Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners
It&#x27;s strange seeing this post describe heat pumps as if they&#x27;re a new thing, and everyone commenting as if they are.<p>I live in New Zealand and heat pumps have been standard in new builds for just about 20 years now. They&#x27;re great. If you want to add one to your home you can call up various companies to do it for reasonable prices (not sure how this stacks up against US prices, but I recently had a small 2.5kW cool&#x2F;3.2kW heat mini split heat pump installed in my office room for $1,200USD including labour). It helps that we have relatively mild seasons, with it getting just a little too cold in winter and a little too hot in summer - pretty much the ideal environment for a heat pump.<p>I have never seen a residential home in NZ with a furnace or a pure air conditioner (that can&#x27;t also heat). The standard installed system before heat pumps was a wood fire or sometimes gas heaters. In summer you just put up with being hot.<p>Re smart thermostats, I&#x27;ve been in many homes with heat pumps and never seen one. Everyone just uses the controls in the heat pump remote. They all have the option to cool to a certain temp, heat to a certain temp, stay at a certain temp, and set a start&#x2F;stop time. Basic but generally good enough.<p>Re ducted systems, my experience is they never seem quite as efficient or effective as just installing two totally separate mini split systems. Which is also usually cheaper and has the added bonus that you can only run one if you&#x27;re not in the other part of the house.<p>Looking at your wall unit, it looks really nice, but can that front face tilt to blow air either up or down?