Her company "engineers better climate experiences" - indoors and out. This translates into cutting-edge products such as heat pumps via their brand called Midea, which means "beautiful" in Chinese.

Heat pumps are heaters and air conditioners in one. The heat pump, when it's an air conditioner, works just like the regular kind - by removing unwanted heat from your home and "pumping" it outdoors. It also provides heating by reversing the process: picking up heat from the outside (even when it's cold) and pumping it into your house to keep it warm.

They are becoming increasing popular. Why? Because in addition to the ability to warm and cool your indoor environment in one system (and in one window), they are more efficient and cost-effective, easy to install, good for the environment, and adhere to the upcoming NYC air and energy laws.

Dr. Zhang has wisely created a showroom in Queens, New York where anyone can see and learn about heat pumps and a variety of heating and cooling offerings.

Susan is called doctor because she has a degree for piano performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music, but we'll get to that later.

Lese Dunton: Are heat pumps available for purchase one at a time for individual buyers? Let's say an apartment dweller or homeowner educates themselves at your showroom, can they then just buy it?

Dr. Wenquing Susan Zhang: The nutshell answer is yes. But after yes, there is a different way of approaching it.

Most of time in the US, the industry of cooling and heating for a homeowner is a leap of faith.

For example, let's say you own a house or you have an apartment, and there's something going on with the heat pump or HVAC cooling system. As a building resident, usually you would reach out to building management. It's through one hand. With a single house homeowner, they would usually reach out to a contractor directly. If you live in a single house or a mansion, it doesn't matter. It is the contractor who approaches when you have a problem - whether it's to see if you would be interested in upgrading your system or hearing some news...but you never see what's going behind your wall. Believe it or not, it's one of the major investments per household - besides the roof, the car, and the house itself.

HVAC is a big chunk of investment, but consumers never get the chance to understand what's coming into the home. Consumers can't be thoroughly educated, except when the contractor comes with a proposal. That's why I say it's a leap of faith.

So we had this idea of a showroom. We want the showroom to become an informational hub for contractors, for utility companies, for the colleagues of other brands, and mainly for consumers. Can I choose this? Can I have that? You can get an education and see the actual units in our showroom. That's the purpose of it.

We still are respecting the rule of US trade because in this industry, it is really separated. Wholesaler, distributor, contractor, and homeowner. That's really four segments. Normally, if the homeowner wants to go into a distributor's HVAC supply house, they might be reluctant to talk to you because they think it would be hard to get you to understand about the HVAC accessories that go along with it. For example, how does this angle for this stock work? What about the air supply, the air return? You will think, "My God, I'm overwhelmed."

The distributors are the one to link the products. A professional contractor can help translate every language between you, the manufacturer, and the product itself to help you understand - but now in the US, there's a great number of the population who are very savvy with technology. They learn about technology ahead of time. They're early birds and early adopters.

The consumer could say, you know what? I have idea with this technology, with this equipment, and I would love to put it in my home. And the contractor will say, let me go search for it because my customer wants it. There's a two-way.

LD: So the contractor could be any contractor who knows things. They don't have to be the contractor for the building necessarily?

DZ: Correct. So usually for a contractor who has been in business for HVAC in general, they aren't necessarily really loyal to one brand. They probably favor certain brands because they offer a number of units, but not necessarily loyal to anybody. But when they are educated about new technology, about new equipment, they can recommend it to the customer.

LD: It's very interesting. We live in a time of people doing their homework, especially about things like the healthy experience of their indoor life. Is it safe to say in the short term or long term that the energy bills will go down because of this efficient technology?

DZ: Oh yes, for the long run. I always tell people don't look at the short span. If you feel like, oh no, my winter bill is higher...then look at the whole year. Don't forget that with summer, fall and spring, you have a 50 percent saving. Looking at the overall 12 months is when you actually save money. When you're using oil to heat the home, and suddenly you change to the heat pump, without a doubt, in 12 months, you're saving money.

LD: Does the heat pump include a filter or purifier for the air?

DZ: A purifier can be added. And for each HVAC system, of course there's a filter into it. After COVID, we have upgraded our filter to MERV 13 for high capacity filtering of the air to make sure, especially in the senior house, when they're adopting the heating and cooling system.

LD: I heard that when you got into this business, you pivoted from piano. What was that like?

DZ: I started piano when I was five and I had a very successful childhood. When I was eight, I already got into a prodigy school in China and the highest ranking you can ever imagine. So in my whole lifetime from my childhood, elementary, middle school, high school, college, and doctorate degree, it was very smooth. Then I came to United States and studied at Eastman.

Eastman is ranked as the top one with Julliard. I had my bachelor, masters and the doctoral degree, and got admitted to Paris Conservatory and the Vienna Conservatory. So I've been with the top tier all the time.

When I graduated and was teaching, my mother thought I needed to be a bit more grounded. I had been involved with only the piano since I was five. All my world was practice rooms, four walls and piano, nothing else. I didn't want to communicate with people. All I needed to do was bow. You don't have to look at anybody and talk with anybody. So I thought, this a challenge, what can I do?

That was the time when the United States was going through the biggest deregulation after telecom. That got my attention. I had never seen how economics or politics works. So I started learning about deregulation, doing consulting work part time, and understanding what a public utility is. I thought it was fascinating. You see the how whole world functions with energy, how the wholesale market works, and the risk analysis.

I didn't give up the teaching until one day I said, no, I'm out. I had to walk away and resign. I learned from the sector of energy consulting, and then to solar, until I got into HVAC.

LD: What piano kind of consciousness and skills were transferred nicely into what you're doing now?

DZ: I think with the performing arts, especially piano, it's very exciting because you prepare so well, but the moment you're on the stage, you don't know what's going to happen. It's faith. But when you prepare really well, there is spontaneity coming along with it too.

And so there are a few things I can carry out from the music world to my business. One is laser focus. The second thing is that every single customer is different. So it's unknown. What I know is my product, I know my company, I know my passion. But what is unknown is the person right in front me. I've never dealt with them before and that's a new dynamic. I have to learn how to adopt it immediately and then find the comfort zone for both of us together to find that pivot relationship. That's something very interesting. I've never felt bored with it.

We got a gift from one of our customers who didn't want to use their piano any more - but it was a gem for me. A 1915 Steinway with dual art. I have it in our showroom.

At the Midea Showroom

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