Last year, when Shreyas Sudhakar started a heat pump installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area, he realized he wouldn’t be able to find new customers by promising to bring down their utility bills.

Electric heat pumps are around three times more efficient than gas appliances, and Sudhakar’s clients typically use less energy overall after making the switch. But they also use more electricity. And if they live in a part of California serviced by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) or one of the state’s two other investor-owned utilities (IOUs), the savings they may have come to associate with the technology will likely prove elusive.

“I have to do a lot of tempering expectations, to be honest,” said Sudhakar, who also publishes the newsletter Heat Pumped. “It’s hard for me to put my hand on my heart and say ‘Yes, this will save you money.’ For most people, it ends up being around the same.”

That’s a tough pill to swallow given that the upfront cost of buying and installing a heat pump averages around $19,000 in California. In many other parts of the country, the upfront cost is seen as a worthwhile investment given the promise of a lower operating cost over time. But these days Sudhakar often fields requests from people who want to run both “a heat pump and a gas furnace as a backstop so they can hedge their bets.” Read more in Inside Climate News.