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It’s no secret that I love heat pumps. Not only do I think they’re an amazing piece of technology, I also get paid to sell them! It’s kind of a great gig when I’m a huge fan and proponent of the thing I’m selling.
I started this newsletter and YouTube channel to help people learn about the benefits of heat pumps. Heatmap recently put together about as great of a definitive guide to heat pumps that I’ve seen. You can read the entire guide here:
Forward that, and this newsletter, to everyone you know!
If You Watch One Thing
One of the most controversial topics when it comes to sizing your air conditioning equipment is how to size your equipment. Technology Connections (again) has a great video on the importance of sizing your equipment properly, and most importantly, how properly insulating your home can affect the sizing of your equipment.
It expands on existing requirements for new commercial buildings by encouraging heat pump space heating to larger systems in schools and office buildings.
What if American billionaires really did pool their money together to put a heat pump in every home? …the rough calculation reveals that a big investment in heat pumps would actually end up paying for itself.
The Existential Dread of False Ceilings – In the HVAC industry, we deal with false or drop ceilings all the time. Stewart Hicks made a video on why they’re everywhere. Short answer: they’re great at hiding things.
Finally
I just wanted to share a photo from our vacation over the summer. Even though I took time off, I can’t help but look up at ductwork or try to see what equipment is on a roof top. While we were at the Warner Brothers studio tour, we came to the point of the tour where we had a view of the famous Warner Brothers water tower. I couldn’t help but notice that the building next to it had VRF outdoor units in plain sight. While everyone was taking pictures of the water tower, I framed my shot to include the outdoor units. When you’ve been in the industry long enough and you enjoy what you do, you can’t help but see things others won’t even notice.
Matt Ferrell runs a great engineering focused YouTube channel called Undecided. He recently covered a uniquely designed window heat pump.
Well, there’s a new type of heat pump hitting the market that’s a little more accessible: easy to install heat pumps that sit on your window just like an AC unit. It seems so obvious when you look at it that I can’t help but wonder…why didn’t we do this earlier? And how well do they actually work and at what cost?
For markets such as New York or other applications where a centralized system or split system isn’t feasible, a window unit makes sense.
And here’s a crucial fact: According to the second law of thermodynamics, thermal energy only transfers from hot things to cold things; it doesn’t go the other way. So despite what you might think, the ice cubes in your drink aren’t “cooling” the liquid; the liquid is heating the ice cubes—which means it’s losing energy and getting colder, while the ice gains energy and melts.
If you really want to bend people’s brains, just share this law of physics and you will start to see the wheels turn as they try to figure that out.
Send this article whenever someone you know is curious about heat pumps and how they work.
Introducing the expansion of the S-Series (PUMY) outdoor unit lineup to include Hyper-Heating INVERTER® (H2i®) technology.Part of the CITY MULTI® family, the H2i® PUMY is a single-phase heat pump ideal for light commercial applications including banks, churches, schools, server rooms, retail centers and more.
I think the HVAC industry would benefit from proper marketing departments. Not sure when these launched but I saw these in an industry trade magazine. An actual physical magazine that our office received in the mail. I searched on the web for these and all I got was the block quote above which links to the engineering submittal site. No mention of the small footprint, tonnages, and ideal applications.
As far as I know, LG and Mitsubishi are the only manufacturers who make this style heat pump. I would be shouting this from the mountaintops.
Electric Air is another company looking to make their mark with heat pumps in the HVAC residential market.
“Heat pumps, condensers and other home heating and cooling products tend to be fairly unconsidered in terms of their aesthetics because they’re often hidden away in a loft or basement,” Blond director James Melia told Dezeen.
“We felt that if you’re going to spend a significant amount of money making a big change to your home infrastructure it helps if the objects you’re buying are attractive and desirable.”
One way to help heat pump adoption among homeowners is to make them look nice. Quilt here in the US is trying to do the same thing.
If heat pumps don’t actually work in frigid weather, no one told the Nordic nations, which endure Europe’s coldest climates, with average winter temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees F). As of 2021, Norway had heat pumps in 60 percent of households. In 2022, Finland installed more of the appliances per capita than any other country in Europe, while Sweden has similarly gone all-in on the technology. In the United States, heat pumps are selling like hotcakes in Alaska, and last year Maine announced it had reached its goal of installing 100,000 of the devices way ahead of schedule. These places ain’t exactly perpetually sunny California. (US-wide, heat pumps now outsell gas furnaces.)
I will professionally die on this hill. I’ll go as far as to say that people who say that heat pumps don’t work in cold climates is on par with people who don’t believe in climate change, that the world is round, etc.
Last week a HVAC start up company called Quilt held an event in Redwood City, CA to launch their new product: a residential heat pump.
I feel like I’m uniquely qualified to talk about this company because 1: I’m in the HVAC industry and 2: I’m a huge tech nerd. I lived in the Bay Area for almost 10 years. I follow companies such as Apple, Google, etc. So of course I watched their announcement live. Here are my thoughts.
What is Quilt
Quilt is a brand new HVAC company based in Redwood City dedicated to selling heat pumps directly to homeowners. It was started by ex-Google and Apple employees. It looks like they are trying to tackle the residential HVAC market with the direct to consumer model. Companies like Nest, All Birds, Warby Parker, etc. have tried to disrupt industries by going direct to consumer. Let’s see if Quilt can do the same.
What are they offering
Their product is an all in one solution for residential heat pump equipment, installation, and servicing. From their website , t is a 2.5 Ton heat pump with up to 2 zones on a single heat pump. The indoor fan coil is a high wall mount.
What’s different
What makes them unique is their design aesthetic and go to market strategy.
Traditionally, if a homeowner wanted to install or upgrade their HVAC system, they’d have to find a local contractor. The quality of contractor varies greatly and they usually have a brand or a few brands they are either loyal or comfortable installing. In the latter case, if you have a stubborn contractor, if you wanted to install a heat pump, they may convince you to sticking with a gas furnace since that is probably what they are comfortable installing. Quilt solves that by using contractors that ONLY install Quilt equipment. If a homeowner wants a Quilt system, they have to use their installers.
The equipment they offer looks a lot nicer than traditional mini splits. Most HVAC equipment is not designed to fit in a home’s interior. Quilt designed their equipment to fit into a home’s interior AND exterior design. I have to say these are the nicest mini splits I’ve ever seen.
Pros
The go to market strategy, especially for the residential market is old and confusing, and definitely needs reimagining, disruption, and a new way of thinking. As a homeowner, I appreciate this approach.
The equipment looks amazing. The indoor unit is a wall mount, but they designed it to be as short as possible so they can fit it above a window. They have two different decorative panels that will fit into most home decor. It even has a built in light so you could mount it above a picture or piece of art.
The outdoor unit has a decorative matte black covering. The outdoor heat pump almost disappears in most homes yards.
The thermostat looks very similar to a Nest thermostat and looks easy to control.
Cons
Going to market and scaling is going to be very difficult. There’s a reason why the residential market is the way that it is. It’s very difficult for one manufacturer to service the entire United States. They are also limited to the Bay Area at launch. Scaling and rolling out will involve having to acquire and train local contractors which is a huge undertaking.
It’s expensive. Quilt is charging $6,499 per zone. Granted, it’s an all in one solution including installation. Also, not sure if it includes permits, demo, etc. It does NOT include potential credits and rebates for what it’s worth.
Questions
How many zones can attach to one outdoor unit. It looks like you can do up to two zones on one outdoor unit. The outdoor unit looks like it is a 2 1/2 ton. It looks like this is a pretty efficient unit I wonder who is manufacturing it for them .
How do you address homes with more than two zones? Do they just add more systems or can you add morphine coils to a larger outdoor unit?
My Thoughts
I think what Quilt is doing is awesome. If you think about the process of buying a new heat pump or air conditioning system for your home, it is complicated. First thing you would have to do typically is find a contractor. And there are different types of contractors and the quality can vary. By establishing themselves as a heat pump brand that can do the entire job top the bottom, from supplying the equipment to installing it, is going to make it easy for consumers. They also help with finding rebates which is going to bring down the cost of heat pumps.
The task ahead of them is also very difficult. There’s a reason why most HVAC manufacturers do business the way that they do. The United States is a huge country and it is next to impossible for any manufacturer to serve the entire country by themselves. That’s why the auto industry has car dealerships. But as we’ve seen with Tesla, that business model can be disrupted.
Overall, I think the product looks cool, we’ll see how it performs when the first units get installed. We’ll see how they do, but anything that helps heat pumps get into the minds of everybody, homeowners, building owners, etc. the better for the HVAC industry and for really the entire planet in general.
Quilt says its heat pump will address those concerns, promising a sleeker design that can be installed in more places around a room than competitors’ offerings. The company has only released a teaser image so far. It looks promising, but we’ll have to wait until it unveils the finished product on May 15 to pass final judgment. The company engineered the core of the system in-house, though it’s working with a manufacturing partner to produce the units.
Design isn’t the only challenge facing traditional heat pumps. Many customers have been turned off by the way they operate. In most homes, a single mini-split (known as a “head”) handles both heating and cooling for a single room. Each head gets its own thermostat or remote, which means if someone wants to adjust the temperature for the whole house, they need to visit every room.
This is the first that I’ve heard about Quilt, but apparently they raised a seed round last year. I admire what they’re trying to do. The HVAC industry is a traditionally “non-sexy” industry where the incumbents have been stagnant for a long time, in terms of product design, marketing, and innovation.
On the flip side, D2C companies aren’t as trendy as they were 5–10 years ago. Who can remember Casper and all those mattress companies? Allbirds went public at $29 but the stock is at $0.58 today. Turns out, going direct to consumer isn’t the best strategy in some industries.
