The Heat Pump relay race

We talk a lot about equipment performance, install quality, and the slow, steady work of getting more heat pumps into more homes. What I didn’t fully appreciate (until I kept bumping into it again and again) is how much of electrification is gated by something way less glamorous:

Can the right stuff show up, in the right place, at the right time?

That’s why I was excited to sit down with RJ Cilley, CEO of Voomi Supply, a national B2B e-commerce distributor for HVAC (and related trades). Like me, RJ wasn’t always in the HVAC industry. His background is in finance and e-commerce. But that’s kind of the point: he’s bringing an “online retail” playbook to one of the most relationship-driven, offline-heavy supply chains in America.

The more we talked, the more it emphasized how distribution is one of the hidden levers behind whether heat pumps scale smoothly… or hit friction in places you’d never expect.

🎧 Listen to the full episode

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HVAC distribution is a relay race (with a lot of handoffs)

RJ described the traditional flow like this:

OEM → master distributor → sub distributor → local distributor → contractor → customer

If you’ve never been exposed to that chain, it sounds almost comical.

How does everyone make money? Is it just markup on markup on markup?

What I appreciated in RJ’s answer is that he didn’t pretend the system is “clean”—instead, he framed it as an ecosystem where each step can provide real value if they’re excellent at their niche.

The more you sit with it, the more it makes sense that each layer is doing something real. The local supply house isn’t just a warehouse. It’s:

• a relationship

• a troubleshooting desk

• a “don’t worry, I’ll find it” hotline
  …plus, yes, a place that has the 10,000 things you need every day.

The problem is the other million things you don’t need every day—until you do.

Which brings me to something I’ve seen firsthand…

The sheer number of HVAC parts is… absurd

If you’ve never been behind the counter at a supply house, it’s hard to explain how much there is behind there. It’s not just “ductwork.” It’s six-inch duct, seven-inch duct, eight-inch duct… and all of them needed for different jobs. Then multiply that by every fitting, every control, every accessory, every brand, and every “this got discontinued in 2009 but someone still needs it”, because old equipment is still out there, still running, still breaking.

RJ made a point that stuck with me:

• It’s physically and economically impossible to stock everything in one location.

• There is a huge opportunity in aggregating nationwide inventory so that the weird control board sitting in Texas can solve an emergency in the Northeast.

And if you’re thinking about heat pump adoption in places where heat pumps aren’t yet “normal,” this matters a lot.

Heat pumps don’t scale if nobody stocks them

I keep thinking about something Nate Adams told me: in places like Chicago, supply houses just… didn’t stock heat pumps. Contractors couldn’t easily get equipment. Which means even motivated contractors hit friction.

RJ made a simple point: the internet “democratizes” access. If something is taking off in one region, a national digital channel can help other regions catch up—at least on the availability side.

Awareness and training are still huge. But availability is a quiet limiter we don’t talk about enough.

E-commerce isn’t replacing relationships (it’s learning to mimic them)

I probably text my distributor reps more than I text my wife… HVAC is built on relationships. Doesn’t e-commerce flatten all of that into a soulless “click to buy” experience?

What RJ has found: contractors still want help. Even if they’re ordering online.

He shared that roughly half of the calls their service center gets are pre-purchase calls; asking about pricing, availability, compatibility, and all the same things they’d ask across a counter.

So instead of pretending the industry will instantly become self-serve, Voomi is leaning into a hybrid model:

• Yes, you can order online.

• But there’s still human support when you need it.

If you try to “disrupt” an industry by ignoring what it does well, you usually faceplant. HVAC does service and trust well. Any online model that works here has to respect that.

We’ve learned the same lesson at Vayu, as we install heat pumps for California homeowners. While the majority of our sales and design process happens online, there’s still a ton of relationship building and personal touches that go into each project. You don’t just click a button and have a heat pump show up on your doorstep in a week.

Heat pumps are an education game

We got into heat pumps more directly (because of course we did). RJ made a simple point that I think is easy to overlook:

The internet democratizes awareness.

That matters because heat pump adoption is still uneven. There are places where contractors are fluent, equipment is stocked, and homeowners have heard the pitch. And there are other places where heat pumps are still treated like an exotic import.

RJ talked about seeing “pockets” of demand show up in the data. When certain cities or regions are ordering certain types of equipment, that’s a signal. And when they see that signal come up, they know to go after it.

He also mentioned he shared one of my heat pump explainer videos with his team, which made me laugh a little because it’s a reminder that even inside HVAC, education is ongoing. None of us are done learning.

Scaling heat pumps requires boring infrastructure to work really well

It’s hard to normalize heat pumps in a market if:

• contractors can’t reliably get equipment,

• replacement parts are confusing,

• data is messy,

• and the supply chain is still optimized for yesterday’s defaults.

RJ is approaching that problem from an e-commerce lens—catalog depth, inventory aggregation, data confidence, and making it easier to find the obscure thing you need when the local supply house strikes out.

Is that the whole solution? Definitely not.

But it’s one of those “unsexy” building blocks that, if done well, makes everything else easier.

And I’ll take easier, wherever we can get it.

🎧 Listen to the full episode for the complete conversation with RJ—especially if you want a clearer picture of how HVAC distribution really works and how it’s the bedrock of electrification.

PS: Onto a sexier topic…

Getting heat pumped! We’re organizing another group buy in LA and the SF Bay Area with Vayu with negotiated pricing, expert installations, and rebate support. The last one filled up quick.

Interested? Let us know below. Spots are limited once we reach capacity.