Arch Rock enlists sensors for energy efficiency

Wireless-sensor start-up Arch Rock thinks it has found a killer application: measuring energy use in commercial buildings.

The company on Monday introduced Energy Optimizer, a product line that combines its Internet Protocol-based sensors with server software for collecting and analyzing energy data.

A wireless sensor placed on data center equipment to measure electricity use.

(Credit: Arch Rock)

The sensors can be attached to different circuits in a data center, for example, to measure electricity consumption over time.

Because they have radios to transmit information, the installation doesn't require laying new wires into a building, Arch Rock CEO Roland Acra said. And because they are IP-based, they can be managed on an existing corporate network, he said.

Simply getting more fine-grained information on energy usage will allow businesses to shave their energy bills by 10 percent to 20 percent, Acra said. The company makes a sensor for electricity, and another that measures flow rates for water and gas, as well as light, air temperature, and humidity.

There are dozens of home energy-monitoring products, but Arch Rock decided to target corporations and governments because their heftier utility bills justify investments in monitoring. Energy Optimizer will be available at the beginning of May.

"We thought we could move faster this year by targeting places where there is a will to act," Acra said. "It allows us to capture the momentum inside corporations and government institutions (toward sustainability and energy efficiency) without relying on subsidies.

The cost is $800 for three measurements, and back-end equipment starts at $10,000. The investment makes sense, if an institution has utility bills over $10,000 a year, as it pays for itself in a few years, Acra said.

[carlhage]

There seems to be an awful lot of "energy monitoring" startups these days with grand claims like this of a killer ap. I think there is a killer application-- new appliances that use less energy or time-shift energy use, e.g. air conditioners with thermal storage. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer with wireless sensor-- it was about $30. An energy monitor part-wise is not much more complicated than this, so why should it cost $800? A wireless router costs about $50 and is no less complex than the back-end equipment that costs $10,000. Adding up energy use and plotting usage is something a beginning programmer could write-- well OK, making a decent GUI is something that needs a good designer, but it's not hard. Yes, for many commercial sites >$10,000/year in electricity, water, etc. could be saved with some monitoring, and a $1000/mo fee would pay for itself. But the only reason it costs $10,000 instead of $100 is that it isn't yet made in high volumes and available in the local hardware store. (Eventually it will.) What makes more sense is to standardize the wireless energy monitoring/control and build it into appliances, the same way blue-tooth standardizes audio communications. Then for $5 more in parts you've got monitoring and control.

[matthewbulat]

On a smaller scale there are already wireless power meters that store real time, daily , weekly and monthly totals of power consumed. In Australia they cost $100 to $200 (single and 3 phase). The monitoring described sound like wireless transmitting to a wireless receiver connected to Ethernet networking. The advantage would be seeing and storing results e.g. every minute. I have a review of a power point power meter and a building power meter at www.matthewb.id.au I find both useful to keep your average power consumption lower.