Sam D’Amico is Heating Up The Home Appliance Industry
[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="4.16" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" custom_padding="|||" global_colors_info="{}" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.16" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" global_colors_info="{}"]Welcome to Mimir! The blog that shines light on the positive side of founder stories. Each week I’ll be dropping articles about founders who are making waves in their industry. My hope is that by sharing these stories, I can not only support these founders, but that their stories might also inspire and spark action in you!Without further ado, let me introduce this week’s founder: Sam D’Amico. Sam is the founder of Impulse Labs, an electric home-appliance company. Impulse started as a simple desire to make the best pizza oven, but Sam quickly realized that there was a greater impact to be made across the home appliance industry, from a consumer and an environmental perspective. But before we get into what Impulse actually does, I’d like to talk about the man behind the stove.
Sam D’Amico’s professional background is rather prestigious. He worked on the hardware side of head mounted display products for companies like Facebook and Google (think Oculus and Google Glass). During his time with Google, he frequently travelled to China, and in an interview with the MCJ collective, he recalls how much he enjoyed the barbecued skewers you could buy on the streets. This fueled his love for cooking and subsequent quest to build the best pizza oven. Between that, and his experience engineering safe lithium batteries in solar racing cars, he was able to combine his passions to reimagine electric home appliances, aka Impulse Labs.When you think about it, the home appliance industry hasn’t seen much innovation in the last twenty years. Impulse is ready to turn up the heat with their performance innovated electric home appliances. From their website, it seems that they are looking towards a whole line of sleek appliances, but their first product to go to market will be the electric stove.Before I started researching Impulse, I knew that electric stoves didn’t necessarily perform as well as gas. But what I didn’t know, was that gas appliances aren’t great for the environment or for our health. Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for about 13% of carbon emissions, with gas appliances being the biggest fueling factor. The health risks are also grim, with several studies linking gas appliances to asthma and other respiratory illnesses as they leak toxins even when turned off. Even more recently, the US Consumer Product and Safety Commission came out with a statement that proposed a potential ban on gas stoves due to these and other risks. This has lead to gas appliances becoming a hot political topic with several politicians strangely vowing to cling to their gas stoves.
Despite these debates coming at a great time for Impulse, there seems to be one major uphill battle ahead of them: consumers don’t want to switch to electric. Speaking from experience, anytime I was in the market for a new apartment, electric stoves were a no because they scorch my pots and pans and they don’t seem to heat as evenly as gas. An even though most consumers acknowledge the health risks, at the end of the day they don’t want the headache associated with switching to electric (i.e. panel upgrade expenses and the performance issues I mentioned). But, Impulse has a plan. They’re designing their products to be easy to install, easy to use, and an overall better performance experience.Sam convinced me of the latter with a video he posted on Twitter showing side-by-side boiling water on a gas stove versus the sleek-looking Impulse stove. Incredibly, the Impulse stove started boiling literally 10 times faster than the gas stove. It took only 40 seconds to be exact. I was shocked. Generally speaking, induction stoves use magnets to heat instead of gas, making them more efficient and more
environmentally friendly. But Impulse’s superior performance is due to their integrated battery packs that combine stored and grid energy, not only making these stoves perform better, but also making them incredibly easy to install. All you have to do is plug it in; no more rewiring nightmares. Even cooler, because the battery packs handle peak demands these stoves actually require less power from your home. Most electric panels in US homes are 100 amp meaning they can accommodate several 240 volt appliances and A/C.But with an Impulse stove in your house, the battery pack can even electrify the other gas appliances in your home, while providing grid storage for the home. This in and of itself could be the first step in providing grid decentralization in this industry.I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on Impulse Labs as this topic continues to be in the forefront of the news. Sam D’Amico inspired me to write this article because he is taking a big step into a stagnant industry hoping to radically improve the quality of our lives. I look forward to seeing the full range (see what I did there?) of products that Impulse Labs comes out with. In the meantime, follow Sam on Twitter for more updates about Impulse Labs.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]