Heat pumps on the move
By
Kiana Kazemi
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This Fourth of July, more than 70 million Americans are expected to travel. Highways will fill up, airports will hit capacity, and millions of people will be moving across the country, and through it all, one unsung hero will quietly keep people cool, safe, and breathing clean air: your HVAC.
Tucked behind dashboards, beneath cabin floors, and inside airplane ceilings, modern heating, cooling, and air filtration systems are doing quiet, essential work. They're keeping dogs safe in parked cars. They're maintaining cabin pressure midair. They're helping RVs stay warm overnight in Yellowstone. And increasingly, they’re electric - and designed with efficiency in mind.
Here’s howsmarter HVAC is reshaping what it means to travel comfortably—and cleanly.
EVs are getting heat pumps—and using them wisely
Most gas-powered cars use engine waste heat to warm the cabin. EVs don’t have that option. Instead, they need dedicated systems—and that’s where heat pumps are starting to shine. Instead of creating heat from scratch, they move it from one place to another, consuming far less energy in the process.
Tesla introduced its “octovalve” system in Model Y to improve energy efficiency, especially in cold weather. Hyundai and Kia developed multi-source heat pumps that recover waste heat from the battery and drivetrain. Ford, Rivian, and Volvo have added heat pump-based systems across their EV lineups.
This shift matters. Cold-weather heating can cut EV range by up to 40%. With a heat pump onboard, vehicles are better equipped to handle temperature swings—without compromising range or comfort.
Parked cars are getting smarter about climate control
Tesla’s Dog Mode, now a well-known feature, keeps a parked EV cool enough for pets while also displaying a message on the touchscreen for peace of mind. Rivian’s Camp Mode offers similar functionality for passengers sleeping in the car or resting at a trailhead.
These features may look like software tricks, but they rely on highly efficient HVAC hardware to keep the interior comfortable for hours without draining the battery. In the past, running A/C with the engine off would have been unthinkable. Today, it’s expected—and it’s reshaping how cars handle idle time.
More than 1.2 million EVs were sold in the U.S. in 2023, and nearly all of them rely on some form of advanced thermal management to keep passengers, batteries, and pets safe.
Airplanes have better air quality than most buildings
For those flying this holiday weekend, the air onboard may actually be cleaner than the air back home. Most commercial planes are equipped with HEPA filters that capture 99.97% of airborne particles, including bacteria and viruses. Cabin air is refreshed every 2 to 3 minutes, with half of it pulled in fresh from outside the aircraft.
Many people assume airplane air is stale. But the data shows the opposite: between rapid air exchanges and HEPA-grade filtration, aircraft cabins are some of the best-ventilated spaces most people ever enter. And while electrifying commercial aviation is a longer-term challenge, many of the cabin systems—including HVAC—are already seeing innovation through electric ground support, more efficient auxiliary systems, and better controls.
Harvest was built on the idea that HVAC can—and should—be smarter. Our system pairs an ultra high-efficiency air-to-water heat pump with a thermal battery, storing energy when it’s cleanest and delivering heating, cooling, and hot water when it’s needed most.
Whether stationary or on the move, high-performance HVAC is becoming essential to how we live, travel, and power our future. From cross-country drives to backyard ADUs, electrification is reshaping comfort behind the scenes.
Because even when we’re on the move, heat pumps are getting us where we need to go.
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