ACHR NEWS: Why OTA, and why now? What led your company to build OTA update capability into your HVAC products?  

Matthew Knoll: The HVAC industry has been remarkably slow to adopt what's become standard in other sectors. While your phone gets smarter every month and your car improves while sitting in your garage, most heat pumps are still frozen with whatever capabilities they had on installation day. That seemed like a missed opportunity.  

We built OTA capability into Quilt from day one because our team came from companies like Tesla, Apple, Google, and Nest, where continuous improvement is just how things work. The traditional model — where a big investment starts depreciating immediately — didn't make sense to us. We thought homeowners deserved better, so we built it.  

ACHR NEWS: How does it work in practice? What kinds of updates can you deliver, and how do you ensure reliability and security?  

MK: Our systems are fully vertically integrated. We control the software from the indoor unit to the app & Dial thermostat, all the way down to the compressor, so we can improve performance, control, and efficiency at every level. We also invested heavily in sensors — pressure sensors, high-accuracy temperature sensors, current sensors — more than you'd typically find in residential HVAC. That gives us the data we need to optimize performance safely.  

We can push performance improvements, efficiency gains, new features, energy insights, Auto-Away functionality — we even added twinkle lights for kids' bedtime to add delight to the holiday season. Every over-the-air update goes through rigorous testing in our office, then rolls out first to our beta fleet, and then — after thorough monitoring — is delivered automatically across the country. Customers wake up to a better system.  

ACHR NEWS: What benefits have customers experienced from OTA updates so far?  

MK: Our recent update perfectly illustrates what makes Quilt different — we boosted capacity by over 20% overnight, taking our outdoor units from 19,700 to 24,000 BTU/hr cooling and 20,500 to 25,200 BTU/hr heating. Every one of our hundreds of customers across 12 states woke up to a more powerful system, automatically, at no cost.  

But this is just one example of how Quilt is the opposite of planned obsolescence. When you invest in Quilt … you're buying a system that appreciates rather than depreciates. Your Quilt system today is measurably better than the one you bought six months ago, and six months from now it'll be even better.   

What excites me most is that we're just scratching the surface. With 500 times more processing power than traditional heat pumps and our vertically integrated technology stack, we have the headroom to deliver improvements that the industry hasn't even imagined yet. Our customers aren't just buying today's capabilities — they're buying tomorrow's innovations too.  

ACHR NEWS: How does this capability change service, maintenance, or communication with contractors in the field?  

MK: Our latest capacity expansion update actually came from our Quilt Certified Partners. We had feedback this summer about partners wanting higher capacity for larger rooms. Rather than developing a new hardware SKU, our engineering team began testing software solutions. Within months — not the years typical in this industry — every system in the field and in our partners’ warehouses had more power.  

For our 50+ partners, this means they can now sell into bigger homes without new SKUs, without retraining, without warehouse complexity. One system that keeps getting better. It's a simpler business model that lets them focus on installation and customer service rather than inventory management.  

ACHR NEWS: Do you see OTA becoming standard in HVAC systems over the next decade? What needs to happen for that to be realistic?  

MK: OTA will become standard — it has to. Once you accept that modern HVAC systems are essentially computers that move air, not having OTA is like selling a smartphone without app updates. The question is how quickly the industry will adapt.  

Here's what most people don't realize: the vast majority of HVAC systems today aren't online at all. Sure, you might have a connected thermostat, but that's just the tip of the iceberg — it's like having a smart light switch for a dumb light bulb. The actual heat pump, the outdoor unit, the indoor air handlers — they're completely offline, running on decades-old control boards with no connectivity. When something goes wrong, a technician has to physically show up to see what's happening.  

The barriers to change are real: you need quality sensors throughout the entire system, processing power in every component, robust connectivity, and most importantly, software expertise to tie it all together. Traditional manufacturers would need significant restructuring to implement this — you can't just slap WiFi on a 20-year-old design and call it smart. But we've shown it's possible and valuable. We invented and launched the smart heat pump in under 2 years, and now we're already in 12 states with 50 partners and growing fast.  

ACHR NEWS: What has surprised you most since launching OTA-enabled systems — either technically or in customer/contractor response?  

MK: What's surprised me most is how quickly we can respond to customer feedback. When one of our hundreds of customers shares an idea, we can often implement and test it within weeks, then roll it out to everyone in months. The traditional product cycle in HVAC is measured in years — we're operating at tech industry speed.  

ACHR NEWS: Why doesn’t most HVAC equipment have OTA updates yet?  

MK: It's a combination of technical and business model challenges. Technically, you need quality sensors, robust connectivity, and sophisticated software architecture —investments many manufacturers haven't made. The sensors and networking do add to the bill of materials, though we believe the value far outweighs the cost.  

But the bigger barrier might be mindset. The industry has operated on a replacement cycle model for decades. When you view HVAC as a platform for continuous improvement rather than a static appliance, it changes your entire approach to product development. We're proving there's a better way — where systems get smarter and more capable over time rather than simply aging. That's the future we're building toward.