California Musician Pens Love Song to Heat Pumps

For HVAC contractors looking for an enticing way to introduce the topic of heat pumps to their customers, they might want to give “(I’m Your) Heat Pump” [below] a listen — and then tell their homeowner clients to do the same.

“(I’m Your) Heat Pump” is a soft, funky, R&B love song written from the perspective of a heat pump. It’s funny, but after watching the video and listening to the lyrics, one can’t help but feel that it accurately depicts everything a heat pump has to offer — round-the-clock comfortability, dependability, lower carbon emissions — in a way that hasn’t been done before.

“Baby, tell me what you want … Cool days …? Warm nights …? Yeah, sometimes we all need a little help to make everything just right, not too hot, not too cold … Goldilocks,” the lyrics croon. Sounds like a love song, right?

The video then fades into a hero shot of a Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US (METUS) heat pump. “And what I wanna tell you, babe, is I got the tools to hit that sweet spot, every time, I wanna help you, babe, wanna blow your mind…”

And with sweet talk like that, who wouldn’t be on board?

The music and lyrics were written by musician and teacher, Michael T. Roberts, who also plays guitar, bass, and sings backup vocals on the track. Its true inception came from Roberts’ personal experience with electrification. It seemed like an area where he could “do good,” he said.

A few years ago, Roberts rid his home in Berkley, California of all gas appliances, like the furnace, stove, and water heater, and converted to all-electric — including solar appliances and the heat pump that provided the inspiration for the song. Add in Roberts’ climate advocacy and volunteer work with the nonprofit The Switch Is On — an initiative launched in 2019 by the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC) — and his passion for music, and “(I’m Your) Heat Pump” was born.

“I’ve been doing [climate advocacy] and other kinds of work for few years, and I enjoy it … but sometimes it felt like it was a lot of emails and calls,” Roberts said. “I started thinking, ‘What if I can combine this work with what I really love to do?’ Which is to write music and play music.”

He also credits the inspiration for the song to Friday Apaliski, communications director at The Switch Is On.

“Friday and I had this great conversation, and I just kind of put it out there and was like, ‘Maybe I can write some music about electrification,’ and Friday was very encouraging, so that sort of put it into the realm of possibility for me,” Roberts said.

From there, Roberts did what he always does when writing music. He sat down and played with some ideas lyrically, this time revolving around electrification.

“I naturally gravitated to the heat pump partially, because it’s kind of the most important part of the electrification portfolio,” Roberts said. “If you’re going to swap one thing out in your house for a gas appliance, [a heat pump is] the most impactful, because it’s going to be the biggest savings in terms of your emissions, and also probably the biggest financial savings down the road. So I wanted to start with the most important thing first.”

“Heat pump” in itself quickly brought a lot of ideas to what Roberts called his “sophomoric part” of his brain.

“I love funk music and R&B music and the whole tradition of it being like very romantic and all about love,” Roberts said. The song is chock-full of funny HVAC innuendos, and its lead vocalist, Will Hammond Jr., Roberts’ bandmate and music publisher, gives it that soothing, soul-fueling touch.

MORE TO COME: Since the release of “(I’m Your) Heat Pump” there’s been an increased appetite for more songs of the like. Pictured: Michael T. Roberts left, and Will Hammond Jr., right. (Courtesy of Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC))

Roberts hopes the song achieves what it set out to do.

“My goal was to provide a really accessible viewpoint to people who don’t know about heat pumps or electrification at all, and introduce them to the idea of it in a fun way,” he said. “Maybe they hear it not because they’re interested in heat pumps, but it’s just a song that people pass around, and in the process, they learn a little something.”

It’s sort of like Schoolhouse Rock: catchy, entertaining, and educational.

“Maybe someone’ll listen at a time when their gas furnaces are working fine, and they might not know what a heat pump is … but then when it comes time to retire their gas furnace, maybe now they’ll know there’s another option out there that’s going to give them heating as well as cooling, is more efficient, and could save them some money,” Roberts said.

Roberts also wanted the lyrics to communicate the fact that heat pumps also provide cooling.

“It’s not called a heat cool pump, it’s called a heat pump,” he said. “So they might not know that, or that it’s all-electric, or super-efficient, so there were certain things I wanted to communicate. It’s no accident that you hear about both heating and cooling multiple times during the song … If people only take away one thing, I want it to be that … and I want it to feel accessible to them.”