Millions of Americans are upgrading their homes to high-efficiency, all-electric appliances like heat pumps and induction stoves because it lowers their energy bills, improves their air quality and comfort, and saves them time. In fact, more people are installing heat pumps now than traditional gas furnaces. 

But like any home improvement project, there are often headaches and unseen expenses to deal with — enough that sometimes people ditch the project altogether.

That's where Zero Homes comes in: The fast-growing startup is disrupting the heat pump market with its customizable platform that offers users a "remote quote" right from their phone. The free virtual assessment means you can avoid the dozens of quote walk-throughs and four-hour waiting windows you'd typically have to deal with before beginning a home renovation project.

Using sophisticated software, the Zero Homes team can then assess the specifics of your home and build out a personalized design for your heat pump goals — and other home electrification projects like heat pump water heaters and weatherization — all while optimizing costs. 

"Our goal is to have the first time someone comes over to your home to be a functional visit and they're replacing the appliance at that point," Grant Gunnison, CEO of Zero Homes, told The Cool Down.

The team facilitates the whole process — from advisory calls to installation to final inspection — which makes it as seamless as possible. Their specialty is "complexity coordination," as Gunnison put it.

"It's a win-win for everyone: It's easier and cheaper for homeowners, contractors get good work, and we get to go solve climate problems," he told us.

In an exclusive conversation with The Cool Down, Gunnison walked us through how the whole process works — and why Zero Homes' fully customized design can save customers money while helping the planet.

📸 How the Zero Home platform works

Gunnison explained that first, users complete a home "audit" in the Zero Homes app, where you spend roughly half an hour scanning your house with your phone so that proprietary software can create a 3D model of your appliances, your electrical panel, and even the exterior of your house. 

This is also when you would sync your utility bills so those can be factored into pricing.

"Then you schedule a [virtual] appointment with an adviser, and the goal of that advisory call is to first start with, 'Hey, how can I help you? Let's talk about the challenges that you have,'" Gunnison said, like high energy bills, an uncomfortable home, or even just the difficulty of planning a home upgrade project. 

You'll then get a free, full design quote from the Zero Homes team via email that's totally unique to your setup.

For the most part, the Zero Homes team "leverages technology to do all of the pre-construction work without having someone come to the home," Gunnison explained. 

However, for things like ductwork or weatherization, the team will want to do an additional walk-through so the homeowner doesn't need to wriggle through their crawl space on their own, for example.

When you're ready to dive into one or all of the recommended home electrification projects, the team can facilitate the entire installation process with vetted contractors in their network, from job scheduling to final inspections to help with rebates.

"The last piece of this — and we're very heavy handed in this — all of our installations go through a QA [quality assurance] process," Gunnison said. "One of our team members will FaceTime in. They will walk the property with the contractor on-site — contractors are responsible for providing tons of photos in addition to commissioning data before they walk off the job — so we're not just lightly vetting someone and then having them go on a job and [saying] 'Hope it goes well.' Zero owns the risk of the project."

🔎 How high-tech is this software?

The Department of Energy recently awarded Zero Homes' digital platform with an energy assessment validation. This shows that Zero Homes' tech is "just as accurate as sending a human into the house," Gunnison told us. "That's a really big deal, something that I sort of dreamed about for a while."

Zero Homes also received the Manual J certification from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America in 2024. If you've ever had to deal with fixing or installing an HVAC system, "Manual J" may ring a bell — it's typically a complex and time-intensive process that requires an on-site trained technician to complete, often at an additional expense. It's required by national building codes and in many state and local jurisdictions.

But Zero Homes' new technology allows the whole process to be done straight from your phone for free — and it's way faster. 

"The pairing of that is just delivering a really phenomenal value proposition for folks," Gunnison said.

"Building a first-of-a-kind of product is pretty cool," he continued. 

All the more so for Gunnison because a few years back, he switched from designing small-scale satellites for NASA to finding the company and actually building the first Zero Homes product: "Very early days I locked myself in effectively a closet for six months and … got our product out there."

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💰 How does Zero Homes save customers money?

Beyond the pure-play savings from switching to high-efficiency electric appliances, homeowners can save more with Zero Homes in a few different ways.

Within the app: By using the Zero Homes platform and skipping the pre-installation visits, "we are saving [people] $300-500 per visit," Gunnison said. That's because it typically costs local HVAC and electrician businesses 25-30% of the job cost just to come out, quote the job, and acquire customers. 

"Homeowners are paying 25% of their bill just to be acquired. It's crazy," he said. 

By both skipping the costs associated with initial quote visits and connecting customers directly with certified contractors, Zero Homes can pass along all those savings directly to users. 

Plus, by not needing to have a home visit, customers save time by not having to sit around for a four-hour window during a work day.

Behind the scenes: The company works with vetted local contractors to negotiate the best rates and quality for your home. "We put a quality guarantee on top of that by designing the systems ourselves," Gunnison said. That means the company guarantees that the quote you're given before installation is what you pay when everything's wrapped up.

"We also have a flat pricing structure," Gunnison said, "meaning that if you have a 10,000 square foot home and a Ferrari in the front yard, or you have a Civic in the front yard, and your home's 500 square feet — we charge our [same] price, and that's, in my opinion, the right way to run a business."

Through the fine print: Many home electrification projects qualify for incentives from the government, like $2,000 off select heat pumps (and often much more). But navigating the fine print can get tricky, especially if you're just starting out.

"We do all the paperwork," Gunnison said. Right from the get-go, when users get their home advisory plan, the Zero Homes team shows them all the incentives that are available.

"When someone gets an actual quote from us, it comes with every single rebate that we can get our hands on," he said. "And if we can process the paperwork, we do that."

⚡ How long does the process take?

Once a user scans their home to complete the audit, Gunnison said it takes roughly 36 hours to get a free quote from the team. From there, they can schedule a time to meet with an adviser to ask questions and talk specifics. 

One of Zero Homes' main goals is to get homeowners "unstuck" as fast as possible. "If we can, at minimum, provide all the information so people understand what they're up against, then they can actually make a decision," Gunnison said. "But often people get stuck in the process because they're missing one of like five things," such as: 

• Who can I trust? 
• What's it going to cost? 
• Is this actually going to solve my problem? 
• How do you get all these incentives? Is there financing? 
• Is this on the timeline that's going to work for me?

"All of those things have to be solved, otherwise someone gets stuck," Gunnison said. "That is the bar for us in terms of delivery."

💡 Top-notch appliances and electrification setups

Heat pump installations are the bread and butter for Zero Homes, but the company also helps install water heaters, induction cooktops, and EV chargers, as well as make electrical upgrades and insulation updates.

The emphasis is "really getting people off gas," Gunnison said, focusing on "the four main appliances in the home: cooking, water heating, space heating, clothes drying [and] the electrical work attached to that."

"The important thing is that we do something that other people aren't doing. … There aren't people today that can really meaningfully create a step-function change in terms of the customer experience for all the other four devices. And so that's why we're really focused on," he said.

🗺️ Where does Zero Homes currently operate?

Users in California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Minnesota can access Zero Homes' first-of-its-kind software and complete experience.

"My hope is that by the end of this year, we're probably able to serve folks in more than a dozen states," Gunnison said. "We'll get there — a lot of elbow grease to put in between things, but I think it's going to be really fun."

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