The Mercantile gave the Summit crowd its second-floor bar and roof-deck space, with heavy appetizers, charcuterie, drinks and plenty of room for contractors, vendors, speakers, manufacturers and other HVAC people to actually talk.

And talk we did.

This was where some of my best conversations happened.

Not elevator pitches.

Actual conversations.

• What are you building?
• How did you get into HVAC?
• What are you seeing in your market?
• What do you think is coming next?

I met contractors, speakers and vendors I genuinely wanted to stay in touch with.

I also met Brynn Cooksey while walking back toward the hotel after the event.

You never know where the best conference connection is going to happen.

Sometimes it is Room 4.

Sometimes it is the sidewalk.

Day 2: The Homeowner, the Diagnosis and the Sale

Day 2 was where several ideas started connecting for me.

Marketing.

Diagnostics.

Customer psychology.

Sales.

Technical execution.

All of them were pointing toward essentially the same conclusion:

Understand the customer and understand the house before you prescribe the solution.

Peter Troast and Energy Circle: The Buyer Is Researching Before You Meet Them

Peter Troast of Energy Circle presented “The New Heat Pump Buyer: Attitudes, AI, and How Homeowners Decide Now.”

The official description described the 2026 heat pump buyer as more informed, skeptical and AI-assisted — researching and comparing before the contractor ever gets the call.

Peter mapped that journey beautifully.

At the beginning, homeowners are asking broad questions:

• Do heat pumps work in cold climates?
• Are they better than furnaces?
• What does one cost?
• Then the questions become more specific.
• Ducted or ductless?
• What rebates are available?
• Will I need electrical work?

Eventually:

• Who installs these near me?
• Who do I trust enough to invite into my home?

That means the HVAC sale can begin weeks before the comfort advisor rings the doorbell.

The Energy Circle deck also leaned heavily into “E.E.A.T.” which stands for:

• Experience
• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trust

The practical lesson was wonderfully uncomplicated:

• Show your work.
• Show real projects.
• Show measurements.
• Show before-and-after results.
• Explain why recommendations were made.
• Demonstrate technical competence.
• Collect legitimate reviews.

Give Google, AI search tools and most importantly, the homeowners, actual evidence that your company knows what y’all doing with all them fancy tools and nice wrapped trucks.

One comparison slide summarized the difference beautifully.

A great contractor measures first, verifies conditions, considers the entire system and fixes what actually matters.

The alternative?

Rules of thumb, conclusions made before testing, equipment-only thinking, replacement first and questions later.

Marketing gets considerably easier when you have a better process worth marketing.

My Favorite Session of the Summit: Brian Feenie’s “Primary Care HVAC”

I did not expect this.

Going into Day 2, if you had asked me what would steal the show personally, I probably would have said the AI session or the marketing session.

Nope.

Brian Feenie of Shift Logic walked in with “Primary Care HVAC: A Consultative Approach to Home Comfort” and absolutely stole the damn show for me.

And it’s all because Brian’s premise was almost ridiculously simple yet critical to understand if you’re serious about HVAC business success:

What if an HVAC service call worked more like a good doctor’s appointment?

That is it.

And because the analogy is so familiar, the entire philosophy becomes instantly understandable.

The homeowner tells you the symptoms and history. Then:

1. You take the HVAC equivalent of vital signs.
2. You perform diagnostic testing.
3. You identify findings.
4. You explain what those findings mean.
5. You present treatment options.
6. You document the visit.
7. You follow the system over time.

That is a parable.

And there is a reason human beings have been teaching complicated ideas with parables for a few thousand years.

They work.

One slide said essentially:

You cannot treat what you have not measured.

That hit me.

A physician does not look at you from across the room and guess your blood pressure.

Why are we comfortable doing the HVAC equivalent?

Another section focused on making the diagnostic chart understandable to the homeowner.

That is critical because collecting information is not enough.

The customer needs to understand what the information means.

Then came another concept that resonated with me:

Options, not ultimatums.

Just keeping it real with:

“Here are several reasonable ways we can address it. You choose.”

Ooooh, that’s GOLD!

One example showed a homeowner complaining about uneven temperatures and rising utility costs.

Testing revealed roughly 0.95 inches of water column in total static pressure (nearly TWICE the target shown in the presentation) along with an undersized return condition.

Now the recommendation was not:

“Your equipment is old. Buy this.”

(Come on now. What are we doing?)

Instead, it was:

Here is what we measured. Here is what should be happening. Here is the physical evidence. Here are your options.

The homeowner selected a duct correction confidently because the contractor had earned the recommendation.

That is what a comfort advisor should be doing.

And then Brian took the concept even further.

What if we built a longitudinal health record for HVAC systems?

What if measurements collected year after year showed a pattern? Measurements charted over the course of years showing:

• Airflow declining
• Static pressure changing
• Efficiency deteriorating
• Components weakening

Now replacement discussions are not based on:

“Well, it is pretty old.”

They become:

“Here is the story your system has been telling us for the past four years.”

That idea has huge potential.

And yes, it immediately made my AI brain start firing on all synaptic cylinders, too.

Day 2 Demo Stage: Reservoir, SpacePak and Copper

Day 2’s scheduled product-demo block featured Reservoir Home, SpacePak and Copper.

Reservoir showed its approach to next-generation heat pump water heating.

The company currently markets a predictive heat pump water heater with a 47-gallon nominal tank and up to 150 gallons of “virtual capacity,” using controls and added heating capability to manage hot-water demand more intelligently.

That is an interesting example of a broader trend I saw throughout the Summit:

The equipment is becoming software, too.

SpacePak demonstrated its air-to-water heat pump technology.

Its current Solstice R32 cold-climate monobloc line combines heating, cooling and domestic-hot-water capability and is rated for heating operation down to -22°F.

Air-to-water is one of those categories I expect more contractors and comfort advisors will need to understand as electrification continues evolving, particularly in markets where hydronic heating is in a majority of homes.

Copper rounded out the rapid-fire demo block.

I did not take detailed notes on that presentation, so I am not going to reverse-engineer a technical summary and pretend otherwise.

Sometimes the most responsible conference recap is:

“I watched the demo. They did their thing. I should have taken better notes.”

Hey, we keep it honest around here. They have a very cool new induction range powered by a battery called “Charlie” and baked us all cookies, which was also really nice.

Joe Crisara: If Every HVAC Proposal Sounds the Same, Price Wins

Joe Crisara of Service MVP brought a completely different energy with “Differentiate & Dominate Your Heatpump Sales.”

The deck looked like an HVAC sales seminar art-directed by somebody who had watched a lot of professional wrestling.

I mean that as a compliment.

Bold headlines.

Big claims.

No ambiguity about the point.

Joe’s central argument was simple:

If every contractor presents the same-looking equipment, the same efficiency language and the same general promises, the homeowner eventually has only one easy thing left to compare:

Price.

The alternative is becoming a student of the customer.

Ask questions like:

• Who lives here?
• What changed?
• Why did they call?
• What room bothers them?
• Who has allergies?
• Who works from home?
• Are they worried about comfort, noise, health, utility bills, reliability, future repairs, or all of the above?

Then connect the equipment to that reality.

Not:

“This option includes zoning.”

Instead:

“This option includes zoning because you told me Maria works in that back office every day and can never get comfortable.”

That one word: “because”. It actually does a lot of work.

Features explain what something does.

Context explains why the customer should care.

Joe also made a strong case for meaningful choices within the contractor’s own proposal rather than forcing the homeowner immediately into an apples-to-apples contractor price comparison.

And then, after all that education and value-building?

Ask for the business.

Imagine that.

Brian and Joe approached selling differently, but I heard a common idea underneath both presentations.

Brian:

Do not recommend until you understand the problem.

Joe:

Do not present the solution until you understand why the problem matters to this customer.

Put those together and you have a pretty good foundation for HVAC sales, would you agree?

Brynn Cooksey Takes It Home: Stop Using Furnace-Era Shortcuts

His Day 2 closer was “Navigating the Heat Pump Jungle: How to Design, Install, and Commission Heat Pumps That Deliver.”

Brynn’s official description was basically the thesis of the session:

Heat pumps do not fail simply because they are heat pumps; design and installation matter enormously.

And Brynn definitely does not have time for that “rule-of-thumb HVAC” foolishness.

We need the receipts:

• Load calculations
• Equipment sizing
• Building science
• Duct design
• Controls
• Commissioning
• Performance verification

His own pre-Summit description emphasized exactly those fundamentals.

One note I wrote down was that heat pumps generally deliver lower-temperature heating air than furnaces.

That means mediocre distribution and sizing decisions can become painfully obvious.

A furnace can sometimes brute-force its way through design sins with very hot supply air.

A heat pump does not necessarily give you that luxury.

Which brings me to one of my favorite conclusions from the entire Summit:

Heat pumps do not create every HVAC design problem. Sometimes they simply expose the ones that were already there.

And gross oversizing is not a strategy.

It is often what happens when nobody wants to do the design work.

Brynn has field receipts to back the swagger, and I appreciate and respect that.

Let the man cook.

The Trade Show Floor: “Hey, I Sell You.”

I’m not going to fib.

I genuinely enjoy trade show vendors doing their thing.

Even when I have absolutely no intention of buying whatever somebody is selling, I like hearing a good booth rep cut a promo.

Tell me why this matters.

What problem does it solve?

What makes it different?

Why are you proud of it?

I am a student of sales.

Watching somebody explain a product they believe in is free film study.

And when it was a manufacturer whose equipment I already sell, I used my favorite opener:

“Hey. I sell you.”

I used it with a SpacePak intern on Day 2.

He was stoked.

I got a hat.

Capitalism functioning exactly as intended.

I also handed out all the JimKHVAC.com stickers I brought with me.

Lesson learned:

Bring more stickers.

The People May Have Been the Best Part

One of my favorite conversations of the entire Summit happened with a legally blind entrepreneur who asked me a simple question:

Why did you start JimKHVAC.com?

I told him:

Because it is my way of giving back to an industry that gave back to me.

Before HVAC, I used to make sandwiches and ladle soup for a living.

There is nothing wrong with that life.

It simply was not going to be the final chapter of mine.

He understood immediately.

He told me he had once worked in a pizza shop before going into door-to-door solar sales and eventually building a home-services technology platform.

The blind man saw exactly what I was seeing.

Careers are not necessarily straight lines.

And HVAC seems to attract an especially interesting collection of people who somehow washed up on this strange Island of Misfit Toys, discovered they were good at something, and started building.

• Technicians
• Contractors
• Salespeople
• Software founders
• Marketers
• Former restaurant workers
• Former everything

Sometimes you do not choose the island.

But once you realize you are on it?

Build something worth staying for.

That is the kind of conversation I would actually love to hear even more of at future Summits.

If We Had Time for One More Session…

This is not criticism of the Summit agenda.

Quite the opposite.

When a conference gives me this many ideas, my brain naturally starts imagining what else could be added someday.

“How the Hell Did You End Up Here? (and What Are You Building Now?)”

Give me contractors, founders, technicians, comfort advisors and industry weirdos telling the five-minute version of how they found HVAC and what they are building from it now.

Pizza shop to solar salesperson to technology founder.

Sandwich maker to HVAC comfort advisor to JimKHVAC.com.

I know there are hundreds of stories like these.

I want to hear them.

“The Next Generation of the HVAC Comfort Advisor”

What happens when technical fluency, AI, diagnostics, building science, homeowner education and personalized sales training all start colliding?

That role is changing.

I think we should talk about where it is going.

“What Actually Changed Your HVAC Business?”

Forget the polished case study for an hour.

Tell us the decision, hire, technology, mistake, process change or philosophy that materially changed your company.

And tell us what failed too.

Again, none of this is:

“Excuse me, U.S. Heat Pump organizers, but…these canapés are unacceptable.”

It is more:

“You built something that got my brain moving. Here are some conversations I would love to hear next.”

Worcester Took Care of Us

A good conference experience extends beyond the presentations.

The DCU Center worked extremely well as the Summit venue, giving the event dedicated conference space upstairs and a substantial exhibition floor downstairs.

The Summit itself specifically expanded dedicated expo time for 2026 and returned to the DCU Center after using it for the prior event as well.

Worcester was an easy city to operate in for a couple of days, and the Hilton Garden Inn Worcester made a convenient home base.

And because apparently this is also a food review now:

Shoutout to the connected Pizzeria Uno for coming through with two solid dinners on consecutive nights.

And the Detroit-style pizza on Night 2 was absolutely crushed by yours truly. No chance.

Brent Davidson and the Future of the U.S. Heat Pump Summit

Finally, credit where it is due.

Brent Davidson and the team of HVAC-industry volunteers behind the U.S. Heat Pump Summit built something special.

The official positioning of the event is essentially where heat pump expertise meets business growth, combining technical instruction with business leadership and contractor connection. After attending, I think that description is accurate.

I had traded emails with Brent before the Summit.

I introduced myself on Day 1.

On the morning of Day 2, I saw him again and dapped him up while telling him how excited I was to keep learning more about building an HVAC business.

He looked tired.

Understandably.

Running an event like this while hundreds of HVAC people simultaneously need directions, microphones, coffee and probably something involving a refrigerant line set cannot be easy.

But what his team built produced exactly what you hope an industry event produces:

• HVAC Ideas
• HVAC Education
• HVAC business relationships
• Debate (about HVAC)
• Exposure to new HVAC technology

And conversations that continue after everyone takes the badge off.

I came to Worcester looking for information.

I left feeling like I had found more of my peoples.

There are certain moments in life where you find yourself surrounded by people who care deeply about the same thing you care about and you think:

Yep. I am where I am supposed to be right now.

That happened to me at the U.S. Heat Pump Summit.

So yes.

If you are asking whether I think the U.S. Heat Pump Summit is worth attending:

I do.

And I am already excited to see where it goes next.

Oh, and one more thing…

I spend my working life selling HVAC systems and helping homeowners make better comfort decisions.

But HVAC has given me much more than a paycheck.

It gave me a career.

It gave me technical knowledge.

It gave me confidence.

It introduced me to people I never would have met otherwise.

And it helped me see a version of my own future that I had not seen before.

That is why I created JimKHVAC.com.

JimKHVAC.com is my way of giving something back to the industry that gave something to me.

It is built for HVAC comfort advisors, sales professionals, career changers, and other people who want to get better at the technical, human and business sides of selling home comfort.

I am also exploring where artificial intelligence can help the next generation of comfort advisors become better prepared, more knowledgeable and more useful to homeowners — without replacing the human relationship at the center of the sale.

Because I do not think I have reached my full potential yet.

Not even close.

Honestly?

I do not think I am standing on the doorstep yet.

I am still driving to the house.

And if there is one idea I keep coming back to, it is this:

Words create worlds.

But words by themselves are not enough.

Actions furnish them.

So keep learning.

Keep showing up.

Keep meeting people.

Keep sharing what you know.

And if this industry has given something to you, find your own way to give something back.

You have no idea what the next chapter might become.

Learn more at JimKHVAC.com