Heat pumps are currently experiencing a surge in popularity, outpacing gas furnaces in sales for the second year in a row. Not only that, but under the Inflation Reduction Act, homeowners who install heat pumps are eligible for lucrative incentives. Despite this success, their growth potential is yet to be fully realized. The conversion of consumers to new technology is often a difficult task, especially when it comes to something as essential as heating and cooling.
Paul Lambert, co-founder and CEO of Quilt, has had consumer hesitation at the forefront of his mind as he works towards bringing their new heat pump to the market.
“No matter where someone is coming from today, what situation they’re in, we want them to feel like they’re upgrading,” Lambert told TechCrunch.
The differences between traditional heating and air conditioning setups and heat pumps are significant enough to give many consumers pause. One of these differences is the design. The most common installations involve mini-splits on the inside of the house, which are essentially large plastic appliances that hang high on the wall. Not exactly a feature you would want to show off to your friends.
Quilt aims to address these concerns with their heat pump, promising a sleeker design that can be installed in more locations within a room compared to competitors’ offerings. Although the company has only released a teaser image so far, it looks promising. However, we will have to wait until the official unveiling on May 15th to make a final judgment. Quilt has developed the core of their system in-house, but they have partnered with a manufacturing company to produce the units.
Design is not the only obstacle facing traditional heat pumps. Many customers are discouraged by the way they operate. Typically, a single mini-split, referred to as a “head,” is responsible for both heating and cooling a single room. Each head has its own thermostat or remote, meaning that if a person wants to adjust the temperature for the entire house, they must visit every room.
Quilt has centralized the control of their system, with each room still having its own head, which also has a way of sensing temperature. However, users only need one physical control to adjust the set points throughout their home. Alternatively, they can also use the Quilt app.
“If you have that thermostat in your bedroom and you want to make sure you turned off the living room or you want to change the temperature in the children’s room or whatever, you just swipe over to that room and do it from the thermostat,” Lambert explained. If adjusting individual rooms is not preferred, “you can also set a temperature for the entire house from the thermostat.”
Quilt’s control setup suggests a level of integration that most consumer heat pumps do not offer.
“It’s kind of like a mesh network for Wi-Fi, where they’re all working together to heat and cool the house,” Matt Knoll, co-founder and CTO, told TechCrunch. “But then they have all the control in each space, too.”
In addition to the traditional thermostat, each Quilt head is equipped with a millimeter-wave occupancy sensor. While most heat pumps utilize passive infrared sensors, which can often produce false vacancy signals when a person is not moving (i.e., watching TV or sleeping), Quilt’s sensor overcomes this issue. The company’s software utilizes data from these sensors to map the room and determine when people are present, without creating an actual image.
“We’re not putting a camera in anyone’s homes. These are just signals on a graph that, when interpreted, indicate whether there is a person present or not,” Lambert assured. “This approach gives us a high level of confidence when it comes to detecting whether rooms are empty or not, allowing us to avoid wasting energy by heating and cooling unoccupied spaces.”
To prepare for their upcoming product launch, Quilt recently raised a substantial $33 million in a Series A funding round, led by Energy Impact Partners and Galvanize Climate Solutions, with additional contributions from Garage Capital, Gradient Ventures, Incite Ventures, MCJ Collective, Lowercarbon Capital, and “Property Brother” Drew Scott. This round comes mere months after the company announced a $9 million seed round.
The startup plans to use these funds to expand their marketing efforts and installer capacity, with their heat pumps initially rolling out in select regions before expanding further.
“It’s kind of like we’ve built this core R&D organization, and now we’re turning into a real company,” Lambert shared.
