Rural users often have limited or no access to Internet service, yet need technology like this to heat and cool their homes.
Pellets being renewable is great, but if the heat pump does just as well, or at least assists, they might get lots of rural bites. I'm excited to see where this goes.
Rural and temperate? Great. Rural and cold? Not great.
I have a heat pump that's rated to -30C. The energy benefits fall off a cliff when it gets cold.
Can use as primary in the summer and parts of the shoulder seasons. Useless in the winter from a cost perspective.
I think the direction of the industry is great. Needs some R&D cycles to become a primary for all.
This one isn't your fault, but many people aren't going to believe you. What they will hear is "We're not interested in holding people hostage (until we need some of that sweet subscription revenue)". And they'll know that features can be paywalled with a simple firmware update.
Ugh, this happened to me recently.
“It’s an old system and the replacement parts can’t be found. Have to replace the whole thing. $12k”
After they leave I found a replacement on Amazon and replaced it myself 2 days later in under an hour.
Avoid proprietary protocols to communicate between sub-systems as much as possible.
The system should be self contained from the start and must be able to function without a local network & internet.
Do not require internet connectivity, a hub, or some intermediary solution if a third party system (such as Home Assistant) wants to communicate to the system.
My biggest fear is attempt to lock me into an ecosystem that charges me a monthly fee to just exist, while selling data about me. No promise will make this fear go away, as consumers mistreated many many times in the past. Show it through your open design.
Good luck.
> What issues have you had with your existing heat and cooling, and do you have any interesting stories around a heat pump install or use? I would love to hear your ideas, experiences, and feedback on any and all of the above!
Fan motor on compressor broken, company insist everything needs changed. Another similar incident was with a capacitor. Such rip-offs create a disdain in consumer.
In some very cold nights, the heat pump fails to keep the heat and emergency/aux heat kicks in.