Highly efficient heat pumps, which can heat and cool a home, are becoming an increasingly popular option for homeowners across the country. In fact, for the past five years, heat pumps have outsold gas furnaces as the top HVAC system, and for the first time ever, heat pumps also outsold traditional AC units this fall.
But as with any new appliance, heat pumps can get pricey fast, especially if a homeowner needs to have wiring work done to upgrade their electrical panel. That's why tech company veterans Mary-Ann Rau and Brad Hall invented the Merino Mono, a new HVAC device that's less expensive, faster to install, and can be plugged into a regular 120V outlet (the same thing you plug your phone charger into).
With engineering backgrounds at Apple and Square, the two cofounders were ready to dive into their next project. And funnily enough, Rau and Hall both live in the same neighborhood in San Francisco, a city where, surprisingly, over 50% of homes don't have AC units. That's one of the reasons they launched Merino — to provide easy-to-install, sustainably minded cooling devices in a world where we're increasingly subjected to rising temperatures and heat waves.
Before the two cofounders met, Rau told us, she spent a lot of time tinkering with existing heat pumps to see how she could improve things: "I was actually tearing down a lot of heat pumps at the time so that I could understand how they work from the ground up [and] why are they so expensive," Rau recently told The Cool Down.
She found a lot of that boiled down to the installation process, rather than the components. And if Rau and Hall could figure out how to simplify the installation process, they'd crack the code on making room-specific heating and cooling devices affordable and quick to set up.
Rau and Hall kept tinkering and ended up redesigning the conventional heat pump setup to combine the indoor and outdoor units into a single, streamlined component. This is the key to what makes the Merino Mono unique, because now, installing a heat pump can take less than an hour rather than a day or even a week. And with a shorter installation timeframe and limited electrical work, the cost can come down as well — so much so that the Merino Mono is being sold at a flat-rate price with installation and hardware included.
"The homeowner can get the same equivalent product in terms of performance for about a third of the price compared to regular mini-split [heat pump] solutions," said Rau.
How the Merino Mono works
Heat pump technology works by moving existing heat from point A to point B. In the winter, that's moving warm air from outside to inside a home, and in the summer that's inside to outside for cooling. Moving existing heat rather than generating heat is what makes heat pumps so efficient — in fact, they're roughly 3 to 5 times more energy efficient than gas boilers, according to the International Energy Agency.
As we mentioned earlier, heat pumps typically require an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, connected by refrigerant lines, to facilitate this process. That goes for whole-home heat pump systems using ductwork as well as "mini-splits," which typically heat and cool a specific room in a house or something like an ADU in the backyard or a converted garage.
Rau and Hall designed the Merino Mono to use that same high-efficiency technology of a mini-split, but without the indoor and outdoor units. Instead, they've pulled the outdoor unit inside and combined it with the indoor unit to create one streamlined device that looks like a modernized, unobtrusive radiator box.
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 This makes the unit ideal for rooms that don't already have heating or cooling, or places like an attic or exercise room that need additional temperature control.
The streamlined unit also means installation can be up to "eight times faster to install than a mini split," according to Rau and the company, and hardware and installation are included in the flat-rate price (currently $3,800 per unit).
The only outdoor aspects of the installation process for the Merino Mono are the two holes (six inches in diameter) that the team needs to drill through the external wall, one for intake and one for exhaust.
"They look like dryer vents from your laundry. You can paint them so they match the exterior of your home," Rau told us. She also mentioned a smaller third hole that's for condensate, but that can also be hooked up to an existing drainage system as an option.
First installations
The Merino Mono is especially well-suited for rooms in single-family homes and condos, but Rau mentioned the first 48 units are actually going to be installed in a multifamily building in the San Francisco area that's designed to serve low-income individuals or those transitioning out of homelessness.
"A lot of times I think when we talk about heat pumps, it's really framed within this narrative that heat pumps are great for the planet … which is true and very important," Rau said. But "when we think about heat waves and adapting to this new climate, the people that are the most vulnerable are people who are unhoused."
"It is so important that we're able to create a product that's not just good for people who have the resources to purchase a home in a housing market like San Francisco," Rau said, "but that the same product and the same core technology is so economically viable that it is also attractive to multifamily developers" in charge of creating more middle and low income housing options.
"When they realized that our product consumes about as much energy as a microwave, it was like a no-brainer to them" to install, Rau continued.
Preparing for a changing climate
We know that a majority of homes in San Francisco don't have any type of cooling solution, and California overall isn't much better, with nearly a quarter of households going without AC, followed by surprisingly high percentages for Colorado and New York as well.
As people in these areas experience more warmer summers and unexpected heat waves, finding a way to cool off becomes increasingly important — and for some, having sufficient cooling can be a matter of life and death.
Rau mentioned that the Merino Mono is uniquely positioned to help in this situation: "Having a solution [people] can get the same day and installed in one hour that is going to be very efficient is the best solution from a grid perspective, from an energy bill perspective, and from the perspective of converting these homes, long-term, to having heat pumps in their home instead of a single-use air conditioner."
Traditional AC units are less efficient and therefore consume more electricity, leading to more pollution, which in turn further contributes to increasing global temperatures.
Installer network and warranties
Merino's flat-rate pricing comes with installation included, which means no jump-scare bills after the job is completed. That also means the installers are pre-vetted professionals all sourced by the Merino team, so when someone is looking to install their Merino Mono, they don't need to waste time finding a reliable HVAC contractor and negotiating pricing and labor.
Vetted installation is one thing, but we also asked Rau about ongoing maintenance. Who do customers call if they have an issue or something breaks?
Rau told us they'd call their installer first, because each installer in the Merino network is provided with a percentage of units on reserve. That way, "if there's something wrong with the unit, they're going to take it off the wall like a TV, they're going to hang the new one like a TV, and that's it. And then the customer is back to having functioning heating and cooling immediately."
From there, the installer would return the original unit to Merino for a full diagnosis. So not only is the customer supported, but the installers are too — they don't need to sort through any complicated manuals at a customer's house to try and diagnose the problem, which saves them time and headaches as much as it does for the user.
And lastly, Rau mentioned that Merino offers a one-year warranty for hardware, and the installer offers a three-year warranty for service, to give customers complete peace of mind.
When and where is the Merino available?
Rau already has two Merino units installed in her home, and Hall has one in his house in San Francisco as well, but their flagship product will become available for installation in California homes starting this winter.
Before then, the Merino Mono is available for pre-orders, with reservations secured for a $38 deposit.
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