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Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

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Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#621

Post by SamBam »

leviathant wrote: post #276
Animats wrote: post #79

"Preorder". "Shipping Winter 2024". "While we don't have any physical prototypes at the moment, we have the industrial design and also largely understand how this will be built." No. You have to build it before you can sell it.

Reminds me of Noria (later Kapsul), a somewhat early Kickstarter darling that promised to have revolutionized window air conditioners. Theirs would be quiet and light, and inexpensive ($250!), and would ship within a year, all they needed to do was raise $250,000! The timeline graphic is still up here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kurt/noria-cool-redefin... They raised nearly $1.5MM, because as it turns out,…

I was reminded of Noria/Kapsul as well. I paid the $1 for the chance to opt in later, so I was still getting their apologetic emails to customers as of last year, six years after backing.

The last email (May 2022) said they had delivered to ~700 backers, and had "a long way to go."

No further news since then.

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#623

Post by cmui »

sizzle wrote: post #622

My crappy coil keeps leaking every odd year and the refrigerant cost so much to replace. I hate the thin coils being created nowadays, not built to last at all.

Indoor or outdoor coil, copper tube-and-fin or aluminum microchannel?

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#624

Post by Danieru »

midoridensha wrote: post #611
jijji wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when dealing with HVAC you either have to have a friend on the inside who has a license for mechanical or you have to buy everything on eBay... because you're right most of the supply houses won't talk to you unless you have an HVAC license of some sort, That's why most of the stuff I get is on eBay.... things like capacitors, blower motors, heat strips, R410A refrigerant etc either eBay or Facebook marketplace is th…

Here in Japan, every home store and electronics/appliance store sells mini-split HVAC systems directly to consumers. It's no different than buying a washing machine.

Yup, and a vanilla install will cost say 150$. Non vanilla installs still exist on the price list.

Mini splits transform HVAC into Lego, and a competitive market for install is the future.

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#625

Post by freeopinion »

I am clearly not your target audience. (Around here we measure AC/heat pumps in tons, not BTU and mount them outside the home.) But I'm willing to provide (fairly obvious) feedback.

Price: yikes! Other: I stopped at price. Clearly you were expecting this because you hid the price underneath 10 pages of stuff I didn't read while I scrolled to find the price.

Even people who would spend that kind of money are going to see a Juicero logo on your product. I may be wrong, but you will really need to elevate your sales pitch to survive long term. Do you have a $2000 toy model that people can use for their garage or basement/attic apartment before they gamble bigger money?

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#626

Post by ryantgtg »

mdasen wrote: post #111

I guess I'm wondering what this offers over calling an HVAC company and having them install a heat pump system. The system seems expensive at $14,000 for a 48k BTU 18 SEER system. It looks like I can get that for $4,000. Is the sleek software and design of your units worth the extra $10,000, especially when I'm not really going to see my air handler frequently? I do like that it monitors CO2 and offers humidification…

From your comment, it sounds like managed to find a price for this unit. I’m on my phone, and the preorder page says nothing more than a $100 deposit. Why would anyone order this without the full price bring front and center? Is this a mistake or are these people hiding this info?

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#628

Post by camel_gopher »

divbzero wrote: post #576
cmui wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing some details of your install - equipment model/size, controls, and cost of install?

Is there a straightforward way to estimate whether a small (24 kbtu), medium (36 kbtu), or large (48 kbtu) unit would be most appropriate for a given home?

If you have a Nest thermostat, some of the newer models give a usage display of how many minutes per hour they are running. This will tell you how much of your furnace's capacity is running at. For example, if I have a 40kbtu furnace, and I see a maximum of 15 minutes per hour usage on the furnace during a heating season, that means my usage maxes out at roughly 10kbtu. I might choose my heat pump based on that capacity; if I got a 10kbtu heat pump, I would expect it to be running continuously during the maximum usage time.

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#629

Post by ireflect »

saenns wrote: post #588
cmui wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing some details of your install - equipment model/size, controls, and cost of install?

I'm looking at this 36,000 BTU/h unit for $3,750. Pre-charged line sets make it accessible to homeowners https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FGLMZB8?_encoding=UTF8&aaxitk=e...

I installed a MrCool mini split a few years ago and it's still running great in both summer and winter.

Installing one of these is a pretty advanced project for a typical home owner though. You have one chance to get those pre-charged linesets connected perfectly, and if you screw it up, good luck finding an HVAC contractor that will come and help you recover your botched installation of an off-brand heat pump.

That said, there are certainly homeowners who are experienced enough to pull it off, and I'm glad these DIY products exist. I could see potential for further innovation from ElectricAir to make this sort of thing accessible to more people (at a higher cost, obviously, to pay for that sweet sweet design)

Re: Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

#630

Post by [deleted] »

soheil wrote: post #81
z3ugma wrote: post #12

Chris, one of my biggest worries is that your startup will get acquired or go out of business and then the firmware will leave me with a $14,000 brick. What if I want to keep using the cloud-based thermostat when your servers get shut off or moved to another system, or if something like Google Nest closing down their API happens after you've exited? This is an expensive system with an expected long life, and I'd want…

It'd be super helpful to mention the total cost will be close to $14k on the $100 pre-order page or at least somewhere near the top of the homepage. Also probably one of the implicit reasons this comment got upvoted.

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