Heat pumps can save households money. But the super-efficient, electric HVAC appliances are almost always more expensive to install up-front than gas- or oil-fired options.
Jetson, a Vancouver-based heat-pump startup, thinks it can change that — with a combination of new software, hardware, and a direct-to-consumer approach.
“We are typically anywhere from 30% to 50% below competitive quotes,” said cofounder and CEO Stephen Lake.
The company’s name, which may resonate with certain cartoon-watchers, harkens back to an era when people believed that “technology would enable this exciting, better future for us all,” Lake said.
His roughly 75-person startup, which Lake would only divulge has “raised a bit of money,” launched sales last October to try and deliver on that promise. So far, it’s installed heat pumps — which can both warm and cool spaces — in nearly 1,000 homes in Colorado, Massachusetts, and British Columbia, Canada, and it plans to expand into New York in a few weeks, he said.
Today, Jetson is announcing a move it says will further cut costs: It’s rolling out its very own heat pump, the Jetson Air. The startup has partnered with an undisclosed manufacturer to make the appliance.
Whole-home ducted heat pump projects in the areas where the startup currently operates typically have a price tag of $25,000 to $30,000, Lake said, citing data from bids that customers routinely share with Jetson. Those prices are also about the norm nationwide, according to electrification nonprofit Rewiring America — and are significantly higher than the cost of a new gas furnace ($8,000 to $10,000) plus air conditioner ($3,000 to $5,000), Lake said.
Jetson says its average heat-pump installation cost is way less than the national average: just $15,000.
Many markets also offer thousands of dollars in heat-pump rebates, which the startup deducts from what customers pay out of pocket. In these spots, Jetson can offer heat pumps in some cases for as little as $5,000, Lake said. At that point, it’s a financial no-brainer to choose the electric equipment over a gas furnace.
Bringing down the up-front costs of heat pump adoption is crucial, especially in the U.S., where the federal government is pulling back incentives for the HVAC tech. More than 80 million homes across the U.S. and Canada burn fossil fuels for heat, according to government data. These furnaces and boilers rack up around 3 to 6 metric tons of carbon emissions per household annually, Lake said, and heat pumps are the way to cut that pollution. Swapping a fossil-fueled heater out for a heat pump slashes CO2 about as much as trading in a gas car for an EV.
A new business model to deploy heat pumps
Jetson is taking a fresh approach to deliver its low heat-pump prices: vertical integration.
Traditionally, equipment manufacturers sell heat pumps to brands, which sell them to distributors, who sell them to HVAC installers, who sell them, finally, to homeowners, Lake explained.
“At each stage, there’s a markup,” said Brett Webster, a principal on RMI’s carbon-free buildings team. “There’s good reason to think that a vertically integrated company could reduce costs.”
Jetson cuts out the middlemen. It buys the heat pumps, stores them in its own warehouses, and has its own in-house installers ride out in the company’s electric vans to put the appliances in homes, Lake said.
Great Job Alison F. Takemura & the Team @ Canary Media Source link for sharing this story.
