Thirty homeowners with solar panels use PowerNab's monitoring systems.
CEO Shannon Koffman hopes to extend the product to homes without solar power, showing consumption of electricity, water, and gas. Costs would range from the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.
PowerNab's platform would talk to household appliances and devices via a variety of protocols, including ZigBee, ZWave, and LonWorks, and enabling remote controls, Koffman said. For instance, a bedside touchscreen would let someone remotely cut off power to everything but the alarm clock for the night.
Koffman imagines PowerNab fitting in with demand-response agreements whereby homeowners receive discounts for allowing a utility to reduce their home's electricity use remotely when the grid nears peak demand. EnerNOC and Comverge are facilitating similar deals between utilities and businesses.
Self-funded and San Francisco-based, PowerNab is seeking venture funding. It's negotiating potential partnerships with PG&E and large homebuilders including Shea Homes.
Photo by PowerNab
Caption by Elsa Wenzel
