Electric Air (Previously Helios Climate)

tl;dr - Heat pumps are the most efficient way to both heat and cool your home. Helios installs high quality residential heat pump systems at an affordable price with a painless buying process.

Hey everyone, it’s Jeremy and Shreyas and we’re building Helios!

What are heat pumps and why do we need them?

US Residential space heating alone represents roughly 1% of total global emissions. This is because the vast majority of homes in the US are still heated by burning dinosaurs in a gas furnace. Fortunately, heat pumps are a proven and mature technology to transition buildings to clean, renewable electricity.

A heat pump is like an air conditioner that can run in reverse, both heating and cooling your home. Traditional air conditioners take heat from inside your home, transfer it into refrigerant, and exhaust it outside. Heat pumps have a special valve that allows them to do the opposite, transferring heat from outside your home to inside. They’re able to comfortably heat your home even when it’s incredibly cold outside. Because heat pumps move heat rather than generating it, they are mind bogglingly efficient - with efficiencies up to 400%! Not only are they better for the planet, but they can save you money on your energy bills.

Most homeowners can replace their existing furnace with an efficient heat pump system today. They’re also a great way to add air conditioning to homes that previously didn’t have it.

Why don’t more homes have them?

Cost is the largest barrier to heat pump adoption. Installing a heat pump system in a typical American home can cost $15-30k! At these prices, gas furnaces (which typically cost dramatically less) sadly remain the default choice.

However, heat pumps are extremely common in the rest of the world. In Australia, a homeowner would pay around half the price for a similar system!

More than half of the cost for a heat pump in the US comes from installation. Fortunately, this is something that we are uniquely positioned to tackle. Helios is installing heat pumps in the US for a fraction of the cost.

Who are we?

Jeremy is a repeat Y Combinator founder and spent 10 years designing and building heat pump systems. Shreyas is a former rocket propulsion engineer from Blue Origin and SpaceX, with experience dramatically decreasing the build time of complex rocket engine assemblies.

We’re applying these skills to the large-scale deployment of low cost heat pumps. We’re simplifying the installation process to enable non-specialized labor (think car mechanics or plumbers) to install these systems.  Prefabrication and kitting mean that the right tools and parts are staged for each part of the installation, and our technicians spend less time at the job site. All of these things translate into dramatically cheaper heat pumps for our customers.

Our ask

Sign up for a heat pump installation with Helios. Please fill out our form and get started.

You might:

• Have an aging furnace or air conditioner that is ready for replacement (typical lifespans are ~15 years)
• Be looking to add air conditioning for the first time
• Be looking to increase comfort in a single room that gets too hot or cold
• Care about the climate and want to transition away from fossil fuels!

We can heat and cool a studio or single room for a flat price of $4,790 including all parts, labor, and permitting. Entire home heating and cooling packages start at $14,990. These systems can work with existing ducts. We are working in concert with our local contracting partners who are fully licensed and insured.

Please fill out our form if you are interested in installing a heat pump in your home, or pass it along to someone who might be! We have a limited number of installation slots for this summer that are quickly filling up.