Last Updated on June 9, 2014 by New-Startups Team
Without angel investments, without venture capital, Embue—the product to improve comfort and efficiency of your home, did the hard way, and is now turning to Kickstarter to help bring their thermostat technology to every home. Originally launched by founder Jason Hanna using the funds he saved after quitting his first job out of college. In 2010 Embue caught a big break when they secured $150,000 as part of the Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. They took the funding, ran with it, and later that year turned it into a $1 million Phase II award to pursue commercialization of the technology. With all the successes already realized, they’ve since received additional private investments and secured the MassCEC manufacturing grant and finally is on Kickstarter to help everyone secure their own Embue set for production release in December.
Imagine if your house could know the temperatures you like and the rooms you spend the most time in and adjust itself accordingly to ensure comfort when you’re there and savings when you’re not. That’s Embue. A new connected solution that manages the comfort and efficiency of your home or small business. Embue replaces your thermostat with wireless sensors and adjusts the temperature according to weather, humidity, occupancy and fuel use patterns. You can access Embue from a smart device or computer, on-site or remotely so you always know what is going on. When Embue detects an issue or identifies a decrease in your equipment’s performance it alerts you and/or your preferred HVAC service provider.
With all these sensors and temperature controls how does Embue specifically differ from popular NEST? Here’s five ways the two are different:
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Embue monitors energy & fuel use. Nest doesn’t. It uses that data to inform customers & track equipment efficiency.
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The sensors provide accurate data temperature & humidity data in every room – allowing you to spot thermal differences and manage temperatures to where people spend time.
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Embue is not limited by the location of the existing thermostat nor does it relay on existing wires in the walls for power. This is the “C-wire issue” that Nest and others must work around.
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The system is designed for scalability and multi-zone applications. After the upfront purchase, additional zones can be purchased for 1/2 the cost of Nest.
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Also built as a very capable system with customer privacy in mind. It’s designed to keep potentially sensitive customer data local, not in the cloud.
A significant difference between the two is also they will be sold and marketed. While NEST is sold B2C, Embue will sell through HVAC service providers after the Kickstarter campaign. HVAC professionals will be provided with fuel-use and important data by Embue in order to help them integrate with existing customer systems and prevent problems.
A home and a work environment are incredibly affected by the atmospheric conditions. Too hot and no one wants to do anything, too cold and everyone is running around looking for sweaters. Comfort is an element that is incredibly important to consider and is where Embue excels. The system allows for fixed scheduling but on default it offers Home, Away, Sleep and Vacation states. Users set their preferred temperature for each mode and the system automatically chooses one according to sensor data and predicted return-times. The network of sensors helps ensure that comfortable temperatures are maintained in rooms where people are spending time.
More than a smart thermostat. Embue is a better way to manage the heating & cooling in your home or business. Rest easy with Embue, but in the mean time support their Kickstarter and get your early bird entry level system.