Heat pumps, but make them super sexy. Plus, sustainable fashion from Puerto Rico
This week's episode features the beautiful heat pump designer Quilt and the beautiful circular fashion design brand YOMAS -- shoutout Bad Bunny! It's our most stylish newsletter yet.
This week on Everybody in the Pool
Last week, I assured you that heat pumps are super hot right now. This week, we're talking about some super hot heat pumps. Quilt makes intelligent, connected, and really attractive, ductless heat pumps for homes and apartments. Because one thing people might not realize is that when you get a heat pump, if you get a ductless system, you have mini-split boxes on the walls inside your house. That's a very common aesthetic in other countries, but Americans aren't necessarily used to it.
Ductless systems are wildly more efficient because they mean you can control each room individually, you don't have to be heating or cooling rooms when you aren't using them, or you can have rooms set to different temperatures, as needed.
But since we know that the levers of adoption include affordability, innovation, but also aspiration and desirability, Quilt founder Paul Lambert told me the company very deliberately set out with a focus on design and even customizable units.
Also, because all the systems are Internet connected, the company has been able to issue over the air updates that actually made some installed heat pumps, more powerful, just with software.
And of course, this is all part of the conversation about how electrification technology becomes a grid asset, and none of this is lost on Lambert. Much like how Arch Rao talked to me about each Span panel being part of a larger system of intelligent power management, Quilt can also help utility customers participate in demand response programs — that is, get rebates or discounts for using less energy during high demand times, but because of the room by room controls, you could turn down the air conditioning on a hot day in every room, except the room you're in, for example.
Down the road, the hope is that technology like this can be used to free up capacity on the grid, so we can harness more electricity without having to build more expensive infrastructure. And I'm obsessed with this in the context of reinvention, because the fact is that right now, a lot of energy is simply wasted, a lot of infrastructure is duplicated, and with intelligence and broad adoption, we could electrify homes and buildings, and turn those homes and buildings into little power plants that mean we don’t have to bring new fossil fuel power plants online.
This fits into my other obsession about how the future of everything is decentralization, but that is a topic for a much longer newsletter.
For now, listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts! And as a sneak peek, I'll continue this conversation about sexy appliances that are also grid assets next week, with a field trip to visit Copper, maker of the battery-powered induction stove that lives rent-free in my head.
Recommended reading
I love sports. Sports are a complicated topic, I know, but I’ve always loved sports. And lately, especially with the Olympics back in swing, I’ve been thinking a lot about how sports are going to be impacted by a warming planet — and already are. Some interesting reading on that topic:
It’s a problem for summer Olympics also (paywall)
Tennis is in real trouble already; last month, play was suspended at the Australian Open after the ATP added new rules to address extreme heat during matches
And although sports is one of the parts of the global economy that seems like it will always make money, a recent report by the World Economic Forum and Oliver Wyman suggests climate change could cost the industry $1.6 trillion by 2050
Buying advice
I have spent a day and a half, as I write this, obsessing about every little detail of the Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance, or as we are apparently calling it, Benito Bowl. But one of the details that thrilled me the most was discovering that the ineffably cool, neutral knitwear on many of the dancers came from a Puerto Rican brand, YOMAS, that’s all about circular design, sustainability, and natural fibers. 🥹 And it’s a woman designer, to boot. (Yes, I put a freaking emoji in there. I don’t even care!! I love it so much!) There’s even a collection called “Let the Mother Rest,” which would be reason enough to love the brand. Shop the collection here!
