EnergyHub

Alarm.com Announces Its Acquisition of EnergyHub

2013-05-10T13:50:14Z

Alarm.com expands its commitment to solving today’s energy and environmental challenges with EnergyHub’s leading energy management platform

Vienna, VA – May 10, 2013 – Alarm.com, the leading provider of interactive security and connected home services, today announced its acquisition of EnergyHub, an industry leader for demand response and energy efficiency products and services for energy utilities, service providers, and end users. EnergyHub has developed and deployed Mercury, the industry’s most comprehensive software platform for enabling rapid deployment of demand response and energy efficiency programs that combine highly engaging customer applications with robust program management services.

EnergyHub will continue to operate as an independent company, led by its founder and President, Seth Frader-Thompson, and the existing management team. With a focus on providing its partners and customers with a scalable and secure energy management platform, EnergyHub will continue to expand its customer base and further develop its services platform to meet the growing demands of the market.

Alarm.com CEO, Steve Trundle, said, “We believe that EnergyHub’s Mercury platform provides the best available solution for powering comprehensive residential demand response and energy efficiency programs. We are pleased to directly support EnergyHub in its mission to deliver innovative solutions to today’s energy and environmental challenges. By working with EnergyHub, we can help make the Mercury platform even more valuable to its partners and customers, while also extending the smart grid to today’s intelligent connected home.”

EnergyHub President, Seth Frader-Thompson, said, “Alarm.com, along with its Dealer Partners, has established an installed base of over one million connected homes. We are incredibly excited to connect our utility partners with Alarm.com’s Dealer Partners and subscribers. With the full backing of Alarm.com, we are focused on continuing to accelerate our growth.”

About Alarm.com
Founded in 2000, Alarm.com is the industry leading technology provider of connected home solutions. With over one million interactive subscribers, Alarm.com is the largest connected home platform, offering a breadth of services including interactive security, video monitoring, energy management and home automation. From lights, thermostats and locks, to door, window and motion sensors, to garage doors and small appliances, it’s all connected and can be controlled through a single, easy to use app. Alarm.com helps consumers manage the expanding Internet of Things through its in-home communication devices and Cloud Services. Through the application of Big Data to improve the intelligence and performance of the services, Alarm.com is leading the next generation of connected home technology. Alarm.com services are delivered exclusively through a network of thousands of licensed and authorized Dealer Partners. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.alarm.com.

EnergyHub Announces Support for Green Button Energy Data

2013-04-25T19:36:31Z

BROOKLYN, NY, April 25, 2013 – EnergyHub announced today that its Mercury software platform now includes support for industry-standard Green Button energy data.

EnergyHub now offers a single destination for all of a user’s home energy data. Customers of utilities and cooperatives that provide Green Button data access can view their whole-home energy consumption alongside their home’s heating and cooling activity history. Customers can also monitor their energy usage over time, identify trends, and discover new ways to save energy.

With Green Button, EnergyHub can present whole-home energy data in context, allowing consumers to engage with their energy use in a meaningful and lasting way. Unlike electronic energy bill presentation tools that customers interact with at most a few times per month, the average Mercury user accesses EnergyHub’s web and mobile thermostat management apps more than once a day. Now those highly engaged customers can see how their thermostat settings and other actions affect energy consumption, resulting in new opportunities for utilities to promote energy efficient settings and behavior through EnergyHub’s software.

EnergyHub is also working with utilities that are utilizing Green Button Connect My Data to automatically feed Green Button data to the Mercury platform. EnergyHub will be announcing its first such utility partner in the coming weeks.

“Helping customers understand their energy use has always been at the core of EnergyHub’s mission,” said Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO of EnergyHub. “With Green Button data, we’re able to give consumers the whole picture and show them how their actions directly impact their energy bills.”

EnergyHub’s VP of Product and Marketing, Andy Martin, will be discussing EnergyHub’s Green Button implementation as part of the “Green Button Data in Action – Products, Services and New Uses” session during the Green Button Synergy Group at CS Week next Tuesday, April 30. For further information, please visit: http://www.csweek.org/SynergyGroups/GreenButton.htm.

Nearly 20 utilities across North America have selected EnergyHub’s products and services for demand response and energy efficiency programs. With its new Green Button-enabled features, EnergyHub has taken the next step to helping utilities’ customers remain engaged and take control of their energy use.

About EnergyHub
EnergyHub develops products and services that help consumers, utilities, and service providers reduce energy consumption and save money. EnergyHub solutions allow homeowners to understand and control energy use in real time and encourage people to take actionable steps to reduce consumption. Utilities also benefit from EnergyHub technology as it enables them to identify and manage peak loads, implement effective demand response programs, and improve operating efficiency. For more information on how EnergyHub can help you and your customers realize savings through energy efficiency and peak load reductions visit www.energyhub.com or email smartgrid@energyhub.com.

Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative Selects EnergyHub for Residential Thermostat Demand Response Program

2013-04-25T19:40:25Z

JORDAN, MN and BROOKLYN, NY, March 19, 2013 – Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC) announced today that it will launch a new residential demand response program this summer using Wi-Fi communicating thermostats and EnergyHub’s Mercury demand response software platform.

The initial deployment is planned for 1,000 Wi-Fi thermostats, and participating co-op members will have the choice of professional installation or installing the thermostat themselves. Participating members will also have access to EnergyHub’s award-winning web and mobile (iPhone, iPad, and Android) applications for remote thermostat control and management, as well as efficiency features such as Radius™, which can use smartphone locations to automatically put customers’ thermostats in energy-saving “Away” mode.

MVEC will use the demand response management capabilities of EnergyHub’s Mercury platform to decrease its overall power demand during peak periods. MVEC currently has over 15,000 homes and businesses enrolled in load control programs, and the Wi-Fi thermostat program is one of several recent innovative load management initiatives instituted by MVEC to help reduce overall costs for its members.

“We chose the Mercury platform for its ease of use and for the customer appeal of its web and mobile apps,” said Ryan Hentges, VP of Corporate Services at MVEC. “EnergyHub’s Mercury DRMS is both powerful and straightforward, and it will help us serve our members by curtailing peak power demand.”

“EnergyHub is excited to work with MVEC to expand their demand response initiatives to include Wi-Fi thermostats,” said Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO of EnergyHub. “Mercury is a great fit for cooperatives that want to deploy demand response technology that also provides their members with real value.”

With this deployment, MVEC joins the nearly 20 utilities across North America who have selected EnergyHub’s products and services for demand response and energy efficiency programs. With similar recent deployments at Gibson Electric Membership Corporation and Mid-South Synergy, EnergyHub’s Mercury platform is helping electric cooperatives bring modern, two-way technology to their demand response programs while also providing benefits to participating members through its remote thermostat control and energy efficiency features.

About EnergyHub
EnergyHub develops software and hardware solutions that help consumers, utilities, and service providers reduce energy consumption and save money. EnergyHub solutions allow homeowners to understand and control energy use in real time and encourage people to take actionable steps to reduce consumption. Utilities also benefit from EnergyHub technology as it enables them to identify and manage peak loads, implement effective demand response programs, and improve operating efficiency. For more information on how EnergyHub can help you and your customers realize savings through energy efficiency and peak load reductions visit www.energyhub.com or email smartgrid@energyhub.com.

About MVEC
Based in Jordan, MN, Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative is a local, member-owned electric distribution cooperative. Established in 1937, MVEC is not-for-profit, and all margins are returned to the co-op’s members in the form of Capital Credits. MVEC has over 35,000 members, and its service area covers nine Minnesota counties. For more information visit www.mvec.net.

Software Engineer

2013-03-01T19:49:44Z

EnergyHub is looking to add another passionate programmer to our team. You will have the opportunity to work on all aspects of the software: the back end distributed system, database storage, web and mobile applications, and the tools that we use.

The ideal candidate:

Is fluent in a modern programming language (almost any!).
Knows their way around computers because they like knowing how things work.
Plays around with embedded systems.
Has built cool web or mobile applications.
Has worked on a distributed, fault-tolerant, and scalable system.
Agrees that “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins is the perfect soundtrack for releases, even though releasing software is easier than flying a fighter jet.

EnergyHub is a Brooklyn-based startup located in an old factory near the scenic Gowanus Canal. We provide a cloud-hosted software platform for managing energy use in homes and small businesses. Together, our partners have sold over 100,000 EnergyHub-powered devices, and we will be managing 1 million devices in the next few years. EnergyHub offers great benefits, including: company-paid medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and your dependents, 401(k), stock options, paid vacations, delicious snacks, foosball, and more!

As a team, we:

Like the JVM, but love Python.
Juggle data using the right tool for the job — SQL, NoSQL, or even a mixture of pandas and ipython.
Scale horizontally.
Keep a clean house using dev tools such as git and Jenkins.
Are open to trying out new technologies, languages, and ideas.

To apply, send the following to jobs@energyhub.com:

Your resumé.
Why you’re excited to work at EnergyHub.
Some code. This can take the form of a link to any of your open source projects, your github/bitbucket username, a code sample, or an app you wrote.

Smart Grid Today: EnergyHub, Ecobee Offer Austin Energy as Model of the New DR

2013-01-28T20:09:34Z

Smart Grid Today: EnergyHub, Ecobee Offer Austin Energy as Model of the New DR

January 10, 2013

Millions of customers to buy, install networked thermostats: Austin Energy and software partners EnergyHub and Ecobee are ushering into the smart grid industry “retail aggregation” of . . .

To read the full article (subscription required), head on over to Smart Grid Today.

EnergyHub Completes Enrollment for Initial Phase of Austin Energy’s Power Partner Thermostat Program

2013-01-28T20:08:19Z

AUSTIN, TX and BROOKLYN, NY, January 10, 2013 – EnergyHub announced today that, in early December, it became the first vendor to finish enrolling residential load control participants for the initial phase of Austin Energy’s new Power Partner Thermostat Program.

Unlike many traditional utility demand response programs, Austin Energy is leveraging equipment already in customer homes (originally purchased at retail stores or through HVAC contractors and home security companies) for the Power Partner Thermostat Program. This approach allows the utility to avoid marketing and installation costs typically associated with residential demand response programs, and it allows customers to utilize a thermostat of their choosing, thereby increasing the reach of the Austin Energy program.

Designed to help the utility manage its peak load, the Power Partner Thermostat Program allows Austin Energy customers to receive an $85 rebate after installing a programmable communicating thermostat from an Austin Energy-approved vendor (or having one installed by a contractor). Participating customers’ thermostats may be set back between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. a few afternoons each summer when the demand for electricity is highest. Cycling air conditioners helps manage the demand for electricity, which reduces territory-wide electricity rates and helps delay the need to build new power plants.

“EnergyHub is thrilled to be one of the first vendors approved by Austin Energy for the Power Partner Thermostat Program,” said Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO of EnergyHub. “Austin Energy is a leader among municipal utilities, and we expect that other utilities will follow their example and take advantage of the load control assets available in their service territories through non-utility distribution.”

Austin Energy will use EnergyHub’s Mercury DRMS to reduce energy consumption through participating customers’ thermostats on peak days, and customers will have access to EnergyHub’s award-winning tools for thermostat remote control and energy management via the web and mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

The first phase of the program runs until Spring 2013, at which point Austin Energy will invite additional vendors to participate and recruit additional customers (and their associated demand response capacity) for the Summer 2013 air conditioning season.

About Austin Energy
Austin Energy is the nation’s 8th largest community-owned electric utility, serving more than 420,000 customers and a population of almost one million. The utility serves the City of Austin, Travis County, and a small portion of Williamson County. Austin Energy has built some of the most comprehensive energy efficiency programs in the nation. It offers multiple rebates to both residential and commercial customers to help pay for efficiency improvements in homes and professional buildings. Between 1982 and 2006, Austin Energy achieved its first conservation power plant of 700 megawatts and has a goal to offset an additional 800 megawatts through energy efficiency between 2007 and 2020.

The Holidays Don’t Have to Mean “Hold-for-Days” for Your Thermostat

2012-12-19T15:18:48Z

Season’s greetings from EnergyHub. We want to make sure you and your families have an energy-efficient holiday season, and one of the best ways to do that is to only use your thermostat’s Hold function when you really need it.

For many people, the remainder of 2012 includes time at home with family and friends. On those days when you’re not going to work, it’s very tempting to use your thermostat’s Hold function to keep your home at a constant temperature.

How tempting is the Hold function? Let’s take a look at what happened during Thanksgiving this year among the thermostats connected to EnergyHub’s Mercury platform.

Compared to the Monday after Thanksgiving, Hold usage increased substantially during the Thanksgiving holiday, peaking at nearly 10% higher on the day after Thanksgiving.

It’s not surprising that people use Hold more when they are home from work, but here are a few ways you can still maximize your energy savings on those days:

Set Away: Use the Set Away button on your Wi-Fi thermostat’s website or mobile application to quickly put all of your thermostats into an energy-saving mode when you leave the house to run errands or visit friends and relatives. You can use the End Away button before you return to ensure your house will be warm. (Don’t have a Wi-Fi thermostat yet? Head to your local Home Depot — they make great stocking stuffers.)
Turn the Heat Down 2°: Chances are that you and your guests won’t notice if you turn down the thermostat a little, especially if you’re chasing after your nieces, nephews, children, or grandchildren (or baking delicious cookies in the oven). Try reducing your target setpoint by 2 °F.
Get in the Zone: If you have multiple thermostats, make sure only the spaces that are going to be occupied all the time have Hold enabled. Just because you’re home all day doesn’t mean you need to heat your bedroom all day too.

Have other tips for saving energy during the holidays? Let us know at ilovedata@energyhub.com.

Happy holidays,
The EnergyHub Team

Electric Light & Power: Embracing a Bottom-up Approach to Load Control Programs

2012-12-07T22:32:43Z

Electric Light & Power: Embracing a Bottom-up Approach to Load Control Programs

By Andy Martin, EnergyHub | December 7, 2012

The explosion of communicating thermostats has created an opportunity for utilities to cost-effectively acquire new demand response assets. Installed by consumers, contractors, and cable and security companies, these thermostats offer the potential for utilities to lower demand response program costs and increase customer satisfaction.

Remote control thermostats are being installed in homes through many channels across North America. Advanced home security systems from companies such as Vivint Inc. include remote control thermostats. Cable companies and Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. offer remote control thermostats as part of their home management packages. HVAC contractors can now install Wi-Fi thermostats as part of new or upgraded heating and cooling systems. Do-it-yourself homeowners purchase smart thermostats at retail from companies such as Radio Thermostat Co. of America and 3M. No matter the service provider or the installation path a customer chooses, chances are good that a remote control thermostat is available.

To read the full article, head on over to Electric Light & Power.

A Superstorm’s Impact Visualized via Connected Thermostats

2012-11-06T21:28:50Z

Last week, Superstorm Sandy impacted millions of people on the East Coast. EnergyHub, based in Brooklyn, NY, was no exception. Thankfully, our team and office came through the storm safe and mostly dry. The team has pulled together both professionally and in our communities, from one engineer who walked three hours across multiple boroughs so she could come to work, to another team member, a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey, who has been responding to storm-related emergencies since last Monday.

As Sandy started to come ashore, we noticed that a large number of thermostats in affected areas stopped talking to our servers. Of course this is not surprising since telephone, internet, and electrical service was disrupted for millions of homes and businesses. You can see the magnitude of Sandy’s impact in this graph:

The first step was to pull a snapshot of the offline thermostats and summarize it for all affected ZIP Codes. The summarized (anonymous) data was then geocoded and mapped. Here’s what the resulting map looks like (bigger circles means more thermostats offline):

The map lines up very closely with areas impacted by Sandy. As you can see from the first (“Offline thermostats”) chart, we’re already seeing many of those thermostats automatically reconnecting to our servers, meaning power and internet infrastructure has been restored for those folks!

As the number of internet-connected devices continues to grow, these types of monitoring tools will be able to provide a clearer picture of the impact of natural disasters like Sandy. The resulting data can be used for many other productive purposes, including strengthening our energy grids, monitoring critical resources, and managing distributed infrastructure.

As our region works hard to get back to normal, EnergyHub wishes a speedy recovery to all those affected by Superstorm Sandy. If you have any thoughts or questions on this blog post email us at: ilovedata@energyhub.com.

GreenTechGrid: Carrier Picks Up EnergyHub for Smart Thermostat Partnership

2012-10-08T14:38:33Z

GreenTechGrid: Carrier Picks Up EnergyHub for Smart Thermostat Partnership

By Katherine Tweed | October 4, 2012

Smart thermostats seem to be getting smarter these days.

Up until a few years ago, programmable thermostats were as smart as their technology. The problem, of course, was that they weren’t that smart as they needed to be in the hands of the average person. Even though the thermostats had the potential to save energy through personalized settings, homeowners had to actually set them to realize the savings.

Now, all of the major HVAC and thermostat companies makes smarter solutions — wireless, connected thermostats that can often be set up online. The most celebrated example is the Nest thermostat, which recently released its second version.

Some of the incumbents are finding startup partners to bring the smarts to their thermostats. The most recent is Carrier, which just announced EnergyHub as its partner for its ComfortChoice Touch thermostat.

To read the full article, head on over to GreenTechGrid.