Viewing posts tagged "Alertme"

AlertMe to Pilot Web, Mobile Thermostat Control With British Gas

AlertMe, a British home energy management system maker, is getting a chance to test its mobile phone thermostat control technology with one of the United Kingdom's biggest natural gas utilities.

British Gas New Energy, the low carbon and energy efficient products and services branch of British Gas parent company Centrica, will test out the Cambridge-based startup's technology for turning home temperatures up and down from any Web-enabled device, the two announced over the weekend.

It's AlertMe's first utility trial. The company jumped into home energy management by way of its existing wireless home security business, and started selling its SmartPlug devices - wireless wall socket adapters that can be shut on and off remotely – in March.

In June AlertMe raised £8 million ($12.8 million) in Series B funding from Good Energies, Index Ventures, SET Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners. That's on top of a £5 million ($10.35 million at the time) round in November 2007 (see AlertMe Raises £8M for Home Energy Management).

That makes it a fairly recent entry to the crowded home energy management field, which includes dozens of startups – Tendril Networks, EnergyHub, Energate, Control4, Greenbox Technology, Onzo, OpenPeak, Current Cost, Sequentric, 4Home, Agilewaves are some of them – as well as big players like Google, Microsoft and Cisco (see The Smart Home, Part I and stories here, here and here).

Almost all of these contenders are looking toward utilities to help them get their hardware, software and wireless networks into customers' homes, with many pilot projects underway.

Others, like AlertMe, have a direct-to-consumer business plan as well, and others are looking to telecommunications companies as a gateway into the home (see The Telco Home Energy Invasion).

The hoped-for end result is a home that can power down when the utilities are facing excess demand for power, as well as cut down on wasted energy in general.

One neat way to do that would be through a cell phone or other Web-enabled mobile device. Imagine shutting your house heating or cooling system down as you leave for work in the morning, then restarting it on your way home so it's toasty warm - or nice and cool - for your arrival.

That appeal makes mobile control a near-universal future offering from all the companies making gear and systems for home energy control (see Green Light post). AlertMe didn't reveal details on the size of its British Gas pilot, though it did say it could be available to the utility's customers by late 2009.

As for which of the home energy management startups will survive, much may depend on how well they can be integrated, not only with utilities plans, but with the smart appliances and other systems promised in the years to come from "white goods" manufacturers like General Electric and Whirlpool (see GE's Smart Appliances: Smarter With GE Home Energy Manager). 

4Home, Sensus in Home Energy Trials With Southern Co., Cleco, Other Utilities

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based home energy management startup 4Home and major smart meter maker Sensus announced in January that they'd be working together to bring home energy management to the masses (see Green Light post).

In a Thursday interview with the Cleantech Group, the two revealed that they are testing that proposition in pilot projects with utilities including Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) subsidiary Alabama Power and Louisiana's Cleco (NYSE: CNL).

Those are among six contracts the partners hope to deliver product for by September, with deployments in the 500 to 15,000-device range, Sensus's Jon Rappaport told Cleantech Group.

That isn't as many as rival home energy management company Tendril, which has trials with more than two dozen utilities and (see Tendril Lands $30M as Growth, Consolidation Loom in Smart Grid).

But it does place 4Home squarely in competition with others in the growing number of venture-funded startups aiming at bringing energy management hardware and software into people's homes (see The Smart Home, Part I).

While some are focusing on getting consumers to buy their products directly, others are focusing on getting utilities to make the push into customers' homes by linking their systems to smart meters being installed by the millions around the country – a path that 4Home would appear to be taking.

While the company also sells home entertainment and security systems, it intends its 4Home Energy management systems to connect with utilities through Sensus's smart meters.

4Home has raised about $7.5 million from investors including Pond Venture Partners and Parker Price Venture Capital. It has also demonstrated its system using devices and technology from smart meter maker Echelon, SMC Networks and Radio Thermostat Corporation of America.

That may put it in a position to work with Sensus and Radio Thermostat in the U-Snap Alliance, an effort the two have backed to make home energy devices that can be outfitted with modular communications devices (see U-SNAP: Modular Home Energy Communications).