BDCC Announces Grant Award to We Clean Heat Pumps
Grant Wished For. Wish Granted.
BDCC is pleased to announce the awarding of a Vermont Economic Development Grant to We Clean Heat Pumps. Based in Brattleboro, We Clean Heat Pumps, as their name implies, specializes in the deep cleaning and inspection of air-source heat pump systems, leading to dramatic improvements in energy efficiency, equipment longevity, and indoor air quality. This grant will allow the company to acquire the equipment needed to hire another new technician as they try to keep up with the ever-growing demand for their service.
“The annual deep cleaning of heat pump systems is required by the equipment manufacturers,” says company founder Gabriel Erde-Cohen, “but it is often ignored by installers and service providers who are too busy with higher value work to give it the attention it deserves.”
A Side-hustle Becomes a Booming Business
In 2018 Gabriel’s wife, Anya Bredbeck, and father-in-law, Eric Shenholm, operated a Vermont-based company installing solar energy and heat pump systems. They were planning to come back and clean their customers’ heat pumps but were out straight trying to keep up with the demand for new installations. They asked Gabriel if he would do the cleanings. At first, Gabriel wasn’t particularly interested in the heat pump cleaning business, being focused on agriculture at the time. Eventually Gabriel agreed to help them out as a side-hustle.
Through an early partnership with Green Mountain Power, business grew and Gabriel traveled the length and breadth of the state to clean customers’ heat pumps. The demand was so strong, he began to wonder if other installers would also be interested in this kind of service. He reached out to several HVAC companies and quickly learned there was a dire need for a high quality, deep cleaning service, and that none existed. A business was born.
In the course of doing his research, Gabriel came across a couple of international franchises in the field, but nobody doing what We Clean Heat Pumps is doing. “We have a very different business model,” he says, adding, “There’s nobody like us in the United States.”
Despite what would seem to be a logical assumption about someone who runs a highly successful cleaning business, Gabriel is not obsessed with cleaning, but he is passionate about providing exceptional service to his customers and taking care of his team. He sees this business as an opportunity to have a positive impact on sustainability, not just for the environment but for employees and their families. The company pays above living wage and treats everyone really well. “I believe our strength is in finding great people who care about what we’re doing, then training and supporting them to make customer satisfaction the number one goal,” says Gabriel.
Continuous Growth on Two Fronts
Recently, We Clean Heat Pumps started offering franchises, with two already successfully operating in South Carolina and New Jersey. The company is also expanding organically. They currently operate throughout New England, along with the capital region of New York, down into New York City.
Since its inception in 2018, the company has experienced significant growth and currently has more than 3,000 customers. What began as Gabriel working solo has evolved into two separate companies, employing three owner operators, two administrators, and nine—make that ten technicians, thanks to the grant arranged by BDCC. Gabriel says his goal is steady growth—not so fast that the company gets top-heavy, yet not so slow that the need for this kind of service isn’t being met. Eventually, between franchising and organic expansion, the company expects to be nationwide and in Canada within a few years.
When asked what he considers to be the biggest challenge to expansion, Gabriel quickly replies, “Education. First, there’s the training of the technicians, which can take place here at our offices, out in the field, or even at the facilities of the heat pump manufacturers, who are 100% behind our efforts.” The other side of the education challenge is creating awareness among the public that an annual deep clean of their heat pump system is absolutely essential to efficient operation and healthier indoor air.
“I tell people it’s like changing the oil and air filters on your car,” says Gabriel. “If you don’t do it, you’ll have bigger and more expensive equipment failures down the road, not to mention the nasty side effects of poor indoor air quality.” To educate the public Gabriel relies primarily on advertising on social media sites such as Front Porch. Indeed, that was part of the BDCC grant application: whatever the state of Vermont provided for equipment acquisition, We Clean Heat Pumps would match in advertising dollars.
This isn’t the company’s first interaction with BDCC, who provided some initial consultation to Gabriel and his partners, as well as a small loan. “They offered a lot of good feedback and were very helpful,” says Gabriel. He also attended a BDCC workshop on how to write an effective business plan. As for this Economic Development Grant, Gabriel says he would not have known of its existence had he not received an email sent by BDCC to area businesses alerting them to the availability of such grants.
“I think BDCC is a great resource,” says Gabriel. “They do a great job here in Southern Vermont. We’re fortunate to have them.”
