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A comment on Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners. Parent comment

Re:Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directl... by cmui on Monday March 13, 2023 @02:18PM (#35140042)
A common misconception is that you can use your forced air furnace when the power is out - you can't because the blower relies on electricity to move air around. Your point on the cloud service is a good one, which is why cloud services are value-add but unnecessary for core system functionality, ie your system works if there's no internet.
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Re:Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directl... by startupsfail on Monday March 13, 2023 @05:58PM (#35143531)
In California power outages are very frequent (PG&E is now cutting off the residential power upfront, to avoid fires and associated liability).

I’ve experienced 4-5 outages last year, a couple were local, a couple were widespread. One lasted 2 days.

Fortunately I do have a small 3.2kWh battery backup power, so I can keep the refrigerator from defrosting. I do think that this is sufficient to power the air furnace as well, but I haven’t tried.

The residential internet outages also are pretty frequent, but we don’t notice these as much as power outages.

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