I think this really highlights the crux of the issue, which is just that the “tribal knowledge” of how to operate the equipment isn’t there and it’s something that education would probably help.

Like, many people’s fathers have probably shown them how to relight the pilot lights on their furnaces and hot water heaters. And if not, the “handy person” on your block would know.

Understanding how to own and operate heat pumps effectively might not be as second nature.

Understanding how to validate the extreme weather functionality of your heating system is super important. Knowing the difference between “normal” and “something is fucked up”… especially before an extreme weather event is pretty important. I’m pretty handy, but absolutely nobody in my area runs heat pumps residentially…

… but that’s probably just because of a lack of uptake rather than a real economic reason. Solar is exploding in my area as a result of increasing power costs and a great environment for it.

As it’s adopted and as people learn how to use, maintain and troubleshoot them I expect problems like that will become more sparse.