The Wand: Chair King Herman Miller Gets Into Greentech

SAN DIEGO—What is Herman Miller, the god of fancy, overpriced office furniture, doing at a green technology conference?

It’s a new direction, says Mark Matusow, regional manager of Convia, a company created by Miller to tackle energy efficiency.

Convia has created a software package that lets office managers, homeowners or anyone really control their lights, security cameras, air conditioning systems or other appliances through a centralized software console? You want the lights to dim during the middle of the day, or to shut off entirely after 8:00 p.m.? Plug those commands into the software console and it’s done.

Leaving lights on when nobody’s figuratively home can run up power bills. Roy Sierleja, Senior Lighting Specialist, GE Lighting, during another session at the conference estimated that offices are empty around 50 percent of the time that the lights are on.

This being Herman Miller, there is, of course, a gadget to go along with the software—the Wand. You can see it in the above picture being held by Matusow. The Wand can turn off lights and activate fans. All you have to do is point it at the thing you want to control and via radio frequency it will shut it off. Think of it as a remote control for lights. (Naturally, the appliances have to be linked into the Convia system. You can’t just walk up to a random light and expect it to obey.)

Convia charges around $1.25 a square foot to commercial builders. That’s in line, albeit a little higher, than what other building control companies charge. The premium, though, can be justified by the ease of use, claimed Matusow.