REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — EcoFactor, a provider of cloud-based home energy services, has announced the launch of its HVAC Performance Monitoring (HPM) service after completion of a successful HVAC trial evaluating thousands of homes. Using patented cloud-based analytics algorithms and pattern recognition, the service remotely detects, analyzes, and notifies consumers of HVAC performance issues.

This HVAC early warning service is delivered through EcoFactor’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) energy analytics platform and expands the company’s current offerings, which include residential energy efficiency and demand response. The company said HPM can deliver energy efficiency savings on top of the 10-15 percent savings already achieved through EcoFactor’s patented automation service.

EcoFactor said the results of the HPM trial support the widely-held belief in the HVAC industry that millions of American homes have problems with their heating and cooling systems that go undetected — problems that represent opportunities to save energy and money. Specifically, the HPM trial results indicated:

• 95 percent of homes EcoFactor identified as having HVAC issues did in fact have an issue when the homes were visited by a licensed HVAC technician.

• Issues confirmed upon inspection ranged from mild to severe, from refrigerant to coil issues, improper placement of the thermostat to wiring issues.

• The average cost of repair was estimated to be more than $300. The study showed 68 percent of home occupants did not feel significant enough impact on comfort to recognize there was a problem before the issues were detected.

HPM features and benefits include:

• Real-time analysis — Early detection can help reduce the number of catastrophic failures and improve long-term energy efficiency. EcoFactor software detects various levels of performance degradation from small to severe issues.

• Proactive customer notifications — Regular reports are provided with information that can be distributed to consumers. EcoFactor APIs can be used to integrate the notifications into existing customer communications infrastructure.

• Customer support tools — These tools can integrate with current energy audit programs and help increase customer engagement and satisfaction.

• Partner integration – Utilities and service providers can gain a customizable service for deployment on their own mobile and/or web applications.

For more information, visit www.ecofactor.com.

Publication date: 1/27/2014

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