0

I'm working on a report about the opportunity for homeowners to replace their central ACs with heat pumps. I'm running into trouble with the phrase "AC-to-heat pump switch."

Should it be:

  • "AC-to-heat pump switch" or
  • "AC-to-heat-pump switch"

My instinct says the first one since "heat pump" wouldn't normally be hyphenated. But that option also makes it sound like I'm talking about pump switches, which is incorrect.

Improve this question
7
  • 1
    Definitely the second one. "AC-to-heat-pump" is the kind of switch it is.
    – Doug Warren
    Commented Oct 11 at 14:21
  • canarymedia.com/articles/heat-pumps/… supports option 2 as well.
    – jimm101
    Commented Oct 11 at 14:48
  • There are a few similar existing questions such as this and this. Chicago MOS has lots of examples if you want to follow them (some look stupider than others, IMO).
    – Stuart F
    Commented Oct 11 at 14:58
  • 1) The answer is the second one. I wonder why this confuses people so often; just hyphenate all the words that modify one particular word. But 2) This seems like a terrible wording. "Making the switch from AC to heat pump" is much nicer than "making the AC-to-heat-pump switch."
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Oct 11 at 15:13
  • If we must stick to this wording, then perhaps: AC–to–heat-pump switch endash twice then hyphen
    – ryang
    Commented Oct 11 at 15:33

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged .