Company: Ecovent, Boston, MA
Entry Submitted By: Fama PR
Company Description: For comfort-focused homeowners, Ecovent is the only intelligent home zoning system that delivers complete room-by-room climate control through easy-to-install, self-configuring sensors and vents.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Energy Industry Innovation of the Year

Nomination Title: Ecovent, delivering complete room-by-room climate control for homeowners

Tell the story about this nominated innovation since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Describe how the innovation was discovered, developed, refined and/or deployed. Provide an assessment of how the innovation has impacted or will impact your organization, your industry, markets or society.

TEXT REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION

According to the EPA, 17 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy used in residential homes. The majority of this is driven by home heating and cooling – or HVAC systems (accounting for more than 50% of residential energy consumption according to the U.S. EIA).

Anyone who owns a home knows how expensive and frustrating it is to keep a home comfortable. Despite HVAC zoning and the introduction of smart thermostats like Nest, every home has rooms that are either too hot, or too cold, regardless of what temperature the thermostat is set on. The vagaries in temperatures across rooms can account for more than 30% of annual residential energy bills.

The problem is compounded when you consider how many empty rooms in a home are heated and cooled – wasting more energy and money. While many automobiles have multiple climate zones and heated seats, in the home, consumers have limited control over their comfort and how much energy they’re using. It’s frustrating and inefficient.

This everyday frustration is also a global opportunity for massive energy savings and spurred the foundation of Ecovent. The company was born when CEO Dipul “Dip” Patel closed off air vents in the guest bedrooms in his home to lower energy bills while saving money for his wedding. That winter, Dip’s mother spent a sleepless night shivering during a visit. That led him to devise Ecovent, the only intelligent home zoning system that delivers complete room-by-room climate control through easy-to-install, self-configuring sensors and vents.

Ecovent lets homeowners use a mobile phone or computer to control their home’s temperature on a room by room basis for the first time ever. Ecovent accomplishes this by making an advanced system of vents and sensors that intelligently diagnoses the multiple factors impacting room temperature. Ecovent then automatically makes adjustments to HVAC systems and the amount of airflow going into each room to ensure that every room is the right temperature and every customer is comfortable.

By having the ability to control the temperature of each room individually from a mobile phone or computer, homeowners save energy and money by heating and cooling the rooms that are needed. Do-it-yourself installation takes minutes per room without special tools or construction and is more cost effective, and less invasive, than installing traditional room-by-room zoning systems.

Ecovent is entering the market at a time when energy efficiency is top of mind for many homeowners looking to save money and reduce their carbon footprint. As seen with technologies like Nest, home automation and energy efficiency are making a huge impact on energy use in the residential market but by taking the energy efficiency opportunity one step further and enabling homeowners to control room by room, versus the house as a whole, more energy can be saved, and this is the opportunity that Dip saw.

More background and accomplishments

After coming up with the idea for Ecovent, Dip left his career with Lockheed Martin and began his MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he launched Ecovent with classmate Yoel Kelman (COO) and former Lockheed colleagues Nick Lancaster (CTO) and Shawn Rose (CIO). After developing the proof of concept system, the team joined the Techstars Boston accelerator in January 2014 for funding, mentorship and guidance on how to bring their invention to market.

Since January 2014, Ecovent has since hit several significant milestones. The company has raised $2.8M of funding through angel and seed investment rounds, and has grown from four founders to a team of 14 full-time employees and four co-ops and interns. In addition, Ecovent has deployed 20 beta systems throughout the country and has generated in excess of $1 million in pre-orders.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) chief characteristics or benefits of the nominated innovation.

• Ecovent delivers complete room-by-room climate control, enabling homeowners to save energy and money by only sending conditioned air only where it’s needed.
• Ecovent’s self-configuring sensors and vents intelligently diagnosis the multiple factors impacting room temperature and make automatic adjustments to HVAC systems, allowing customers to control their temperature through a mobile phone or computer.
• For initial customers, Ecovent dropped the temperature difference between floors from 15 degrees to two degrees.
• Ecovent has also allowed customers to save 30 percent on heating and cooling costs by only heating and cooling used spaces, enabling the system to pay for itself in about three years.
• Ecovent was able to diagnose that the air coming out of one customer’s vents was dangerously hot. An HVAC contractor subsequently discovered that the furnace was improperly calibrated and could have literally cracked, which would have caused carbon monoxide and other dangerous gases to spew into the home.