Samsung HVAC CEO Victor Gomez joins Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman to explain how inverter-driven heat pumps now heat and cool homes down to -22 degrees without fossil fuels. He covers ducted and ductless retrofit options and how the SmartThings app adds AI-driven energy management and utility demand response.
00:00:11:26 - 00:00:30:13
Sara Gutterman: I'm Sarah Gutman, CEO of Green Builder Media, and I'm here today with Victor Gomez, CEO of Samsung HVAC. I'm really excited to talk with you today because heat pumps are really having their moment. How is Samsung HVAC heat pump technology special and unique?
00:00:30:15 - 00:01:01:25
Victor Gomez: Heat pumps are a system, essentially that allows you to cool your home, and with that same system, allows you to heat removing all fossil fuels or needs for conventional type of air conditioning and heating equipment. Our heating systems, the heat pumps. Not only do they provide heating in the winter and cooling in the summer, but they provide the different applications and installation knowhow for any application or installation home application.
00:01:01:25 - 00:01:33:22
Victor Gomez: For example, when we say that a traditional home system will have a lot of ductwork needing for attic space and or underfloor heating or cooling. With our applications, you can tackle that kind of application with ductwork. But if you don't have this space in particular homes where you have to do retrofit, we have very, very unique solutions with floor mounted consoles, wall mount units, cassettes.
00:01:33:23 - 00:02:05:03
Victor Gomez: And again, even if you wanted to stick with the traditional ductwork equipment, we have solutions for that as well. We have the cassettes units with look like standard registers on the ceiling. For those consumers that really like the traditional feel. We even have unique installations like our 360 rounded cassette unit for commercial applications. So we fit every need and every application there is out there, and there isn't anything we can do.
00:02:05:04 - 00:02:37:04
Victor Gomez: And then on top of that, if you think about our heat pump equipment, we have our SmartThings app, and it's a free app that anyone and everyone can install. And this is the app that I call the one app to control it all our heat pump systems tie into the SmartThings app. It is a home. I call it a home application for consumers that allows you to integrate your alarm systems into this app your refrigerators, your conventional heating systems as well.
00:02:37:04 - 00:03:17:14
Victor Gomez: But you also get to control our Samsung heat pumps with it. So it's a one application to control it all. But again, back to to the heat pump technology itself. Although it is the trend nowadays, it has been the trend that we've been fulfilling over the past 30 years. And in the US. I know it's been slow to adapt and actually has caught fire in a positive way over the last couple of years in in regards to how our cells are growing, how the technologies adapting and consumers are being fully aware of the technology and what it can do for them.
00:03:17:16 - 00:03:24:27
Sara Gutterman: Tell me a little bit about how heat pumps have overcome some historical challenges for cool climate applications.
00:03:24:29 - 00:04:16:00
Victor Gomez: When I started in this business almost 20 years ago, the Heat Tom had a very, very rough history and a very, very bad rap is the best way of saying it. When they first were introduced, they couldn't meet the cold climates. They were barely at the 3040 degree range for low ambient cooling and eating. Now, with the inverted technologies, the rotary compressor, inverter, compressors, we've been able to get out of that back rap, get out of that, that notion that heat pumps are not for prime time, that are not for coal, low ambient conditions that even our new product, of course, they go down to -22 in heating.
00:04:16:04 - 00:04:21:23
Victor Gomez: That is something that most most competitors can't say they can do.
00:04:21:24 - 00:04:41:05
Sara Gutterman: You mentioned Samsung SmartThings and the technological integration between SmartThings and your HVAC systems and other Samsung products. Talk a little bit about how important that integration is with respect to energy management, cost savings, enhanced comfort, and other benefits for homeowners.
00:04:41:08 - 00:05:25:21
Victor Gomez: The SmartThings app has many, many capabilities, not just from controlling your your cooling and heating systems and other applications, but it also has AI built in that allows you to monitor your home, monitor your energy consumption, and also has the AI that has the capability of adjusting to your needs. It studies how you perform in your house, how you move about what times you come in, what time you leave, and it adjusts the temperature according to when you need it, allowing you to have a one up on all of the other platforms out there for any savings on top of that, which is, I'll call it, the new trend.
00:05:25:21 - 00:05:59:01
Victor Gomez: Over the past five plus years, all of the energy companies are requiring you to have demand response because it allows the energy companies to, during peaks times, reduce the energy consumption, which is essentially raising the temperature during cooling season and lowering it during the heating season so that the consumption around the peak time is lowered so that the demand for the entire grid isn't a burden on those electrical companies.
00:05:59:02 - 00:06:24:07
Victor Gomez: So imagine being able to not only tie into the electrical company grid and have the men response, but also the energy consumption reduction through the AI. Again, based on your uses and your needs, and you can monitor all of that through the app. It will spit out all of the energy consumption right in front of your app. And you can monitor that.
00:06:24:07 - 00:06:27:26
Victor Gomez: Again, control it if you want to, but let the AI do its thing.
00:06:27:27 - 00:06:35:03
Sara Gutterman: What are the specific innovations that Samsung is working on and developing that you're most excited about?
00:06:35:04 - 00:07:07:14
Victor Gomez: The eco heating system and basically is our air to water system and essentially allows you to keep your house with air to water, allows you to heat your water with this system as well. And it is a new technology, technically speaking, new technology. But we've been selling this product in over 40 countries in Europe since 2009, and now we are ready to hit mainstream and to bring it into the North America.
00:07:07:17 - 00:07:32:04
Victor Gomez: And on top of that, we have our highlights equipment. Our high legs is one of the the best innovations we've had over the last 24 months. And of course, in in looking at all the competitors, one of the better ones out in the market with superb heating performance, the Heilig system allows you to get into that traditional retrofit.
00:07:32:06 - 00:08:00:15
Victor Gomez: A homeowner that's not want to replace your furnace, but they have a conventional cooling system that they need to replace. Its absolutely no longer can be repaired. The system allows us to use this condenser outside and reuse that furnace and that coil that traditionally sits on top of the furnace. Use that call to cool your house. And what the beauty about that system is, it's a heat pump as well.
00:08:00:17 - 00:08:27:17
Victor Gomez: So if you decided that you want to replace your furnace and put an air handler, this unit allows you to cool your home in the summer and heat in the winter. Again, with our sustainability in effect, no fossil fuels allowing homeowners to go into and reuse their their 24 volt thermostat. Or if they want to use the Samsung SmartThings app, they have that capability as well.