Something special is happening in a small industrial park just outside Johnson City, Tennessee, in the northeastern corner of the state. What’s taking place here is viewed as game-changing for the HVAC industry.
This is home to Stone Mountain Technologies Inc. (SMTI), a company that’s revolutionizing residential and commercial heating solutions. For more than 15 years, SMTI has been building momentum in this space to the point where it now provides customers with a heating product unlike any other available on the market.
“We’re unique in that we’re really the only ones out there with this type of product,” says SMTI founder and CEO Michael Garrabrant, an engineer from Ohio who immersed himself decades ago in the possibilities of ammonia water absorption technology.
Garrabrant is referring to SMTI’s Anesi brand of high-efficiency gas absorption heat pumps, known for their steady operation in cool and cold climates, 140% AFUE rating, and their ability to reduce fuel consumption, energy costs, and carbon emissions.
The company has designed the gas heat pump to outperform its electric counterpart in cool and cold climates, serving as a viable replacement for the gas furnace and offering a water heating option in the process. It’s now putting all those years of work into action for the customer.
In 2023, SMTI moved into a 160,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Piney Flats, a suburb of Johnson City, where roughly 50 employees (in engineering, technical support, and production) work to carry out its mission. It has been ramping up production on its gas heat pumps for installation in homes and businesses. While the company isn’t yet utilizing the entire manufacturing space, expectations are high that it will eventually need to expand its operations.
“We believe we can build 75,000 heat pumps a year out of this facility as we continue to grow,” Garrabrant says. “So, it’s a great place to be.”
After years of R&D and product development, SMTI is now producing an 80,000-Btu gas heat pump, its introductory product for residential and light commercial applications, with plans to scale up unit sizes.
“We’re really trying to gear up for this next winter heating season as a full launch, full product readiness, and have the channel more up and running than we had a year ago,” Garrabrant says.
The growth path for SMTI includes leveraging partnerships with manufacturing representatives and wholesale equipment distributors. But most importantly, the company knows the importance of education. That’s why it has been active in the past several years, attending trade shows and engaging with industry stakeholders on both the residential and commercial sides – including contractors, specifying engineers, energy-efficiency advocates, and regulators – about the technology. And those conversations become a lot more serious now that SMTI is producing and shipping the gas heat pump.
Asked about the reaction that he often receives from industry members, Garrabrant says, “It’s generally a lot of excitement. After a couple-minute explanation, they get it and their eyes light up. Sometimes it’s almost a relief – like, wow, there’s another option here” to meet a variety of customer needs, including comfort, lower heating costs or reducing their carbon footprint.
“You have to let people know that the technology exists, what the benefits are, and then get their confidence, slowly over time, that they can count on this technology and it works.”