Energy Management

Look around your home and you see an incredible growth in the number of electronic devices we own from multiple televisions, to game consoles and computers. These devices keep us more informed and entertained than ever before but they also increase our energy footprint. We think it makes sense to use the core technology that powers these devices, to help us reduce our total power consumption.

We take a structured approach to this problem, which we call the "three Ms."

Measuring It

Even though our homes have advanced substantially, the power grid that feeds it is as primitive as decades back. Even through your meter measures your power consumption, it only reports that to the power company. But even if it let you see it, that data is not very useful because it is the collective power consumption of the house. It provides no insight into where all the power is going.

Enter eMonitor. This is a state-of-the-art power measurement system which monitors every circuit in your house. Previous systems only measured 3 or 4 circuits only which was woefully inadequate in trying to get complete insight into every electrical load which could be consumer too much power.

Given the fact that we are licensed for line-voltage, we are able to install this system at your electrical panel, giving you a world of information accessible with any web browser whether it is on your PC, phone or tablet. You will quickly learn what devices are on even though you thought they were off, how often your furnace or fridge turn on and off, how much energy you use when you wash your dishes, etc. All of this capability comes at an equipment cost that is nearly the same as units that monitored a fraction of the number of loads previous systems handled! Did we mention this was a breakthrough product?

Managing It

One of the great benefits of automating your home system -- especially if it includes its lighting system -- is that we can deploy smart technologies to save energy. For example, a simple motion sensor in a master closet can turn the lights on automatically when you enter, and softly turn them off after you leave it. Not only does that add convenience but also sharply reduces power consumption due to forgotten lights that are left on.

When you leave your home and arm the security system, the system can switch to a power saving mode by turning all unnecessary lights off, adjusting the furnace or A/C temperature, and shutting off TVs that are left on. Outside lights can likewise turn off automatically at sunrise, properly adjusting for changing seasons.

Projectors and rest of your theater electronics can all power down automatically if there is no movie playing for a set amount of time, not only saving on electricity but also lengthening the life of the projector and its bulb.

Further optimizations come into play by electronically controlling outlets. Unused electronics can be fully shut down (as opposed to their default "standby" which still uses power). Additional safety also comes from powering down appliances such as coffee makers and hot water pots while you are away.

Using a touch screen, or your phone/tablet/computer, you will also have finger control of any load in your house. You can watch the output of eMonitor and then adjust load to see their impact. This is a great way to discover sources of wasted power. And date we say, making energy saving actually fun!

This is really a very brief list of the large set of techniques and strategies we can deploy to save substantial amount of power without taking away any convenience from your every day life.

Manufacture It

The last resort is creating your own energy. Yes, we said the last resort. While many people jump to this option we think you should first exhaust the above options as the cost to generate your own electricity is rather high. Compensating for one light left on 24-hours a day would require a solar panel that is 15 square feet and costs almost $1,000!

That said, we are huge fans of solar systems for energy renewal. Unlike other forms of energy, solar systems have no moving parts so reliability is excellent. They pay for their manufacturing impact in roughly 8 years yet last 20+ years. And contrary to popular belief, they actually work well in areas such as Pacific Northwest which are not known for maximum amount of sunshine. Why? Because the efficiency of a solar panel goes down with temperature. So in the hot summers of Arizona and California, the solar panels underperform the same unit in the cooler climate of the Pacific Northwest (no wonder that countries such as Germany with similar climate are leaders in solar energy deployment).

Putting it Together

With our skills in both line-voltage electrical systems and state-of-the-art control systems, we are able to provide you a complete solution that is optimized across the board. You can decide to do a little or a lot. The choice is yours. We hope that you deploy at least some strategies to save energy.