Well, the description was just a bit sketchy. But, rather than building up frost on the condenser coil, then kicking it into the cooling mode to defrost the coil (while turning on the electric heater to temper the air), Goettl is installing an electric heater in the suction line as it returns to the compressor, which raises the refrigerant temperature as it enters the coil, keeping frost from forming - and it works! So, what's the delay with the product? Testing to ensure the reliability of the parts.
Now, I'll admit that I'm not a boiler man, so perhaps I should have left this one for Holohan. But I was very impressed by a small, wall-mount whole-house boiler from Monitor Products Inc., of Monmouth Junction, N.J. Its diminutive size (30 inches by 22 inches by 13 inches for the 94,500-Btu unit) comes from their use of copper tubes rather than a steel tank. Its efficiency ranges from 92 to 97% and it is available to 142,000-Btu.