Your air conditioner, your heating and your hot water tank. Today those are three appliances, each with its own space, circuit and maintenance. FirstLaw does all three on one refrigerant line.
02How does one machine heat, cool and make hot water?+
A heat pump moves heat rather than making it. When it cools your apartment in summer, that heat has to go somewhere. A normal air conditioner sends it outside. FirstLaw puts it into your hot water. In winter, the same hardware runs in reverse to heat the rooms.
03Where does the hot water come from if there's no tank?+
A phase-change battery takes the place of a 50 gallon tank. Its material, sodium acetate trihydrate, stores heat by melting and gives it back by solidifying at 58°C. It holds four times as much energy as water for its size, so the same hot water fits in a quarter of the space.
04What does the AI controller do?+
Two things. It decides, minute by minute, how to split energy between heating, cooling and charging the battery. It also works out how warm the apartment is and how full the battery is from one thermostat and the system's own readings, so there are no extra sensors to buy or replace.
05Will it heat my apartment in a Montreal winter?+
Yes. Its vapour-injection compressor keeps full heating output down to −30°C outside, while still making 65°C water. A standard heat pump starts losing output below −15°C.
06Can two people shower back to back without the rooms going cold?+
Yes. Other heat pumps top out around 10 kW, so during a shower they pull heat away from the rooms to keep up. Our battery delivers over 30 kW, three times what the compressor can, so showers work like they do with a gas water heater and the rooms stay warm.
07How much will I save a year?+
About C$342 per apartment a year on average, 36.9% less than a standard electric setup. It depends on your climate, electricity rate and household size. The savings calculator gives an estimate for yours.
08What refrigerant does it use, and is it safe?+
R-454B, the low global warming replacement for R-410A. It's rated A2L (mildly flammable), the class new building codes are being written for. The unit is designed to current code, with leak detection and ventilation.
FOR DEVELOPERS AND CONTRACTORS
09How much does it cost installed?+
C$7,000 for hardware and installation. A separate air conditioner, heater and hot water tank average C$8,500 installed, so FirstLaw is about C$1,500 cheaper before any energy savings.
10I'm a developer. What are the savings on a 100-unit building?+
About C$150,000 up front (C$1,500 per unit), plus about C$34,000 a year off residents' energy bills. With no boiler room or hydronic risers, you also get back 200 to 500 square feet of leasable space.
11How disruptive is the install?+
It goes in like a ductless split: one refrigerant line through a standard wall sleeve, and one 240V circuit. There's no gas line, venting or hydronic piping to run, and no tank to place and plumb.
12Will my building's electrical service handle it?+
Yes, probably better than what's there now. It draws a steady 15 to 20 amps because it charges the battery through the day, rather than spiking every time someone opens a hot tap. Standard systems spike to 18 to 30 amps. In new buildings, that can avoid a million-dollar electrical vault upgrade.
13How do I get one into a building?+
Pilots with our first developer partners start in late 2026, and commercial launch is targeted for 2027 to 2028. Developers and mechanical contractors in the pilot get units at cost in exchange for twelve months of performance data, with a 24-hour swap if anything fails. If you're a resident, tell your building owner. That's who we sell to.
14Is the technology protected?+
Partly. In June 2026 we filed a US provisional patent application on the hardest part to copy: the refrigerant routing that lets one line set run four modes and send discharge gas straight into the thermal store. That gives us a priority date and lets us say patent pending. It isn't a granted patent. A provisional is never examined, and we have twelve months from filing to turn it into a full application. The control tuning and manifold geometry we keep as trade secrets instead of publishing them.