NEEA launches new campaign for ductless heat pumps

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The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance aims to capture consumer attention with a new campaign.

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance unveiled a new consumer campaign Tuesday that will aim to further promote ductless heat pumps as an efficient choice for replacing electric heat.

The whimsical campaign taunts with the line, "The '70s called, and they want their heater back" and features online videos of the "King of HVAC" and interactive online postcards. A chance to win $10,000 for looking into the technology. It's the latest move in the ductless heat pump program launched by NEEA in 2008.

Alexis Allan, residential operations manager for NEEA, said the campaign is meant to capture some of the enthusiasm of customers who have already installed ductless heat pumps under the program, which provides a financial incentive for installation of the technology which saves homeowners between 25 percent and 50 percent on heating bills.

"This is a way to capture how much the customer loves it," Allan said.

The ductless systems, much more common in Europe than in the U.S., have been installed in 11,846 buildings in the Northwest since the program kicked off. NEEA's goal is to install them in more than 150,000 homes in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. The program targets homes with outdated electric baseboard heat. The program works with 91 participating utilities to get the word out to customers that going ductless can be a cost-effective replacement for expensive electric heat.

Lena Witter, spokeswoman for Clark County Public Utilities District, said PUD customers have installed 1,871 ductless heat pumps since 2008.

"The program has been very much a success for us," Witter said. "It's the perfect system to replace out-of-date electric heating and it uses half the power of baseboard heat."

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