A former Apple engineer wants to revolutionize heat pump installation by simplifying the system and reducing costs to help California meet its installation goals.
Richmond, California: California wants to install 6 million heat pumps by 2030, but right now they have only reached about 2.3 million. To hit their goal, they need to install about 2,000 heat pumps every day for the next five years. That’s a lot of heat pumps, and installing them can be hard and expensive.
Mary-Ann Rau used to work for Apple making AirPods. Now she runs a company called Merino Energy that makes a new kind of heat pump. Her company created something called the Merino Mono that costs $3,800 including one-hour installation. It’s much simpler than regular heat pumps.
Most heat pumps have two parts – one inside and one outside your house. The Merino Mono puts everything in one box that sits under your window like a radiator. You just plug it into a normal wall outlet. If the outlet can power a microwave, it can power this heat pump. The company is currently installing 48 heat pumps at a low-income apartment building in Richmond.
The Merino Mono has smart features like Wi-Fi connection and can sense when people are in the room. The company wants to make it even smarter by connecting it to special sleep-tracking rings. The heat pump can talk to other units in your house to work better together. Rau hopes this easier, cheaper heat pump will help more people use them, which is good for the environment.