INTERVIEW - Dandelion seeks to replace heating oil for homes with new offerings

Residential geothermal startup Dandelion Energy Inc today introduced an all-in-one home heating and air conditioning system through which the company seeks to tackle the 7-million-strong Northeast US market.

The new product, dubbed the Dandelion Air, is designed for homes that use fuel oil and propane heating, but only those with forced air/ductwork. This, however, is not going to stop Dandelion from trying to service most of the 7 million homes in the Northeast US that use heating oil and propane, as the company is also developing a product for hot water distribution, Katie Ullmann, the company's director of communications, told Renewables Now.

Dandelion says that the smart and fuel-free system announced today is over four times more efficient than any furnace currently on the market, and almost twice as efficient as a conventional air conditioning system. The company has picked heat pump maker AAON Inc (NASDAQ:AAON) as its manufacturing partner for the Dandelion Air.

The system costs less than USD 20,000 (EUR 17,200), which is roughly half the cost of traditional geothermal installations, and comes as part of a complete Dandelion Home Geothermal System. The firm is responsible for the installation of underground pipes, a buffer tank for hot water, a Nest Learning Thermostat and a smart monitoring system.

Dandelion is based in New York City and New York state is where its initial focus lays. The firm is currently expanding throughout most of the state and anticipates to announce developments in that regard in the coming weeks, Ullmann noted. The plan is to grow nationally over time and then even look at international markets, she added.

The company, which started at ​X -- the research and development (R&D) lab of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), recently raised USD 4.5 million in a funding round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) so it could ramp up operations. To date, Dandelion has secured a total of USD 6.5 million in funding, and, according to Ullmann, plans to raise more in the second half of the year.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.861)

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