Whose Heat Pump?

A demographic overview of current U.S. heat pump users

As shown on the previous pages, according to the 2020 RECS, 17.75 million people across the U.S. already use a heat pump as their primary home heating equipment, 1.12 million use a ductless heat pump as their primary heating equipment, and another 0.94 million use a ductless heat pump as secondary heating equipment.

To quote the great comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, “Who are these people?” That’s what this article seeks to determine. Here, drawing again from the 2020 RECS, Oil & Energy documents U.S. heat pump use by census region, housing unit type, owner/renter status, year of construction, household income, and number of household members.

This should help provide home energy marketers with a general demographic profile of the typical heat pump user. Note: this article only documents heat pump use as space heating; additional information on ductless heat pump use as air conditioning is available in the article “Who Are Your Competitors’ Customers?” and online at eia.gov/recs.

Number of housing units (millions)
Heat pump use by U.S. census region
	Northeast	Midwest	South	West
Use Heat Pump as Primary Heating	0.88	1.16	13.58	2.13
Southern Comfort TMore than 3 in 4 heat pump users live in the South. This region is significantly hotter than the rest of the country, so homes there don’t need heating systems with high thermal capacity.
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Primary Heating Equipment	0.26	0.08	0.43	0.36
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Secondary Heating Equipment	0.41	0.09	0.29	0.16
Heat pump use by type of housing unit
	Single-Family Detached	Single-Family Attached	Apartments (2-4 Units)	Apartments (5+ Units)	Mobile Home
Use Heat Pump as Primary Heating	11.33	0.79	1.03	2.98	1.62
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Primary Heating Equipment	0.60	0.08	Q	0.31	Q
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Secondary Heating Equipment	0.81	0.05	Q	Q	Q
Heat pump use by owner/renter status
	Own Total	Rent Total	Own Home	Rent Home	Own Apt.	Rent Apt.
Use Heat Pump as Primary Heating	12.27	5.48	11.86	1.88	0.41	3.60
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Primary Heating Equipment	0.75	0.38	0.71	Q	Q	0.34
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Secondary Heating Equipment	0.88	0.06	0.88	Q	N	Q
Heat pump use by year of construction
	Before 1950	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-99	2000-09	10-15	16-20
Use Heat Pump as Primary Heating	1.11	1.05	1.44	2.60	3.00	3.27	3.04	1.16	1.08
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Primary Heating Equipment	0.19	0.09	0.09	0.17	0.18	0.13	0.09	0.08	0.09
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Secondary Heating Equipment	0.20	0.10	0.06	0.16	0.15	0.12	0.10	Q	Q
Heat pump use by household income
	Less than $5K	$5K-$9.9K	$10K-$19.9K	$20K-$39.9K	$40K-$59.9K	$60K-$99.9K	$100K-$149.9K	$150K+
Use Heat Pump as Primary Heating	0.57	0.56	1.46	3.63	3.08	4.05	2.20	2.20
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Primary Heating Equipment	Q	Q	Q	0.15	0.07	0.33	0.22	0.18
A Luxury Purchase Notably few if any ductless heat pump users live below the poverty line ($21,960 for a three-family household). There could be several reasons for this, but one is most likely high equipment costs.
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Secondary Heating Equipment	Q	Q	Q	0.08	0.16	0.18	0.20	0.27
Heat pump use by number of household members
	1 Member	2 Members	3 Members	4 Members	5 or More Members
Use Heat Pump as Primary Heating	4.47	7.24	2.39	2.11	1.54
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Primary Heating Equipment	0.31	0.43	0.12	0.14	0.12
Use Ductless Heat Pump as Secondary Heating Equipment	0.12	0.45	0.11	0.16	0.11

Q = Data withheld because either the relative standard error (RSE) was greater than 50% or fewer than 10 households were in the reporting sample.
N = No households in reporting sample.

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