Last year, Marie Tai faced a dilemma familiar to many: her window AC units were useless, her 16-year-old cat Mittens was recovering from a car accident, and climate change was turning Boston summers into a sauna. She wanted a heat pump - the all-electric Swiss Army knife of home comfort - but three contractors quoted her $28,000 to $40,000 for her 1,000-square-foot condo. Tai, who heads finance at Harvard’s Project Zero, wisely hit pause.
Then she discovered a heat pump group-buy program via Facebook, organized by Laminar Collective, a local startup that aggregates demand and coordinates installations. The concept is simple: installers buy equipment in bulk, spend less time chasing leads, and pass the savings to customers. Tai signed up for a ductless minisplit system for $20,000 - thousands less than her lowest quote - plus an $8,500 state rebate and 0% financing over eight years.
The result? She saved roughly $1,300 on energy bills last year, ditched fuel oil heating, and now enjoys whisper-quiet, air-filtering units that improved her allergies. Mittens is comfortable and thriving. “I couldn’t be happier,” Tai said.
Tai isn’t alone. Across the U.S., homeowners are banding together for heat pump group buys, securing discounts of 10 to 20 percent - about $3,000 to $6,000 per installation. Think Costco muffins versus Starbucks: bulk buying works. This approach is gaining traction even as the Trump administration dismantles electrification incentives, including eliminating a $2,000 federal tax credit and blocking home energy-efficiency rebates for gas-to-electric conversions.
Whole-home heat pump installations typically range from $17,000 to $30,000, per Rewiring America, but upfront costs can cause sticker shock. “Even though homeowners often save significantly over time, the first quotes can bring real sticker shock,” said Cole Merrick, CEO of VoltHub, an online heat-pump marketplace. VoltHub and contractor Vayu organized a California group-buy program this spring, covering Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Bay Area.
Most HVAC replacements are emergencies, noted Vayu CEO Shreyas Sudhakar, but group buys are ideal for households that can wait - usually several weeks to six months - as slots fill and pricing is finalized. Customers can back out without penalty. These programs come in various forms: grassroots efforts, contractor-led, or third-party aggregators like iChoosr, which uses its Switch Together platform to coordinate deals. Since 2023, iChoosr has helped over 5,100 U.S. homeowners get solar panels or batteries, and it launched heat pump group buys in the Colorado Front Range and Washington, D.C., area last year, installing systems for about 90 households. This spring, more than 1,000 households have signed up, and iChoosr plans to expand to Houston, Dallas, Chicago, and northern Arizona.
For contractors, group buys are a boon. Elephant Energy, working with iChoosr in Colorado, saves about $300 per project, said CEO DR Richardson. They also smooth out demand in a highly seasonal industry where two months can generate 70 to 80 percent of annual revenue. “To be able to have some guaranteed revenue … is really valuable,” said Sudhakar.
Yet these programs aren’t everywhere. Fred Wu of iChoosr recommends homeowners contact city and county leaders to express interest. “The first thing we need … is a local government that wants to bring this to their constituents,” he said. For Tai, the experience was empowering: no sales pressure, time to ask questions, and a neighbor who followed suit after hearing her story.