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Select Quotes From This Episode:
“Like a family is using more energy to heat their water than it takes to drive an electric car.” – Luke
“I want a water heater that’s not just efficient. Like, I don’t want the Nissan Leaf of water heaters. I want the Tesla of water heaters.” – Luke
“If we had every home in the Boston Metro with an intelligent water heater, an electric one, you’re starting to talk about like a nuclear scale power plant in terms of capacity.” – Luke
“One of our principles at the company is take out the trash. And that means like nobody in the company is too good to take out the trash. I take out the trash, I’m the CEO.” – Luke
Making Water Heaters Sexy (and Smart)
Water heaters are typically the most boring appliances in a house—until they break, leak all over your basement, and ruin your week. But what most people don’t realize is that water heating is the second biggest use of energy in the home, accounting for nearly 20% of residential energy consumption. In fact, a typical family uses more energy to heat their water than they do to drive an electric vehicle.
This week, we sit down with Luke Winston-Almanzar, Co-founder and CEO of Reservoir, to discuss how they are fundamentally rethinking this archaic technology. Reservoir isn’t just slapping a Wi-Fi chip on a tank; they have built a software-enabled hardware platform from the ground up. Combining heat pump technology with an onboard computer, an ultrasonic flow meter, and a hydronic “backpack,” Reservoir offers predictive intelligence. It learns your routines to pre-warm your pipes for a “no-wait shower,” monitors for freezing pipes, and even features a “Party Mode” that uses an inline booster heater to triple your hot water capacity when guests are in town.
Beyond the homeowner experience, Reservoir is tapping into a massive grid-level opportunity. Because water heaters store heat, they act as thermal batteries. By shifting when the water is heated to off-peak hours or times of excess solar production, millions of connected water heaters can act as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), eliminating the need to build expensive new fossil fuel peaker plants.
Luke also shares his founder’s journey, the valuable lessons learned from the “Formlabs Mafia” in Boston, and why a “take out the trash” mentality is the most critical trait he looks for when building a world-class hardware team.
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📝 Show Notes:
Topics
Here are some key timestamps from the episode:
00:00 – Intro & Sponsors: Lehmann’s Terms, Climate Finance Solutions, and EarthSearch.
03:19 – The Origin of Reservoir: Why target the water heater?
06:33 – The Data: Why heating water uses more energy than driving an EV.
16:06 – The Innovator’s Dilemma: Why legacy appliance companies struggle to innovate beyond incremental updates.
20:20 – Pricing Strategy: How vertical integration allows Reservoir to stay cost-competitive while offering a premium product.
25:16 – Smart Features: Predictive recirculation (no-wait showers), freeze protection, and leak mitigation.
36:08 – “Party Mode”: How an inline booster heater gives a 50-gallon tank the capacity of a 150-gallon tank.
40:58 – The Faucet Remote Control: Using an ultrasonic flow meter to operate your water heater by simply tapping your sink faucet.
44:24 – Building a Hardware Team: The Formlabs Mafia and why every startup employee needs the “take out the trash” mentality.
49:56 – Thermal Batteries & VPPs: How connecting 50,000 smart water heaters equals the capacity of a data center.
Links
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