TL;DR, If you are interested in getting a heat pump for heating and cooling and happen to live in Vayu's service area, you should definitely hit up Shreyas. He solves for each home individually with technical rigor and a keen sense of pragmatism, maximizing both comfort and value-for-money and leaving you (the customer) with a solid grasp of the sticky issues around HVAC. Great choice if you want to 1) modernize your heating and cooling 2) install quality equipment without overpaying 3) collect some nice rebates 4) deal with minimal hassle 5) decarbonize your home.
I had a terrific experience working with Shreyas and his team at Vayu to replace my existing A/C and furnace with a new heat pump for our central ducted setup. I was floored by his technical expertise and relentless focus on customer value, ultimately leaving us with an excellent deal on a properly sized installation as well as a wealth of insight on heating and cooling our home properly.
I came across Vayu by way of their excellent blog and podcast, where I incidentally learned quite a bit about both the pros and complications of going electric for heating and cooling in California. Shreyas conducted several different analyses to determine the required load and ideal equipment, incorporating our historical energy bills as well as our current comfort level during summer and winter. Since we had already spent quite a bit on home upgrades this season, he also recommended a value-priced brand which offered the same benefits as (or rather happens to be physically identical to) premium-branded hardware.
Paperwork and installation were a breeze. Vayu's subcontractor Tommy was swift and professional, leaving a clean install with no mess. Shreyas quickly took care of permits, rebates, and applying for the $10k interest-free loan through Peninsula Clean Energy, while dispensing pages upon pages of bespoke advice over email. He really went above and beyond to ensure that we got the best heat pump solution within our parameters, rather than trying to upsell us on fancy equipment or extra services.
The only complication arose when the system failed the 3rd party HERS test, meaning the previously existing ducts were found to be very leaky. Although the problems were not of Vayu's making, the team worked with the testing company to make the necessary mitigations to clear the install for final inspection. Shreyas also helped me come up with an action plan to improve the leaky ductwork situation in the future, rather than pushing through expensive repair work in the short term.
We're now well into a chilly December and I'm pretty confident in saying that our heat pump system is an upgrade on the previous A/C + furnace setup. It does a better job in terms of steadily keeping our home warm (cool), rather than sending blasts of hot air out of the registers and producing big swings in perceived room temperature. Basically, we're less aware of the HVAC system battling the elements to the point where it's hard to know when it's particularly cold/hot outdoors. Energy electricity costs seem more or less in line with what we had been spending on gas previously. read more