EP253 The HVAC Trust Gap, and the Directory Built to Close It With Kevin R. Hart, Huff Hoffmaster & Darren Reuter (January 2026)

Quotes from the episode:

“Better isn’t a goal, it’s a direction.”

“HVAC can feel like a house of mirrors for homeowners, and the cure is transparency plus measured results.”

“We’re not trying to find the perfect contractor. We’re trying to find the contractor who keeps learning and won’t get complacent.”

In this episode of the Building HVAC Science Podcast, Eric Kaiser flips the script and brings Bill Spohn on as a guest alongside Kevin Hart from Better HVAC and Darren Reuter and Huff Hoffmaster from Rewiring America. The group lays out a shared problem: homeowners face a significant information disadvantage when buying HVAC, often making a five-figure decision with no easy way to verify quality beyond marketing, promises, or price. That gap leads to mistrust, inconsistent outcomes, and too many “box swaps” that miss sizing, duct performance, commissioning, and homeowner education.

Better HVAC exists to tip the odds back toward the homeowner by connecting people to contractors and individuals who commit to doing measured, commissioned work, and by aggregating trusted educational resources in one place. Rewiring America adds the consumer education and electrification planning layer, plus a push to scale adoption responsibly, with real contractor standards behind it. The partnership ties those strengths together: instead of building separate directories, they align on a shared pledge and a badging approach that helps homeowners and peers filter for contractors who are trained, insured, licensed, and willing to follow best practices, especially for heat pumps and whole-home electrification journeys that also include weatherization and energy auditing.

Rewiring America’s website: https://www.rewiringamerica.org/

BetterHVAC website:https://betterhvac.org/

BetterHVAC Pledge: https://betterhvac.org/pledge

Huff’s LinkedIn :https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-huff-hoffmaster-ii-766b3a36/

Kevin’s LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinrhart/
Darren’s LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenreuter98/

Bill’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billspohn/

Corbett’s list: https://homediagnosis.tv/hvac-installers

This episode was recorded in January 2026