It’s always interesting to note the latest trends in terminology, especially when changes are seemingly made in response to market conditions.

We’re all familiar with competing manufacturers using different names to describe basically the same piece of equipment.

But now some of them have evidently decided to take advantage of the growing focus on heat pumps.

We reckon that if you go back only a matter of months, VRF or VRV systems were pretty much always referred to as air conditioning. Today, they are just as likely to be described as air-to-air heat pump solutions.

The description is entirely correct, of course. Air conditioning is essentially an air-to-air heat pump and such systems able to supply both heating and cooling can now be added to the government’s Energy Technology List (ETL) of efficient equipment.

So, although the change in focus is perhaps a bit confusing to the casual observer, it’s actually clever marketing.

Think about how many times the term “heat pump” is currently being entered into search engines, and the new approach suddenly makes perfect sense.