Green Growth Markets: Smart Metering, CleanTech HVAC, and Controls

Categories:  Green Economy

By John Whitney AIA

The term “cleantech” does not instantly bring to mind meters, lighting, and the fans, motors and ductwork that provide heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) in buildings.  But HVAC systems account for more than a third of total building energy use in offices and other commercial structures.  And lighting and IT combined account for another third.  As a result, a number of startups have emerged in recent years targeting this sector of the larger green building industry.

However, you shouldn’t expect game-changing technology in the HVAC space to suddenly appear.  HVAC technologies are mature, so market share will go to companies that can develop ways to improve the efficiency of existing systems through retrofits and replacements.  The good news is that these new infrastructure efforts to increase efficiency are creating a solid niche for HVAC and electrical contractors to exploit.

Integration of IT (information technology) and web-based energy management programs to efficiently administer all the major systems in a building, not just HVAC or lighting, is the key on-going cleantech development.  As it stands now, HVAC systems don’t communicate with lighting systems who don’t communicate with IT systems.  But, if they did, just imagine how well each could adjust to the other to conserve energy (and save money). 

Smart and sophisticated HVAC and electrical services providers should make and effort to get out in front of this trend and establish themselves as leaders in the cleantech energy efficiency retrofit market.  So pay attention, here’s a few companies and products that will be impacting that market:

Ice Energy 

The Colorado-based Ice Energy is a leading provider of smart grid-enabled, distributed energy storage to the utility industry. They deliver cost-effective solutions at grid-scale to reduce peak demand, improve energy system efficiency and reliability, and transform the way the utility system operates.  The startup has raised in excess of $74 million in VC funding and has contracted to build a 53 MW thermal energy storage system for the Southern California Public Power Authority.  Ice Energy’s roof-top technology isn’t designed to reduce energy use; its function is to shift demand for power to off-peak periods.

Ice Energy’s storage systems (about the size of an industrial refrigerator) produces ice at night, when demand for, and the cost of, electricity is low.  During the day the ice is used to cool refrigerant that is pumped through a building’s air-conditioning system.  Ice Energy is of great interest to utilities, allowing them to partially balance demand with supply.  While this will reduce the reliance on fossil-fuel, peak power plants, the total HVAC energy needs of a building won’t necessarily change after the installation of the technology.

LumiSmart ILC

A low-cost programmable energy saving lighting controller, the LumiSmart Intelligent Lighting Controller from Cavet, is designed to work with most fluorescent lighting systems and provides immediate energy consumption reduction of 30% or more with no perceivable difference to occupant comfort.  LumiSmart ILC is a patented power shaping appliance that improves power factor while automatically applying compression technology (waveform modification) to reduce electrical consumption.  Unlike other lighting control solutions that take weeks or months to install, LumiSmart ILC can be installed in just days and provides immediate cost savings.

According to the IEA (International Energy Agency), the global lighting footprint is estimated as $240 billion.  The biggest consumer of electricity in lighting is the fluorescent tube, where commercial and public sector buildings account for 43% of the electricity for lighting.

Installing LumiSmart ILC is easy; you don't need to replace ballasts with high cost dimmable solutions or put in complex building automation systems to control your lights.  LumiSmart ILC is connected to individual dedicated lighting circuits at the electrical panel.  A licensed electrician can easily install the product.

Energy Optimizers Limited

EOL’s web-enabled metering device, the plogg, has is designed to enable researchers to evaluate monitoring solutions for individual appliances and electronic devices to improve energy efficiency in the home and across the electricity grid.

The plogg is used to create a wireless smart metering network inside the house to implement dynamic demand for EV charging and grid-tie export. The plogg network controller is the gateway that communicates with a utility supplier’s central server, sending minute interval data and receiving variable price tariffs.  Advanced home automation, high flexibility, and energy conservation can be achieved when using the web as a platform.  The developing cloud-based smart grid strategy will allow the seamless integration of the grid with web-based, energy-aware smart homes.

Optimum Energy

The Seattle-based start-up Optimum Energy is firmly focused on reducing HVAC energy use.  The company has raised just under $10 million in private equity and has developed a suite of software packages to improve a building’s heating and cooling systems.  Optimum Energy has installed the technology in more than 70 buildings and has documented a 30% to 60% reduction in HVAC energy use.  Payback can be expected in less than 3 years.

Installed at the building, the system hardware/ controller has software that communicates with the building’s existing automation system and runs algorithms to optimize the operation of heating and cooling equipment.  This might entail running multiple chillers at partial throttle rather than just one at full speed.  Optimum Energy has also developed a web portal that building staff can use to monitor HVAC operations and energy consumption.  The company has about 250 buildings in the sales pipeline and has been reaching out to Johnson Controls, Siemens and other major HVAC equipment players.

PaceControls

Similar to Optimum Energy, the Philadelphia-based Pace Control has a proven technology works on a wide range of heating, cooling and refrigeration equipment types, improving compressor efficiency and standard-efficiency burner heat transfer. PaceControls technology results in such significant energy savings that the typical payback for a project ranges from just one to three years.  They are developing a nationwide network of qualified HVAC installation partners to partner with facility owner on system installations.

When getting up to speed with cleantech products, the smart and sophisticated HVAC and electrical services providers should look to establish the same kind of technological credibility for their own operations.  A web-based solution provider, Conductrus empowers the smaller service provider to implement sophisticated software strategies for in-house operations and scheduling. 

As a hosted on-line scheduling software program, Conductrus allows small and mid-sized businesses to easily schedule, manage, and dispatch field service personnel.  You can take control of your service organization, stay on top of busy schedules, and make more informed decisions. Our intuitive, easy-to-use service dispatch software allows you to reduce phone calls and e-mails, keep your clients in the loop, get more done with less, and save you money.

John Whitney AIA is Senior Vice President for Business Development at Conductrus, a software as a service (SaaS) provider of field service management workforce scheduling software solutions.  He is also Founder and Principal at the Clean Energy Action Project, a cleantech research and renewable energy consulting enterprise.