You may be educating others on this topic, but you're not educating me. No one runs resistive electric heaters in Maine. Is that common in California? Is that why the startup above is comfortable saying "it's 3-5 times more efficient than [my] current furnace?"
Air source heat pumps are very popular here. We have two. They are great technology, but they are not a panacea. The majority of the electricity we generate comes from natural gas in New England because we don't have access to amazing renewables like is available in California. Also, they are a point heating source, so many folks who retrofit end up buying 3-4 of them to get full coverage in old poorly insulated homes. If the product above is $12k, we're getting into $36k-$48k which is almost double the cost of installing a ground source heat pump which is vastly more efficient during the winter compared to an air source.
This further proves my point: the startup above is clearly looking at this problem from a California context. They should get that under control immediately because the realities in the rest of the country will be shocking to them once they have to take customer calls outside their mediterranean climate.
I'm not questioning if they are viable, I'm questioning the blanket claims and the direct comparison. What kind of furnace? Natural gas? Oil? A heat pump in Maine is not going to be 3-5x more cost effective than a natural gas furnace in Maine. In fact, it's currently more expensive than natural gas, and at parity with oil furnaces. https://www.maine.gov/energy/heating-fuel-prices
I'm sniffing an air of "California syndrome" when it comes to HVAC products. The literature says 3-5x more efficient than my existing furnace. I believe that may be true in SF climate. But is it true where I live, in Northern Maine?
All I'm looking for is a heat pump that can maintain a COP of 3.0 or higher down to -20f, can be easily controlled via MQTT on my home network OR via standard 3 wire thermostat, does not use the cloud for any of it's core functionality, and does not require an HVAC license to buy parts and see technical manuals.
Air source heat pumps are very popular here. We have two. They are great technology, but they are not a panacea. The majority of the electricity we generate comes from natural gas in New England because we don't have access to amazing renewables like is available in California. Also, they are a point heating source, so many folks who retrofit end up buying 3-4 of them to get full coverage in old poorly insulated homes. If the product above is $12k, we're getting into $36k-$48k which is almost double the cost of installing a ground source heat pump which is vastly more efficient during the winter compared to an air source.
This further proves my point: the startup above is clearly looking at this problem from a California context. They should get that under control immediately because the realities in the rest of the country will be shocking to them once they have to take customer calls outside their mediterranean climate.