1. Spend a weekend WWOOFing

Ummm… Say what? WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) is a project which allows volunteers to give organic farms a helping hand. Not only will the farmer teach you the tricks of the trade, you also get free food and accommodation. The WWOOF project has now grown into a global phenomenon with over 12,000 hosts in 100 different countries and around 80,000 WWOOFers.

2. Backpack and sunglasses on, get hiking

Hiking is hip. In reality, it doesn't involve much more than spending a few hours wandering around in nature. You can make it as much fun as you want: plan an excursion with your best friends or just enjoy the peace and quiet which nature has to offer. What are you waiting for? Pop on your walking boots, stuff your backpack full of snacks, put your sunglasses on and head out into the big wide world. And if you don't live in a particularly adventurous area, the nearest wood will do just fine.

3. Hold a vegan barbecue

We're not going all vegangelical on you, we promise. But under the motto ‘every little helps’, it would still be a wonderful initiative to banish all meat and other animal products from your next barbecue for once. And it really needn't be a sacrifice, as the irresistible photos by popular food bloggers prove. How about a stuffed sweet potato, a juicy veggie burger or some deliciously sweet corn on the cob? Not to mention all those surprising salads and side dishes they conjure up!

4. Run for charity

Improve your fitness levels and help society at the same time! Plenty of charity runs are organised every year, and in fact probably every month: to protect endangered animal species, combat diseases such as cancer, finance social projects etc. Encourage lots of your friends to join in! Make your team stand out with cool T-shirts printed with an amusing group name, stylish logo or catchy slogan. Organise a warm-up in advance and/or a toast afterwards, once the whole group has reached the finishing point.

5. Plant a tree

However much of a cliché it might sound, we can't say it often enough: trees are crucial for our health. They purify the air and produce fresh oxygen, not to mention helping to limit global warming. So why not take part in a tree-planting campaign? There are three ways to support these kinds of initiatives: donate some money or land to a plant-a-tree organisation, tell them how many trees you have planted yourself or register as a volunteer and help to plant trees.

Plenty of inspiration to fill the whole summer, we think!

Alexa is the voice technology behind Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show and more.Since Amazon made the speech technology available for developers, they can add various functions. In the meantime, 12,000 skills have been published, adding to Amazon Alexa’s functions. Smappee has now developed two new skills for Amazon Alexa.

The first skill is the Smappee smart home skill for Amazon Alexa. Previously the smart energy monitor already gave you a real-time overview of your energy consumption, allowing you to control this with the Comfort Plugs^TM. Following the integration with Amazon Alexa, these “dumb” appliances can now also be voice controlled. You can now switch off your TV when you receive an important phone call with a voice command.

The second skill is that consumers can now verbally request the consumption of their household appliances for a specific period, i.e., for a week or month. You can now also ask Smappee how much energy your solar panels generated over a specific period for example.

“Our homes are becoming increasingly smart. Voice technology like Amazon Alexaplays an important role in this evolution”, says Stefan Grosjean, Smappee’s CEO. “We can now switch on or switch off appliances even more easily depending on our needs. This is all part of our objective of transforming family homes into smart and energy-efficient houses. So we are really enthusiastic that we can now use the Amazon Alexa technology to offer our customers an improved smart home experience.”

The Red Herring editorial team selected the finalists from a pool of over 1200 companies in the telecommunications, security, cloud, software, hardware, biotech, mobile and other industries that completed their submissions to qualify for the prestigious Top 100 Award. The nominees were evaluated on 20 main quantitative and qualitative criterion, which include disruptive impact, market footprint, proof of concept, financial performance, technology innovation, social value, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

This unique assessment of potential was complemented by a review of the track record and standing of a company, which allowed Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry. The finalists for the 2017 edition of the Red Herring 100 Europe award were selected based upon their technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health. 

"This year was rewarding, beyond all expectations" said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. "There are many great companies generating really innovative and disruptive products in Europe. We had a very difficult time narrowing the pool and selecting the finalists. We found Smappee of great promise and therefore thought it deserved to be among the finalists. Yesterday, all finalists gave a corporate pitch, based on which the 100 winners were selected. After the pitch of Smappee CEO Stefan Grosjean, we were convinced the company deserved its place in the Red Herring Top 100.

Curious for how our Smappee-users get the most out of their Smappee in their own unique, everyday life, we asked some particular users to share their experiences with us. Second in line is Mel Lee, who lives with her husband and 2 early teenagers in Upstate New York. She has managed a team of engineers, but now decided to stay home to look after the kids. In her free time she loves jogging, DIY and collecting diecast model cars. Let’s see what place her Smappee takes in her busy daily life!

How did Smappee come into your life?

I wanted to start monitoring my power usage smartly, and after some research for smart devices I came across Smappee’s home energy monitor. I primarily chose Smappee because its solar version is out of the box. Other brands require purchasing additional clamps and additional setup. But the Smappee Solar energy monitor is a plug’n’play, with the additional clamps already included. 

How often do you check your data readings?

Once we received the Smappee, I checked its data daily. When I could conclude the monitor was working just fine, I checked the readings weekly. It’s an easy way to keep an eye on my home’s consumption pattern. The Smappee app comes in handy to make sure no electrical appliances are misbehaving. For example, it made me aware that the energy consumption of CFL is just completely off the roof. So I’ve switched out bulbs from CFL to LEDs in the rooms where lights are frequently used, like the living room and the childrens’ bedrooms.

CFL lights are real energy guzzlers. Great you tracked them down! Did you also manage to reduce your standby power use?

My kids are at that age where tablets and cellphones are everywhere and anytime could be in use . Of course, the frequent use of such appliances requires a lot of charging. To reduce vampire loads, I installed mechanical timers for the various phone chargers around the house, and other adaptor-charging devices like iRobots. Even TV sets are now never left on standby anymore. Mains are turned off if we don’t use them any time soon. It’s a shame to pay for energy you don’t use.

Taking it all into account, we’re very curious to know what you appreciate most about Smappee.

I just love the app; especially the ease of data retrieval any time it’s needed. For example, I once noticed how the ‘always on’ bubble went up over a few days. I soon realized I had totally forgotten to turn off the treadmill machine in our basement. If you see how drastically the blue chart had increased daily since Friday, you can imagine how glad I was to have discovered the culprit so quickly.

Let’s fire away the big question: would you recommend Smappee to your family and friends?

Yes, I would recommend it to everyone who’s complaining of high utility bills. I bet all American folks agree with me if i say power consumption during summer is just crazy when the AC is being used. I guess comfort always comes with a price, but airconditioning power consumption is just crazy, really crazy… And it was only when my consumption charts were being shown that I was shocked of how much power was being used. So yes, if you want to control your home’s energy consumption: Smappee is highly recommended.

There’s a lot of talk about using renewable and green energy sources, but the sheer amount of energy required to overcome the volatility and management hurdles have slowed down its mainstream implementation.

Fortunately, this is something that can be overcome with the use of revolutionary technologies such as Internet of Things, blockchain and artificial intelligence.

In October, our smart energy monitor Smappee became the first datalogger to join forces with SolarCoin, a digital, blockchain-based currency that was created to support renewable energy. This is a significant step towards a future where consumers also become major producers of renewable energy and trade that energy directly with other consumers. 

The simple setup of a reliable on-site energy monitor like Smappee, combined with a distributed, blockchain-based digital currency like SolarCoin can actually solve three major energy challenges today and tomorrow:

1. How can we find a quick, universal way to support renewable energy?

Among early adopters and believers of renewable energy, it might seem as if the whole world has embraced renewable energy. We’re getting there faster than many non-believers think (see article), but for the foreseeable future we still need a lot more incentives to get people to invest in renewable energy. 

It turns out that digital currencies such as SolarCoin are a great way to organize this.

First of all, it’s really easy to set up a digital currency that is released as solar panels (or other sources of renewable energy) produce energy. The link between renewable energy production and reward is simply hardwired into the currency – 1 SolarCoin for every 1 MWh of renewable energy produced.

Getting a reward (even if it’s not “worth” a lot of money) is always nice, but the way the SolarCoins are set up pretty much guarantees SolarCoin holders that it is possible to trade the coins for real money. The reason is that some people will choose to buy them as an investment and, further down the road, people might actually use them as legal tender – a way to pay for goods and services.

There is a limited supply of digital currencies like SolarCoin, which means that any purchase of the coins through one of the approved exchanges will immediately create more value for the coin holders. 

Because of this mechanism, SolarCoins are also a great way for private or public players to subsidize renewable energy production. Any investment—however small—in SolarCoins will immediately raise prices for SolarCoins and be a de facto subsidy for renewable energy production.

2. How will we deal with decentralized energy production at consumer level? 

There is no doubt that energy production will become increasingly decentralized. What many don’t seem to realize, is that this decentralized production will itself be fragmented.

It won’t just be solar panels. It will be a combination of solar panels, wind turbines (perhaps shared with some neighbours), a CHP (combined heat and power), and a home battery or a car battery. That’s on the production and storage side.

On the usage side, there will be appliances that can be switched off and on, but also appliances that can be turned up or down.

It’s noon and your solar panels are hard at work: now is the time to put the air conditioning a few degrees cooler so that you don’t have to blast it when you come home. You also might set the freezer a few degrees colder – a good way to get rid of excess energy in the short term. Or heat the swimming pool. And of course, fill the car and the home battery to capacity. 

Or, it could be a grey Saturday afternoon, so you decide to turn up the heat before you come home and start preparing a three course home cooked meal while your son is in the shower after soccer practice? Maybe the freezer can be switched off for a few hours. 

We will need AI-driven systems to direct the traffic of energy production and energy usage on a micro level – inside (and outside) our own home. That’s part of the vision for Smappee – a smart energy appliance that acts as a traffic controller for energy, optimizing it so that you don’t have to import energy from the grid (expensive). It will also prevent you from having to export energy to the grid, which means that you didn’t optimize your energy storage/usage in the home.

3. How will we create a future grid that allows decentralized production?

This is the final step in the vision of how smart energy monitors like Smappee and SolarCoins will create a new, decentralized grid architecture. 

Today, exporting energy to the grid and importing it requires a central administration that keeps track of all the energy traffic (to and from the grid) and sends each player an invoice at some point -usually, once a year or once a month.

What if you and a few neighbors have solar, wind power and CHP and decide you don’t want to be on the grid any longer? How will you keep track of consumption and who owes how much to who? The way the grid is set up today, we rely on a centralized grid manager to keep track of all this.

This is where blockchain will truly show its revolutionary potential. If every home has a Smappee (or equivalent) monitor and a personalized SolarCoin account that keeps track of production and consumption, there is no longer any need for a centralized grid management.

The on-site energy monitors will just keep track of energy usage and energy production. The link to SolarCoins will allow everyone to pay their invoice or be paid for their energy production.

You won’t even need to install energy production at your home. It will become perfectly possible to buy a solar panel, install it on a roof anywhere and collect SolarCoins.

Theoretically, your home might be an apartment in Boston, but your solar panel can be in the Nevada desert – already at grid parity. Just connect your SolarCoin wallet, based on your panel in Nevada, to your Smappee monitor, installed in your apartment in Boston, and pay for the KWh you consume in Boston with the SolarCoins that you earn with your panel in Nevada. Using a blockchain currency, you can trade this energy in a truly peer-to-peer way: transparent, in real time, and secure thanks to the distributed ledger.

In this scenario, there is no longer any need for a centralized grid management or utility which keeps track of your consumption. The digital currency in a sense becomes the energy meter: it keeps track of consumption/production and settles the bill at the same time. 

For us, it’s clear that the decentralized future of energy will not be tackled by top-down “smart meters” that are installed by the grid managers that we see today. These meters will be more expensive and drive up the cost of the energy bill, but they will also take years to select, produce and roll out.

Knowing how most administrations work, it will take about ten to fifteen years from the decision to the moment that the meters are installed in all the homes. By that time, it will be like getting a 2006 laptop today – it will be obsolete, slow, buggy, expensive and prone to crashing (gee, thanks!). Let’s try to avoid that mistake.

Stefan Grosjean is CEO and founder of Smappee. Follow Stefan’s tweets at @StfnGrsjn

The Internet of Energy conference, held in Cologne from 7 to 8 March, focussed on “Disruptive Business Models – from selling electrons to selling services”. In the “Start-up Showcase” category, Smappee won from five other competitors for an independent four-man jury and was honoured for its business model.

Smappee started off with a product of same name. Smappee explained how energy suppliers can inspire and win their customers and potential new customers with the use of Smappee. In its elevator pitch, the company showed to be revolutionary and visionary, in such way that it can provide the energy suppliers with technological developments and a decisive competitive advantage.

The main thought is that energy companies can benefit from the innovative ideas and the flexibility of start-ups. Partnerships with start-ups are a substantial way for them to survive in the fast-changing utility industry. Innovative business models are urgently needed in the strong competition.

Stefan Grosjean, CEO and founder of Smappee, received the award on 8 March: “We are very pleased that our concept is being honoured. Our mission is the continuous development of new, intelligent solutions and the constant improvement of existing products for the energy sector. Our commitment has now been rewarded.”

The international Internet of Energy Conference, organized by British organizers, is aimed at high-profile speakers and invited guests, including EnBW, EON and Innogy, to the energy supply industry.

1. Ring doorbell

“As soon as someone rings the doorbell, I receive a notification. Through the built-in camera, I can see on my smartphone who is at the door. But you can also choose to speak to the person via the camera. So, if you see someone you don’t recognise, you can ask the reason for their visit there and then.”

2. D-Link Wi-Fi Pan Tilt Day Night Camera

“The D-Link camera takes photos if movement is detected at particular times. It then sends these photos to my smartphone. When my children were at secondary school, the camera was in the living room and I could request photos between 16:00 and 17:00 to check whether they had got home safely. When I’m on holiday, D-Link gives me confidence there have been no unwanted visitors. Another great feature is the fact that the camera can be used to ‘Skype’: you can choose to speak to the people who appear on the screen via the app. A great way to keep my wife company while she’s cooking if I’m not home yet.”

3. Serena roller blinds

“I’m a huge fan of home automation, including smart roller blinds. They go up or down automatically depending on the sunlight, but I can also operate them manually via the widget on my smartphone with a simple swipe and tap. Thanks to IFTTT you can be very creative with automation. A good tip is to lower the blinds as soon as the television is turned on.”

4. Philips Hue lamps

“Phillips Hue lamps are ideal for creating a particular atmosphere in your home, as you can set the colour they produce and when they turn on or off. In the morning, I’m woken up naturally as the lamps become gradually brighter from 6:50 onwards. Thanks to the Smappee monitor, which knows when a device is turned on or off, the Phillips Hue lamps in the bedroom immediately glow a warm orange colour as soon as the coffee machine in the kitchen is turned on, thanks to an IFTTT formula. Then I know it really is time to get up. In the evening, the Phillips Hue lamps in the living room are turned on automatically as soon as a member of the family comes within a 100m radius of the house.”

5. Tado smart thermostat

“Little by little, the smart thermostat has learnt my family’s lifestyle. Tado now knows exactly when my wife and I get home from work and when the children come back from school. When no one is at home, Tado automatically adjusts to a stand-by temperature of 18 °C. Because it predicts when someone will get home, the thermostat automatically switches to comfort mode half an hour before the first family member gets in. So the house is always lovely and warm and we waste significantly less energy when everyone is out.”

6. Apple TV

“The Apple TV isn't actually a TV, but a box that can be connected to your television set using an HDMI cable. If you don’t have a smart TV, this is the ideal solution to make your ordinary television ‘intelligent’ at a low cost. The Apple TV includes loads of apps for watching Netflix or renting a film, but also to stream Spotify through the audio output, for example.”

7. Amazon Echo

“This device is so much more than a Bluetooth speaker: Whether you want to know the time, what’s on the calendar or what the weather is like, Alexa, the voice of Amazon Echo, will tell you. During a romantic dinner with my wife, I only have to say, ‘Alexa, play romantic music’, and I know the evening will go smoothly. Alexa also often gets used as a timer when cooking. You just ask: ‘Alexa, please set a timer for 11 minutes’. One very handy thing about Amazon Echo is that it automatically searches for other smart devices in the house. So, Amazon Echo discovered my Philips Hue lamps itself, meaning that when I am in the living room I can ask Alexa to turn the lights off in my office. Alexa can even recognise questions or orders when other people are speaking or music is playing. The only conditions are that you have to start the sentence with ‘Alexa’ and speak English or German - though I expect other languages to follow soon.”

8. Samsung family hub fridge

“This fridge is still on my wish list. It has an inbuilt tablet with endless possibilities. In the app, you can see an image of what’s in the fridge, so you can go shopping straight after work without needing to make a list first. When you’re having breakfast in the morning, you can consult the calendar to find out what the day has in store for you. You can also take notes, play music etc. Eating breakfast with your whole family suddenly takes on a new dimension. It comes with a price tag but, if you ask me, this family hub offers value for your money.”

9. Smart plugs

“There’s always someone who forgets to completely turn off an appliance or power strip. One major consumer is our audiovisual corner, which consists of our television, digicorder, Apple TV and amplifier. If you forget to turn the power strip off at night, you’ve wasted a lot of consumption on sleep mode. So the power strip is connected to a Comfort Plug™. Of course, you can also use smart plugs for many other applications. During Christmas, I have the lights on the Christmas tree turn on as soon as the sun goes down, for example.”

10. Smappee home energy monitor

“Finally, of course you have the Smappee energy monitor. As head of R&D, I am involved every day in researching and improving the product features. Among other things, we have planned a major expansion of the Smart Home applications, but the biggest advantage of Smappee of course remains the fact that you can monitor your total energy consumption and the consumption of your household appliances remotely and at any time. So, you know exactly what is happening at home and how much it will cost you.”

Note: to protect the privacy of Joost, only official product images have been used in this blogpost.

Apps are playing a vital role in modern day media use. Their value and significance are constantly increasing – more and more companies are using app-based customer communication. The Energy App Award, in cooperation with the E-World Energy Trade Show, is intended to recognise this, and to reward innovative digital solutions which are particularly customer-friendly. The Smappee app, which empowers customers to use energy more efficiently, has won in the 'Jury Category'.

Particularly innovative and user-friendly digital solutions from the energy sector are awarded each year with the Energy App Award. A top-class jury of industry experts, including representatives from companies such as Google and Innogy, evaluates outstanding apps based on the criteria of story, concept, business impact and technology. On February 8th, the Smappee App was announced as winner of the "Jury Category" award at the E-World in Essen and was honored with a trophy money.

Hans Delabie, COO and co-founder of Smappee, accepted the award: "We are very pleased that Smappee has been awarded the Energy App Award as a pioneering concept. For us, this price is a motivator to continue bringing new innovations to the market and to continuously provide our solutions with new functions."

With its intelligent solutions, the company Smappee helps private users as well as corporate customers to save money on electricity, gas and water and provides convenient functions for the Smart Home. The intuitive app is the control center and provides all information in real-time.

Exact, real-time total energy consumption

Immediately after it has been connected to your fuse box, the Smappee monitor will start listening to the flow of energy running through your house. From the very beginning, the app will show you a real-time overview of your energy consumption. Go ahead and give it a try: switch on the kettle to make yourself a nice cup of tea. You’ll see the grey bubble getting bigger. A notification will pop up to tell you exactly how much energy this device is using. But that’s not all; Smappee takes it further.

Appliance recognition

Smappee’s appliance recognition is based on a groundbreaking technology called NILM (Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring). How does it work? Every appliance has a different way of using the electric current. You could say they each push out their own electrical signature. Every time an appliance is switched on and off, Smappee hears these electrical signatures and recognizes the actions as an ‘event’. After a while, Smappee will start recognizing an event’s electrical signature and will assign it to the according appliance. But matching the power changes with the right appliance takes time. The word speaks for itself: appliance recognition.

The NILM technique can be compared with the Shazam-principle. Imagine you’re in a crowded bar in which the DJ set, radio and television are playing all at the same time, in addition to the crowd’s chatting, laughing and singing. Your Shazam app will have difficulties recognizing that one specific song you want to know. Now that’s the titan work Smappee is dealing with in your home too: it hears a whole concert of lights, fridges, chargers, pumps, etc. singing their own electric melody simultaneously. From that concert of different voices, Smappee abstracts the different melodies (appliances). For example, a lamp of 60 Watt sounds different from a fridge that is also using 60 watt. That’s how Smappee can distinguish them from one another, reporting them as ‘Appliance 1’ and ‘Appliance 2’. Nevertheless, because Smappee works like Shazam, it also faces the following few limitations:

• Just like two equal instruments are hard to distinguish, Smappee has difficulties distinguishing appliances with comparable electrical signatures (eg. appliances with a heating element, like toasters, water boilers or cooker hobs).

• One song containing different melodies (ever heard ‘Les lacs du Connemara’?) can be quite confusing and might not be considered one ‘whole’. The same way, appliances with an ambiguous pattern due to the variable capacity (like televisions with ambilight, heatpumps ...) might be recognized as different appliances.

• Smappee also has a hard time trying to identify the so-called ‘silent’ appliances (using less than 30 Watt), as these are drowned out by the louder ones. For example, for a Smappee, recognizing a LED lamp is just as hard as it is for you to hear your smartphone ringing when you’re at a hard rock concert.

Standby power consumption

Some electrical signatures seem to never be switched off and therefore never report on/off events. Smappee will consider this a constant use of electricity and categorize it as always-on power. In the blue bubble in your app, you can see the average always-on power of the past 24 hours. The reason why Smappee knows how much Watt your always-on power consumption is, is also the reason why Smappee can’t tell you which appliances are a part of it: as they don’t get turned on and off that often, they don’t induce any events. Appliance detection is event-based, so if Smappee can’t hear any events, it can’t find those devices.

Ever-improving technology

While we’re passionately perfectioning our groundbreaking appliance recognition technology, there’s no doubt you can already benefit from the positive impact the Smappee monitoring system has on your energy savings. Here are some quite exclusive advantages that already put you ahead of the game:

• No matter what appliances are or are not added to your appliance list, the reported real-time total energy consumption is impeccable.

• Tracking down energy guzzlers becomes child’s play.

• You’re aware of your always-on power consumption.

• While others still have to deal with an unclear energy bill (on a yearly basis!), you get an itemized bill, showing you how much your most important devices consume per day, year or month and how much this is costing you.

• You can control your appliances remotely thanks to the compatibility with Comfort Plugs™, IFTTT and Stringify.

Excited as our developers are to make our appliance detection a perfect fit for your needs, all feedback is more than welcome. Any reported issues are actively taken into account during our non-stop improvement process. As such, we have recently launched an improved appliance recognition technology called NILM 2.0. This technology can now significantly reduce the confusion a Smappee monitor might experience. Also, some main appliances like your freezer or fridge are now auto-labelled.

Still have questions? You’ll find all the info you’re looking for on our support page.

1) Become more energy-conscious

Measurement means management. Smappee does not only measure your exact, total consumption; Smappee even narrows this down to appliance level. Consult the data on your smartphone (via the Smappee app) or your computer (via MySmappee) and get to know your house even better than before. Our customer survey revealed that clear insight into your energy consumption and the costs instantly will naturally lead to more awareness when it comes to your energy consumption habits. Don’t worry, there is no need to put your household on any kind of ‘energy diet’ to achieve this. You will be able to achieve astounding savings simply by making more conscious use of electricity, gas and water - without any concessions in comfort.

2) Discover which appliances consume excessive energy

With the information provided by the Smappee app at your fingertips, you can become your household’s true-to-life energy manager! The insights you can gain from this app are worth their weight in gold if you want to save energy (and therefore, money as well). Just scroll through the list of appliances. Which appliances consume the most energy? And just how much money is this appliance’s energy consumption costing you? If your appliance is using too many Watts in proportion to how often it is used, your appliance is not energy-efficient. In other words, it is using too many kWh while there are better alternatives available. Our Facebook page received overwhelming response from Smappee users to the question of which appliance they found to be a genuine energy-guzzler. The sad winners were old washing machines, dryers, refrigerators and freezers. Hans, for example, discovered that he paid €65 a year for the use of a refrigerator that did not even have a freezer compartment! The use of a more energy-efficient model would cost him only €21 a year. Perhaps the time has come for you to replace your old appliances too?

3) Why pay for energy you are not using?

Some appliances use energy, even when you are not using them. Prime examples include the lights of your computer, digicorder, etc., which are permanently on. The blue dot on your Smappee app calculates your average standby power consumption in the past 24 hours and how much you are paying for this.Why make unnecessary costs? When you add up the total energy consumption of all appliances on standby, this could come to between €50 and €100 a year. That’s simply money being thrown away, isn’t it? You can easily avoid standby energy consumption: simply unplug your smartphone chargers, digital decoders, game consoles, etc. when you are not using them. Do you have multiple appliances in one and the same room? If so, a programmable power strip may be a wise investment.

4) Always choose the cheapest energy supplier

That cheapest energy supplier even provides energy entirely free of charge: the sun. More and more people are installing solar panels to supply their own energy needs. Currently, in 2017, we are less dependent on energy distributors than ever before. The Smappee app lets you use the surplus of energy produced to control electrical appliances, without this costing you a penny. Even more: thanks to our collaboration with SolarCoin, you can even use this to earn money! Don’t have solar panels? No worries, the Smappee app will also allow you to see which supplier will give you the best rates. A study conducted by VREG showed that an average family easily pays €80.23 more for electricity than the cheapest energy rates on the market. With regard to gas, the difference between the average rate and the cheapest was even €161.18. Therefore, savings of €241.41 could even be achieved for electricity and gas put together!

Read here to discover how Smappee users became their household’s energy managers, or mail your own Smappee story to Stephanie

Smappee, the smart energy monitor, transforms private households into intelligent and energy efficient homes. With the integration of Smappee into the IoT platform Stringify, users are now given additional options for controlling their smart homes.

Thanks to its sophisticated technology, the Smappee energy monitor detects the most important electrical appliances in the household and transmits their energy consumption data to the user's smartphone or tablet via an app. Smappee Comfort PlugsTM can be used to operate individual devices via mobile and even have them communicate with each other via trigger options. Smappee increases the automation, comfort, and safety in the household. Currently, the IoT platform Stringify integrates Smappee into its service portfolio and thus creates a further selection of exciting smart home functions.

"We are delighted to be working with Stringify. The company represents the vanguard in home connectivity and shares our goal of making our users' everyday lives more comfortable and easy," says Stefan Grosjean, founder and CEO of Smappee. The Stringify app connects numerous devices, including wearables and social services. In combination with Smappee, household appliances can be intelligently integrated through recognition of their energy consumption. The app provides support for everyday household tasks, for instance when Smappee detects that the dishwasher is ready, the user receives a push message. Since Stringify also integrates Sonos sound systems, applications with musical support can be implemented. For example, Stringify lets a certain song appear as soon as Smappee detects that the lighting is turned on. The application possibilities are endless and are becoming increasingly numerous thanks to the growing Stringify network.

So ... Are you ready for this?Check out all the Stringify receipes

Belgian energy monitorSmappee is announcing its cooperation with the energy comparison website aanbieders.be. Smappee offers a smart energy saving solution for consumers via its home monitor and its accompanying smartphone application. The cooperation with aanbieders.be will enable Smappee’s app to always command the cheapest energy supplier based on personal energy consumption data. Switching energy suppliers will be done through a simple interface that allows users to choose one of the proposed energy contracts. The partnership will greatly simplify the process of selecting energy suppliers. Although this service is currently only available in Belgium, Smappee plans to expand this service to other countries in the coming months.

Handle energy in a smarter way

Smappee is a smart energy monitor that sends real time energy consumption data to a user’s tablet or smartphone. Through the newly-announced cooperation with aanbieders.be, which compares energy suppliers and their contracts, Smappee’s app, which monitors home energy usage, will propose an energy contract fitting the user profile best. This new feature will allow Smappee users to improve their energy budgets.

Zero chance at mistakes

Typically, consumers looking to switch energy providers need to input their energy bills to accurately compare the plans being offered by energy suppliers. This manual input system often leads to errors, which complicates the process. Through Smappee’s partnership, user data will immediately be fed into aanbieders.be’s service, creating an accurate and more user-friendly experience.

Saving even more

Smappee already helps its users to save on energy consumption by tracking in real-time the amount of energy used.

This new cooperation enables even bigger savings, as switching energy suppliers is an easy and popular way to quickly save on energy bills. In October 2016, the difference in price for an average Belgian family between the market average and the cheapest energy supplier was £67.09. For gas, the difference in price was £134.77. Together, this is a total saving of £201.86 (source: VREG). The partnership deducts zero commission nor requires a membership fee from the users.  

How it works:

1. Smappee users can use their app to compare their energy contract (electricity and/or gas).

2. Based on their zip code and current supplier(s) the Smappee app then shows the prices being offered by other suppliers. Both the possible savings, additional costs, and the total year cost are shown.

3. Switching suppliers can be done by simply clicking on one of the proposed energy contract. Then, users only need to fill in basic personal information. Aanbieders.be then takes care of the follow-up to finalize the migration.

For the time being this service is only available in Belgium, but Smappee plans to expand this service to other countries in which their product is available.

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

We are happy to announce that the improved Smappee NILM 2.0 was released today. This means two things: (1) some appliances in your house will automatically be labelled by Smappee itself, and (2) even some of the smaller appliances will now also be detected.

The NILM technique

NILM stands for ‘Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring’: a system that monitors the changes in voltage and current, recognises these changes as patterns and assigns these patterns to appliances. This is what allows Smappee to detect and recognise appliances in your home. The technique was invented back in the 1980s, but it was so complex that it took a couple of decades before it really got to market. And even today, it remains limited to a handful of applications in the consumer market.   

Groundbreaking technology

For us, NILM is a groundbreaking and revolutionary technology because it allows us to give you real-time energy data down to appliance level and at an affordable price. Studies have shown that it is precisely what is needed to change your energy behaviour. In order for a consumer to initiate savings, the data provided by an energy monitor has to be real-time, down to appliance level and be actionable. For example, you will only understand that your fridge is an energy guzzler if you see in real time how much the fridge is costing you and only then will you replace it with a more efficient one.

Thanks to NILM, you need just one central device to monitor your household and all the different appliances. I mean, be honest: would you really buy and install 50 different energy meters in your home? We’re talking time and investment here.

Ever-improving appliance recognition

Smappee has been working passionately on its NILM since day one (over three years ago now), aiming at an ever-improving appliance recognition. We are now making a big step forward, gifting your Smappee home energy monitor with an updated NILM 2.0 technique to detect appliances more accurately.

• First of all, Smappee can now autolabel some of the most important appliances in your house. For example, not only will Smappee rapidly detect your fridge, it will also autolabel it as ‘Fridge’ instead of ‘Appliance 1’. And that’s just the beginning; the list of appliances that can be autolabelled will continue growing in the future!

• Secondly, NILM 2.0 reduces the confusion between small appliances. An improved algorithm cleans the noise generated by the many small appliances in your home, and as such, your Smappee monitor will extract cleaner patterns from the signals it hears. In real terms: an induction stove will be more easily differentiated from coffee machines or kettles.

This is just the beginning

Because it is a rather new technology, it still struggles with some rookie issues. For example, at the moment, it’s impossible to detect each and every appliance. The way NILM works can be compared to recognizing the different instruments being played at a concert: loud, prominent instruments are the first ones to be recognized. Even our NILM 2.0 still struggles to detect very small appliances (using less than 20 Watts), appliances with similar patterns (such as devices with heating elements, like a toaster, stove, kettle etc.) and appliances with an irregular consumption pattern (such as a computer or television). Nevertheless, NILM is extraordinary because it can already do so much. Our ultimate goal is to accurately detect all relevant appliances in your home. So this is a big step forward but still only the beginning.

Note. Current Smappee owners can choose to keep working with NILM 1.0 or to start over with NILM 2.0. If your Smappee monitor has been running for a while and most of your appliances have already been labelled, there is no need to restart with NILM 2.0. If you choose to restart with NILM 2.0, the total values will be saved, but you will lose the historical data of your individual appliances.

Note. To install NILM 2.0, go to 'Settings' > 'Expert Mode' > 'Appliance detection: Version 2'

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

 

Judging from the 25 million views on YouTube, I’m not the only one who was impressed and inspired by the famous speech Steve Jobs gave in 2005 in Stanford. While connecting my own dots, I realized that Smappee was not born in 2012 (when we launched the company), but many years before. The seeds for Smappee were planted when I was 12, when I was trying to invent submarines, engines and robots.

My heroes have always been people like Jules Verne and Nikola Tesla - dreamers and visionaries at the same time. Jules Verne predicted the landing on the moon 100 years before it actually happened and Nikola Tesla was working on wireless technology a century ago.

When I was 12, I tried to build a submarine in my bedroom. I’ve still got the plans. The engine would run solely on water; it only needed energy to kick start it. Once the engine was running, it would need no more energy to keep on going. “It’s the engine of the future, it’s the engine of energy saving”, I wrote down below the drawings.

But at the same time, I learned very early to think of what other people need. Although electrocuting my little sister when she made a mistake during her math homework proved to be very effective, I started to use my passion for computers and electronics in a more useful and profitable manner. When I was 16, I used the money I earned from my first holiday job to buy a computer. Soon, instead of playing football with my friends, I had developed software for a local accountant and trained the employees to work with it. A one-man helpdesk, with a 4kB computer.

Steve Jobs didn’t just invent iPhones and iPads because he felt like inventing something, he started from what consumers needed.

The energy monitor Smappee grew out of a similar need. EnergyICT, the company I founded in 1991 and eventually sold twenty years later to the German/American utility meter manufacturer Elster, did energy readings for big industrial companies. For Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the UK, we tracked the data from 10,000 meters to find the biggest energy guzzlers and managed to reduce energy consumption by 20%. When you keep in mind that Tesco was responsible for 1.5% of the UK’s total energy consumption, the result was an energy saving of 0.75% for the entire country. We also worked for Walmart; the American supermarket giant used as much energy as half of Belgium.

That got me thinking. I have always been a firm believer in an energy transition that takes us to a future that’s 100% renewable. What if we could put the consumer at the heart of the energy transition? What if we could empower him to control his own energy consumption? Smappee wanted to give homeowners independence and control over their own energy use and production. Real-time readings relating to major individual appliances would allow them to get rid of energy guzzlers, to cut energy consumption without losing comfort, to make maximal use of the solar (or wind) energy they produce themselves and to ultimately turn their homes into decentralized energy hubs.

That’s what I had in mind. When modern technology made it possible to develop a solution that’s affordable, easy to use and beautifully designed, we went for it. I absolutely wanted to be the first on the market. After all, the original always beats the copy. Smappee gives consumers insights in their energy consumption, by real-time readings that show them where their energy is being used. Our device and the app connected with it allow consumers to save a lot of energy and a lot of money without losing out on comfort. Smappee puts the consumer at the forefront of the sustainable energy revolution, and rewards him for leading the pack.

David vs Goliath

One of the main drivers behind founding Smappee was frustration with the way the energy market works and the way the big energy companies are treating the consumers. Nowadays, the energy bills are so complicated that no consumer understands what he is actually consuming and what he is actually paying for. Smappee gives the consumers the means to see through the mist and keep control over their own consumption. It’s a bit David vs Goliath. It probably has something to do with my West-Flemish background. We tend to be quite stubborn and pigheaded, and we like to tread on the toes of the big guys every now and then.

That’s also why Smappee operates from Kortrijk. Never say never, but why move to the other side of the world when everything we’ve needed so far is right around the corner? My family lives here, there are a lot of talented people and we can count on an entire network of small and medium enterprises to cover all of our needs. Design, packaging,… it’s being taken care of by local entrepreneurs. Small, but incredibly dynamic and flexible. Sure, Kortrijk is no Silicon Valley, and West Flanders sure ain’t California. But together with all the other entrepreneurs around here, we’re as good as Apple.

Stefan Grosjean, founder/CEO Smappee

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

Throughout Europe, these days heated discussions are raging about the risk of energy shortages. A constant theme with regard to security of supply is that it always relates to the supply, about how much more energy we can generate to meet demand. The conservative energy sector does not want to hear this, but the discussion is completely outdated. To solve the mismatch between supply and demand, in these times of smart monitors and flow regulators, we must dare to shift the focus radically from producers to consumers. The solution is in the negawatts, the megawatts that we don't consume.

Renewable energy is on the rise. Logically, because it is not only vitally important for the future of the planet, it is also much cheaper. Solar panels easily have a payback period of 7 to 8 years, large wind turbines ever shorter. Once the capital cost has been paid back, only the maintenance costs remain. The raw material itself – whether this is sun or wind – you get for nothing.

One problem with this renewable energy is that we cannot turn it on and off like a nuclear or gas-fired power station. Most days we can perfectly provide our energy consumption with renewable energy, but sometimes we even have to stop our wind turbines because they supply too much energy and even create negative electricity prices. But now and again, on darker and/or calm days, we consume more than our solar panels and wind turbines produce and we get into difficulties.

The discussions about security of supply that the large energy producers are keen to stir up relates primarily to what is known as the capacity remuneration mechanism. Put very simply: we need to subsidise energy sources such as gas-fired power stations – which are completely priced out of the market by much cheaper, renewable energy sources, even if we perhaps only need them for a few days a year? Even in the most optimistic scenario, that is not at all the case. Therefore do we simply subsidise the possibility of, perhaps, needing a hand in case of emergency?

Smart flow controllers in smart homes

This is an interesting discussion, but it is the wrong discussion. After all, it actually ignores the most immediate solution. It focuses exclusively on the energy supply, while the key, in these digitised times, is in energy demand. so with the consumers and not the producers.

Today, industry is doing everything it can for this: switching off equipment when there is too little electricity while temporarily switching over to emergency planning, etc. But the real benefit is with the ordinary energy consumer. Studies show that the lazy consumer can reduce their consumption by 20 to 40 percent without having to shower with cold water or warming themselves around the camp fire. If you know that private individuals account for almost 40 percent of electricity consumption, a quick calculation shows you that households can regulate 16 to 17 percent of electricity consumption. They can increase or decrease, depending on the energy sources that are available.

Let me give you a simple example of how a smart flow regulator in a smart home can control energy consumption perfectly. Imagine, and in Belgium you don't need much imagination to do this, that the ever more accurate forecasts say that over the coming days there will not be much sun and wind. But today is a windy day, where the wind turbines produce so much energy that they have to be stopped to avoid an overload of electricity. The hot water boilers then get a signal to heat up fully, now that there is a surplus in electricity that is available very cheaply, so it can then rest for a day. A smart fridge then gets the signal to cool at full capacity, so that it can rest a bit over the next day without the food being wasted.

Reward the consumer for their negawatts

Negawatts instead of megawatts: instead of having to produce additional Watts, the consumer reduces Watts. In contrast to electricity supply, electricity demand can be controlled. Am I producing 500 Watt more than I consume? Click, the swimming pool pump switches on. 1000 Watt too much? OK, let's charge the electric car.

Very simple, and thanks to new technology, it is getting more realistic by the day. Only when industry can pay customers for their flexible consumption will households be willing to get behind this. A big thank you for their idealism and altruism, but the excess in energy consumption will then be able to help solve the mismatch between supply and demand when it comes with a lower bill. Planet and wallet.

Although the solution is available, it demands a serious mind shift to transfer the power from the producer to the consumer. In a ultra-conservative sector such as energy – where electrical power stations have done the same thing for 200 years – resistance to change is particularly high. But the only sustainable solution comes from the bottom up and starts with the consumer. Unless we actually want to subsidise gas and electricity plants for 95 percent of the year to waste resources?

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

The Smappee home energy monitor helps you map out (and handle) your power consumption. Result: a far more acceptable energy bill and a lower carbon footprint! And, as you’re in charge of your domestic power use, you can avoid unpleasant surprises! Nevertheless, although our monitor is (very, very) smart, you need an interface that allows you to make it happen. That’s why we’d love to take some time to explain all the tips and tricks of our Smappee app. Do you already know the app from inside out? No worries: the sneak peak to our new features will definitely keep you tuned.

1. Measurement brings knowledge

Our quest starts at the home screen, where you’ll see 3 bubbles. The grey bubble shows you the exact total power use, the blue bubble indicates your stand-by energy consumption and the green bubble presents your very own solar production. As the data are being communicated in real-time, you’ll see the grey bubble getting bigger when an appliance is turned on. Which can be useful to label newly-found appliances!

• TIP! Press once on a bubble and you'll see real-time how much the energy use is costing you per hour. Press again and you'll see the costs of the past 30 days.

 It’s very nice that you know your home’s total power consumption, but that’s not all. The timeline ‘Events’ shows you clearly which devices have been used at what time. Did someone just switch on the oven? Lucky you, you might just expect a delicious meal shortly.

• NEW! Color. Done with the grey, let’s add some color! The green events are active, a red color means the appliance is switched off.
• NEW! Short events. We want to keep the timeline well structured. That’s why, if an appliance has been switched off shortly after it has been switched on, the app will automatically merge both events into one.
• NEW! Question mark. When your Smappee is unsure which appliance he recognised, a question mark will be shown. A double question mark means Smappee doubts the right appliance has been recognised.

2. Analysis brings comprehension

You know what’s going on in your home. Very well. But let’s play detective and take a closer look at individual appliances. Find them, label them and inspect their DNA. The appliance list shows you their impact. Wanna dig (even) deeper? Go to smappee.com/mysmappee to get the full data on your desktop!

• NEW! Sorting Method. Isn't the cost the first thing you want to know about your appliances? We thought so, too. You’ll now see a ranking of appliances according to what they cost you. If you still prefer another sorting mode, simply select your preference in the upper right corner.
• NEW! When do you use it? Help your Smappee band with your house by manually showing it when you use a certain device. Go to 'Appliances', select an appliance, click 'Edit' and scroll down to 'When do you use it?' All time slots are selected; deselect the time slots your appliance is never used. Do note that no agenda can be shown for the fridge, freezer, aquarium, heating, pump, heating pump and garage, as they’re being used throughout the day.

3. Control brings savings

Use the handy Comfort Plugs™ for the appliances you wish to switch on and off remotely. Useful and safe! Add triggers and prevent fire hazard and towering costs by remotely controlling your charger, computer, iron, etc.

• TIP! No need to keep the digicoder running for a whole day if you’re only relaxing in front of the tv after work. Eliminate the costs that always-on power can bring along!

Enjoy the Smappee experience (& do pop back to check out the Smappee blog every now and then as we’re announcing big news soon!)

Note: the app has first been fully updated for iOS. But don’t worry, we are working on the Android brother and it’s coming soon.

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

When did you decide to do something about your family’s energy consumption?

Our house was built in the early 1920’s. Like many houses in the UK, it is old and inefficiently designed. Having battled through many winters and experienced huge energy bills for both space heating and electricity, we decided to improve the insulation levels as well as reduce our electricity usage.

I decided to take daily readings of our electricity usage for a year, with an eye to fitting solar panels with battery storage in the near future and to also give us an accurate picture of usage. After three months of taking meter readings at the same time every day I discovered Smappee :)

So you were already trying to get a hold of your energy consumption when you discovered Smappee. How did the Smappee monitor change your energy readings?

I can now easily take my daily readings, to two decimal points, from the app and if I miss some they are easy to find in the annual / monthly graphs. I was interested to see how accurate Smappee was. So when my first month was recorded, I compared it to my meter. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the readings were within 0.5% of each other. I felt like: “Well done guys!”

Smappee is a monitor that provides you with accurate energy readings. But of course, that doesn’t mean that it automatically produces savings on its own. Something needs to be done. What did you do to start saving energy?

Well, you need to get the read and interpret the data of course. So if you use your Smappee correctly,  that is as a tool to monitor and analyse, and in conjunction with the appropriate changes to appliances or to habits, then savings can clearly be made. It quickly became apparent that the biggest users of electricity in our house were halogen GU10 lamps and heating elements in our cooker, dishwasher and washing machine. Two months of smappee use confirmed this so, over several months we swopped the GU10’s to LED lamps, swopped other compact fluorescent lamps to LED and when our very old dishwasher and washing machine both failed within a month of each other they were replaced with A+++ appliances.

I have also employed the Comfort Plug that came with Smappee on an external DAC (digital to analogue converter) that fits on our hifi system and which draws 12 watts and doesn’t have an off switch! This is set on a timer via the app to turn on and off at specific times and so far has been pretty reliable, only losing contact with the main unit once over 9 months.

On top of all of this, our children are helping out by only boiling enough water, shutting the fridge door properly, shouting at their parents when they leave lights on and turning lights off themselves, when they remember!

There’s one thing everyone is probably eager to know: could you put a number on your savings?

Well, March 2016 was the date when all the above things had been put into place and had been running for at least one month. So from March 2106 through to August 2016, we are seeing savings when compared to 2015 of between 20% to 25% on our electricity bill!

Smappee wants to optimally suit its customers needs . Therefore, we want you to be as honest as can be! So, let’s get to the nitty-gritty part! What’s it like to live with a Smappee and, for you personally, what could be improved?

Well, it’s a pretty robust device which just sits in the corner of our front room and pulses with a lovely green glow. There have been a couple of outages since I have owned it, but all were resolved very quickly. Smappees’ support was just excellent. The web and mobile apps are easy to use and highly addictive. I’ve basically spent more time watching Smappee than watching TV and have even, on occasion been watching what is going on at home while I am at work!

Identification of individual appliances is solid but if possible could be improved. I frequently see perhaps only 75% of total usage split down to individual appliances and our house doesn’t have a lot of electrical signatures. Smappee’s biggest struggle in our house is with heating elements. It finds it hard to separate the dishwasher, washing machine and cooking elements so in the end I have labelled the one appliance as heating element and then have to use detective work to figure out which appliance was on. It’s not ideal but it just about works.

You have a point there, indeed. A kettle, stove, dishwasher … They all have a heating element. If they use the same kind of heating element, smappee has difficulties to recognize the different appliances. Smappee could think they’re the same appliance. An option is to delete the incorrect devices and give Smappee the chance to learn similar (but not identical) electrical signatures all over.

But, all together, you’ve managed to save between 20% and 25% on your energy bill, and the app has even sparked a slight addiction to the monitoring process. To us, that is of course nothing but good news! So let’s pop the big question: would you recommand a Smappee to your friends and family?

My parents have recently had a smart meter fitted and it was interesting to compare their unit to our Smappee. Whilst some of the data were similar, there is no disaggregation and their smart meter has no web portal. So it’s not as user-friendly as Smappee. So: yes, I would certainly recommend it to family and friends!

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

“As we’re standing in the garden, we’re not really using any devices. So could I conclude we’re already on the right track then?” anchorwoman Liselotte asks. Smappee CEO Stefan Grosjean nods approvingly, but immediately adds that always-on power has a much larger impact on our energy bills than we’d think: “It is not because we’re not actively using a device, that we’re not using energy.” Well then, tackling the always-on power is one thing. But what else can we do? With an energy monitoring system, you gain real-time insight in your consumption behavior. With these data, tracking down the energy guzzlers is child’s play. So, a second thing you can do is replace these with more energy efficient appliances.

But how do you detect them? As Liselotte takes a look at the Smappee app, a clear energy guzzler seems to be the pond pump, consuming no less than $308 per year! A pond pump serves to remove algae, so no need to leave it on for more than 3 hours a day. If you also switch it off during winter, you can easily save up to $220.

Afterwards, Liselotte feels out Smappee user Kathy about the everyday experience of having a power monitor in the house. The biggest energy guzzler turned out to be the freezer. Kathy’s Smappee also serves as a standby killer, unveiling exactly how much standby power is going to waste. Since they installed a Smappee, Kathy’s family has been living with more awareness of their energy consumption behavior. And awareness automatically initiates savings!

WoonTips was broadcasted on the Dutch channel RTL4 on Saturday 9 September.

Jules Verne famously remarked that „everything that is beautiful and great in the world is the product of an outrageous hope.“

„You know when it's wind still in the city but you can still hear the leaves of the trees rustle? It was this paradox that I was trying to solve - why is it that we can't harvest these breezes, which are all around us?“

„It’s part of a wider problem. As a civilization, we use about 17 terawatts of energy per year. Wind generates about 800 terawatts annually around the world that can potentially be harvested – more than 20 times the amount of energy that we need. So there’s a huge disproportion between the renewable energy that is available and the way we generate and consume electricity. That fact should motivate us to find other ways of harvesting energy around us.“

Data show that Michaud-Larivière has a point. In his home country France, for instance, only about 3.1 per cent of energy is currently generated in wind farms.

It got Michaud-Larivière thinking about what he would need to catch those turbulent city breezes, and to package them in a form that would inspire consumers, architects and policy makers about the prospect of generating electricity close to the point of consumption.

From the first time I saw the Arbre à Vent, it struck me as a brillant idea. Consumers can’t build big wind turbines in their backyard, but the Arbre à Vent allows them to place a wind tree very close to their home. It fits with our vision at Smappee of empowering consumers to take responsibility for the renewable energy revolution.

„We started working on a leaf-shaped turbine that would start generating electricity at about half the wind speed that a bigger wind turbine needs. The aeroleafs, as we call them, are developed to catch micro-turbulence. They start producing at wind speeds of about 2 m/s, versus 4 m/s for traditional consumer wind turbines. Also, they don’t need a constant wind speed or direction, which makes them very useful in an urban context.“

The current generation of the Arbre à Vent generates about 2500 KWH per year, about a third of the average yearly consumption of a French household.

„It’s not a huge output as yet. But it is generated right at your doorstep, and it will produce energy right away, without the extra costs of installation that are sometimes forgotten, and which can be considerable.“

Also, placing a wind turbine at your front door or your backyard avoids the loss of energy that’s associated with energy transportation. It’s a dirty secret that energy grids lose between 5 and 10 percent of the generated power on the way from the power plant to your wall socket.

The main hurdles for Arbre à Vent today are to get performance up and the cost down. In fact, Michaud-Larivière admits that the current generation of Arbre à Vent is as much an educational project as an economic way of generating electricity.

„In some conditions, the Arbre can generate electricity in a much more economic way than other systems. To be honest, in most conditions today, it won’t. However, bear in mind that today we’re not benefiting from any economies of scale yet, and also, there is still room to increase the efficiency of the aeroleafs from about 23 percent to 28 percent.“

After making its début at the Paris climate talks last year, there are some 30 Arbres à Vent sold in Europe – of which 8 are currently installed in Switzerland, France and Belgium.

„Our clients are mostly people who are involved in sustainability – architects, designers, product developers, but also cities who want to showcase local, non-invasive energy production. Our clients know that the tree is more expensive than the gains it will bring – but they’re the kind of clients who want to bear witness to the energy transition, to educate people. As a planet, we cannot wait for the transition to happen. We need to make it happen.“

„Once we go into mass production, I think it should be possible to reach a pay back period of about eight years without subsidies. We’re working on that - we think we might get there by covering the trees in photovoltaic cells, for instance. My ultimate dream is to get the Arbre à Vent to a human scale – a size that would allow us to sell it at the likes of Home Depot and Leroy Merlin, where you could buy it and plant it at your front door.“

More about Arbre à Vent: http://www.newwind.fr/en/

Stefan Grosjean (@stfngrsjn) is an advocate for renewable energy and energy efficiency and is the founder and CEO of Smappee (www.smappee.com), the world’s smartest home energy monitor

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

Dealing with energy more consciously

A real eye-catcher is the 79,04% of  users reporting increased awareness of their energy use. 56,70% make more conscious decisions when it comes to energy. For example, no less than 49,14% managed to successfully reduce their always on power! Also, 40,03% replaced energy-guzzling devices with more sustainable variants and 43,30% prevent unnecessary energy use by immediately switching off the devices when they’re finished using them.

A profound insight into your energy consumption, anywhere, anytime

Another excellent result is the success of our app. 31,68% consult the app once a day, and 18,15% even several times a day. This means that almost half of all users check their energy data daily. For 60,07%, the most important feature of Smappee is the ability to control their energy consumption anywhere and anytime. Whether you’re at the mall shopping or on holiday in some exotic destination, the app allows you to manage the energy consumption at your house remotely.

Managing remotely thanks to the app

As well as the app, many other features became clear as being valuable to Smappee users too. For example, 46,70% said knowledge of the actual consumption was very important as it means, the next energy bill doesn’t reveal any unpleasant surprised. 30,38%  appreciated the stylish outlook and user-friendliness of the app. Other advantages reported by the interviewees are the option to switch devices on or off using the Comfort Plugs (instead of manually) and the ability to check water and gas measurements as well as the production of their solar panels.

Caring for the environment together

The survey results reveal a clear trend of consumers taking more responsibility for the environment by dealing with energy more consciously. This, of course, is a trend that we gladly encourage. At the end of the day, the best way to conserve energy is through smart energy use. And what better way to do that, than to use Smappee to help you learn and adapt!The fact that this also translates into quite large financial savings is a an added bonus.. Our Smappee solutions help guide people towards a more conscious lifestyle and we are extremely happy that Smappee has been able to do this.

If you’re not yet a proud owner of a Smappee energy monitor and would like to experience these (and more) advantages, feel free to check out our products here.

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

Mr Delabie, 

How do you use the Smappee Smart Home features?

My home office has a Comfort Plug with an adapter that has four appliances plugged in: my laptop charger, my portable phone, my backup hard disk and a printer. I set the trigger ‘Location left’ in the app in such a way that these appliances are automatically switched off as soon as I am more than 600 m away from home. As a result, I never have to think about this and easily save more than 10 watts.

We use another Comfort Plug during the Christmas period for our Christmas lights. We don’t necessarily do this to save energy; it came from a wish to do something nice for my wife. As soon as Smappee detects the electric garage door, the tree lights come on. That way, my wife always comes home to a cosy living room, even when no-one is in. What’s more, we also activated the ‘Inactivity’ setting in the app. When Smappee sees that there is very little electrical activity in the home, it concludes that we are either asleep or away and all appliances in the living room are automatically switched off - including the Christmas lights!

Has consulting the Smappee app become part of your daily routine?

Absolutely! Take what happened recently, for instance. We had listened to a CD and when it was over, no-one had remembered to switch off the CD player and amplifier, which are installed in a built-in cabinet. When I checked the bubble screen the following morning, I noticed that our standby power consumption had increased by 50 watts. We must have left an appliance on somewhere! Without Smappee, that amplifier and CD player could easily have remained switched on unnecessarily for days and cost us money!

When I leave the house for a longer period of time, or sometimes even just in the morning before I go to work, I do a quick check in the app, via the bubble screen. If the grey and blue bubbles are the same size, I know that all appliances have been switched off.

And I definitely use the app when I am on holiday. I do a daily check to make sure everything is still okay at home. I do this mostly to make sure that the freezer is still working properly. After all, a freezer that has broken down in the middle of a holiday makes for a rather unpleasant homecoming. With Smappee, I don’t have to worry about that. What’s more, I also always check to see if any lights have been switched on or off, because that would mean that there are uninvited visitors in the house. That way, Smappee gives me a certain peace of mind, even when I am away on holiday.

What feature of the Smappee energy monitor do you find the most appealing?

It may sound trivial, but what I like best is the bubble screen. It lets you to see at a glance what is happening in your home. You can monitor the standby power consumption and instantly see if any appliances have been left on. Every watt of standby power consumption costs € 2 a year. Enough said, right? 

I also monitor our solar panel yield in real-time via the bubble screen. Incidentally, since we reduced our energy consumption from 5,100 to 3,900 kWh, I no longer have a 500 kWh shortage, but rather a 700 kWh surplus.  

What is great about Smappee is that the invisible becomes visible to me. You can see exactly what is going on in your home and sometimes you discover things you would never have known otherwise. And the wonderful thing is, Smappee doesn’t impose anything on you. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you! 

The Smappee technology recognizes the different patterns of every connected device; this in the same way we recognize melodies. This way, the different devices and their energy use are non-stop being monitored. These data are sent in real-time to an accessible app. With just one clip-on sensor attached to the fusion box, you obtain a complete overview of your energy consumption. The big advantage of this system: separate plug-ins for each device are no longer needed.

Sudden peaks, secret power guzzlers or an outdated device: Smappee registers all domestic consumption data, which you can consult - on your smartphone or tablet - both in a general or in a more specific overview. You can also take notice of the production of your solar panels.

In March, shortly after the launch of the energy monitor, which monitors electricity consumption, Smappee also launched a monitor for water and gas. This because not only electricity, but water and gas too become more and more rare. In fact, an average family annually pays about twice as much for water and gas than it does for electricity!

“We’re very proud of this award,” Stefan Grosjean says. “Smappee wants to take the lead in the energy transition. We want to give consumers independence and control over their own use and production. We see these as steps towards the time when homes will function as decentralised water and energy hubs. This is good for the planet ánd for our wallet.”

 Do you have interesting ideas you'd like to share with us? Mail us your suggestions, hot topics or burning questions: s.slabinck@smappee.com

Mr. Delicado, can you tell us in which way Smappee is part of your sales process?

Smappee is mainly sold to customers who want to offer their final customer, the consumer, a solution that visualizes the production of their solar panels and/or their electricity consumption. Some of the manufacturers of solar inverters have developed their own monitoring system, but Smappee’s undeniable advantage is being compatible with all possible brands of solar systems in the market. Our customers often offer the Smappee Solar energy monitor as part of a solar system kit, since it is gives consumers immediate insight in the yield of their installation and the return on their investment. Moreover, consumers highly appreciate the app, because it allows them to keep an eye on their solar production, wherever they are.

What is your experience with Smappee?

We always try to test a product thoroughly before we offer it to our customers. That’s why we installed a 3-phase Smappee Solar energy monitor and a Smappee Pro in our showroom. By using it ourselves, we get to know the product in-depth, which helps us to provide our customers with down-to-earth information and give them the necessary technological feedback. Customers can drop by anytime and see how our products work for themselves. Smappee definitely meets our expectations, that’s why we included it in our product range. If there should be anything we want to improve, it is the fact that the connection is only via Wifi. In cases when the router * is too far from the fuse box, the monitor doesn’t work properly. 

What do your customers say about Smappee?

Our customers really like the fact that Smappee is easy to use and to install. They also enjoy the app’s attractive and contemporary design. And of course, who doesn’t appreciate a system without subscription fees?  Moreover, the monitor is really affordable. There is one remark :  private French consumers would appreciate it even more if it were extended with the necessary features to make it eligible for a reimbursement or tax reduction. Some of us, at NED’s, are of course also private users of Smappee.  One of my colleagues, for example, has a guesthouse that he rents in summer.  The Smappee monitor allows him to monitor the actual energy consumption of his guests and the production of his solar panels, from a distance.

Do you know other energy monitors? What is the added value of Smappee compared to these systems?

Yes, we know and tested various other energy monitors that are available on the market. Not taking into account some technical limitations, such as the router * being too far from the fuse box, Smappee offers a reliable solution for energy and solar monitoring : simple and accessible to everybody.  I would certainly dare to say, that it is the energy monitor with the best price-quality ratio in its segment. Add to this its user-friendliness and its playful design, and it is bound to become one of the protagonists in the market.

*Note from Smappee : In cases when the router is too far from the fuse box, the connection can be established using a Wi-Fi Range Extender.

Nearly one in five British households has had problems with leaky water pipes, according to a survey carried out prior to the launch of the new Smappee gas & water monitor. The Smappee monitor allows users to keep tabs on their gas and water consumption in real time. “The biggest problem is hidden leaks. You usually don’t even notice them until you get your water bill, which can easily run into thousands of euros,” says Smappee founder Stefan Grosjean. “It’s money down the drain. With today’s technology, you can use your smartphone to monitor your water usage and discover hidden leaks quickly and easily.”

Together with market research firm iVOX, Smappee polled 1,000 British households and asked if they had ever had water leaks at home. Twentynine per cent of respondents indicated that they had indeed experienced leaks in the past. Repairing the damage caused by leaky pipes can be extremely costly: 7% of those polled said the repair costs were between £80 and £400, and 2% said that the bill for repairing the leak was in excess of £400.

“But that’s nothing compared to the potential cost of an undetected leak,” says Grosjean. “Most people only discover hidden leaks after receiving an abnormally high water bill. That can be weeks – even months – later. By that time, the costs can already be through the roof. A two-millimetre hole in a water pipe will leak approximately 192 litres per hour, roughly double the average daily water consumption per person in the United Kingdom. Hidden leaks like these can easily cost you thousands of euros before you’re even aware of them.”

While water companies may have compensation schemes in place for situations such as these, the terms are generally very strict. To qualify for compensation, the leak must be quite substantial, leading to a bill several times higher than normal. And in most cases, only a percentage of the financial loss will be compensated.

Real-time data leads to lower water bills

“Water waste is a huge – and hugely underestimated – problem,” says Grosjean. “It’s not just bad for the environment; it’s bad for your pocket, as well. Water companies usually only send someone around to check the pipes if your water consumption far exceeds normal values. We encourage users to take matters into their own hands. By keeping tabs on your own water usage, you can take steps to conserve water and save yourself money in the long run.”

In March 2016, after the success of its energy monitor, which tracks electricity consumption in homes and small-to-medium-sized businesses, Smappee launched a new monitor that provides real-time data on household water consumption.

“Water is not only becoming an increasingly scarce resource; it’s also becoming increasingly expensive. In fact, water prices are already rising worldwide. In the United States, the average water bill for an American family rose by 41% between 2010 and 2015. It is hard to draw a comparison with Europe, as legislation is vastly different, however countries such as Germany and Hungary have taken the lead with pricing policies designed to lead to a reduction in consumption. Growing numbers of experts are demanding an increase in the price of drinking water to make consumption more sustainable. By keeping a close eye on your water consumption, you can catch hidden leaks before they cause your water bill to skyrocket.”

About Smappee

Smappee develops innovative solutions that foster sustainable energy consumption. The energy monitor measures the exact use of all the important appliances and provides a clear overview in a display design that has won many prizes. Users can track and analyse real-time energy consumption with the user-friendly Smappee app for smartphone or tablet. With Smappee, they will soon see which appliances are the energy guzzlers and get an overview of standby power consumption. With simple savings, Smappee will pay for itself within one to two years. Furthermore, Smappee displays the yield from solar panels and Comfort Plugs™ enable users to switch appliances on and off remotely.

The Smappee gas & water monitor provides a real-time overview so users can see their gas and water use in the app. This leads to more savings for the user and more sustainable water and natural gas consumption for everyone.

Smappee ensures that both the user and the environment benefit from its efficiency solutions. The essence of the various Smappee solutions is to reduce energy consumption for consumers and corporate users without compromising on comfort. Stefan Grosjean, an expert in energy management, founded the company in 2012. Smappee won the Deloitte Fast50 Rising Star Award in 2014. For more information, visit www.smappee.com.

Mr Delabie, 

Can you briefly describe your domestic setup to give us an idea of your energy profile?

My family and I live in a detached house that was built around 20 years ago. Of our three daughters, two have so far flown the nest. The third lives in student digs and, on average, spends up to three days a week at home. I work full-time and my wife part-time, so we only really start consuming energy from the afternoon onwards.

Smappee could help save up to 30% on your energy bill. How much have you actually been able to save and how have you done this in concrete terms?

Since installing Smappee three years ago, our energy bill has been reduced by 23.5%, from 5,100 to 3,900 kWh. How? On the one hand, by changing the way we use energy, on the other hand, by replacing a number of energy-inefficient home appliances.

Let’s start with the latter. In our garage, we have a two-metre high tower, half fridge, half freezer. When I looked at the DNA data of this appliance in the Smappee app, I noticed a consumption of 207 kWh a year at a cost of € 52. Completely normal for this kind of appliance. But when I did the same thing for the fridge in our kitchen, I spotted something interesting. The annual cost amounted to € 65, for a much smaller appliance, and without a freezer. And yet, the fridge still appeared to be working perfectly fine. But at € 65 a year, something wasn’t quite right. That is why we got rid of the old fridge, bought a new energy-efficient model and now only pay € 21 a year. Without Smappee, I would have carried on using that energy-guzzling fridge for years.

We also looked at our lighting. The real-time information in the bubble screen revealed that we were using more energy when my wife was reading a book compared to when we were watching TV. The culprits were the seven spotlights in the sitting area, emitting a total of 350 watts. A high consumption rate and absolutely unnecessary! The small LED light we bought is easily just as comfortable, not to mention a whole lot more economical. In the past, we also used to watch TV with four spotlights of 50 watts each on. The dimmer on these was hardly ever used. Until I saw in the Smappee app that the four lights together used only 50 watts when dimmed. So since then, we always dim those lights. Not only does it cost less, it also makes watching TV a whole lot nicer.

You also mentioned that you adapted your energy behaviour? 

That’s right. One small adjustment that saves us about € 50 a year is how we use our coffee maker. In the past, we would let the coffee, once it had run through, sit on the appliance, sometimes for up to an hour, to keep it warm. Now, we immediately pour it into a thermos jug after the 12-minute run-through time, which helped us reduce the energy cost to one fifth. 

But the biggest behavioural change came after I had also installed the app on my wife’s and daughters’ smartphones. In the past, lights would quite often be left on at our house in unoccupied rooms. Whenever someone would get a drink from the garage, you could be sure that along the way one or more lights would be left on. With the Smappee app, we could see the cost of this in black and white and since then – and I am pleased to say that it has turned out to be sustainable – all lights are switched off properly whenever any of us leaves a room. And if I occasionally forget to switch one off myself, it is pointed out to me that Smappee won’t be very happy about it. Sometimes, Smappee seems to be an additional member of our family.

Would you also like to know how Hans gets the most out of the Smappee app and how he uses the Smart Home features? Be sure to keep an eye out for this blogspot!

Every year on 22 April, Earth Day is the perfect time to stop and think about how we are treating our planet. And of course, as our behaviour has an ongoing influence on the environment, this should last for more than just a day. One key example is water consumption. UN research has shown that water consumption will continue to rise over the coming years. This means that within ten years, two thirds of the world’s population will be living in an area of water scarcity. So it’s high time for greater awareness, because every little helps!

What most people don’t realise is that over the course of a day, we use far more water than we think. For example, making a cup of coffee uses much more water than merely the water used to make the drink. What about the water used to make the coffee plants grow? To create the packaging in which the beans and ground coffee are transported? To make the mug in which the coffee is served? Water is one of the most heavily used resources in the world, so it’s time we started treating it with respect.

A two-millimetre water leak

Sadly, we have little influence on the manufacturers who make our coffee machines or washing machines, but we can exert influence over our water consumption at home. ‘A better environment starts with you’ is still a very apt slogan. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to deny yourself that cup of coffee; there are other ways for us to cut down our water consumption too. Let’s take a water leak, for example. Even if it’s just two millimetres in diameter, some 192 litres of water per hour will escape. Not only is this bad for the environment, but you also feel it in your wallet!

We’ll be paying more

We’ll be paying more for water regardless. Rising consumption has a direct influence on the price: not only will we notice this when purchasing new products, but also when we receive our water bills.
In the United States, for example, the price of tap water rose by 41% between 2010 and 2015. If we don’t want to start seeing higher bills, then we’re going to have to start saving water.

Insight helps us save water

That’s why we have introduced a new solution at Smappee: our Gas & water monitor. It’s easy to save water (as well as gas and electricity of course) if you’re able to gain insight into your consumption. If we look at the figures for electricity, we can see that simply providing insight leads to a saving of twelve per cent. We anticipate that the figures for water consumption will be similar.

Whatever our motivation may be, it is incredibly important that we change our behaviour when it comes to our gas, water and energy consumption. Because if we all want to keep on enjoying our beautiful planet, then we all need to make a contribution. That’s why we’re joining in with the Earth Day appeal: let’s start now and let’s not stop!

Time for action: leaving appliances on stand-by raises C02 emissions (and drains our bank balances)

The Belgian government is performing poorly with regard to climate change agreements. Not only did we win the ‘Fossil of the Day’ award in Paris, but barely a few months later our implementation of the Paris accord still lags far behind. Ordinary citizens can do little more than try to make a difference as consumers. In an ideal world, policy makers would set the example. But in this case, the opposite is true.

Luckily, one main cause of household energy wastage can be eliminated relatively simply and with no detriment to comfort. Although we are hardly aware of it, many of our household appliances use energy even when we are not using them. But in truth, we all know a television on stand-by is still consuming electricity. We know it, yet we let it continue nonetheless. One simple reason is ignorance. Research has shown that providing people with real-time feedback on their energy consumption (including by not limited to stand-by consumption) leads to an automatic reduction in usage of 12%. Confrontation with hard facts is the best way to spur people into action.

In the 1990s carbon monoxide poisoning caused over 40 deaths annually. This number has now fallen by half, mainly because today’s appliances are safer, but also because of far-reaching campaigns aimed at preventing incidents. Today, carbon monoxide is widely acknowledged to as a ‘silent killer’, a fact which promts people to ensure their boilers are maintained and to replace old boilers with newer, safer models.

A similar change is necessary in order to deal with energy consumption: changing behaviour requires a change in thinking. Since there are no campaigns against hidden waste, I mount my own campaigns here. Not only can I help people identify major energy-consuming appliances, such as outdated fridges and televisions, I can also encourage them to change their behaviour in general: switch to air-drying laundry instead of using the dryer, only using hot water when it is truly needed, washing clothes at lower temperatures and so on.

Besides all of these changes, the simplest thing to do is to stop leaving electrical devices on stand-by. After all, it costs €50 each year to leave a game console on stand-by, and the digital decoders that few people ever turn off use considerable energy in stand-by mode, possibly exceeding 250 kWh annually. That’s another €55. A small boiler on stand-by will set you back €30 and an espresso machine another €8. Add all of that up and you will discover that you can save hundreds of euros each year simply by switching your appliances off or using a timer to switch them off automatically.

Clearly, anyone who takes a hard look at the numbers will see that they can save a few hundred euros on their electricity bills each year. Moreover, since our energy sources are hardly sustainable, we will also be cutting down significantly on CO2 emissions. Leaving a digital decoder on when the television is off represents a CO2 emission of 130kg annually – the same amount produced by driving 500km in a small car.

We have measured all of this with Smappee, a device which allows consumers to track their energy consumption in real time. Big data provides some very interesting information. Within six months of installing Smappee, the average Belgian elimates 4.27% of his stand-by consumption compared to the first month. The Dutch do even better, eliminating 8.93%. And this is only the data for stand-by consumption, which was reduced by a technique no more complicated than fully switching off the television, radio, computer and printer a little more often.

If we are to persuade Belgians to use energy more mindfully, we need to provide the right information. In recent years informational campaigns have helped people get to grips with CO2, sorting waste for recycling, quitting smoking and identifying a designated driver on a night out- all things we had previously tended to ignore even though we knew they were important. Now is the time to approach energy consumption in the same way. Let’s start with the easiest thing we can: eliminating stand-by sinkholes.

Smappee is known worldwide as the energy monitor for electricity consumption by both private consumers and small and medium-sized businesses. That will now change with its expansion into gas and water. As well as monitoring electricity consumption, users will be able to see how much natural gas and water they use. This insight into consumption can lead to savings of 10% or more for an average household. This means the gas and water monitor actually pays for itself within a year. Smappee gives users the tools to take the next step in the energy transition.

Smappee has conquered the world in recent years with an energy monitor providing real-time readings of electricity use, down to individual appliances. Moreover, the monitor shows the yield of your solar panels, enabling users to align use to solar energy production. Studies show that consumers can reduce their energy consumption by 12% if they have real-time feedback on individual appliances. Savings can reach 30% if they replace old appliances with new, energy-efficient models.

The Smappee gas & water monitor enables significant savings in natural gas and water consumption. An average Belgian family pays almost twice as much for natural gas and water as they do for electricity, so the potential for savings is great. The gas and water monitor will cost 119 euro including VAT. Based on an average bill of 600 euro for water and 1,200 euro for natural gas, the gas and water monitor will pay for itself in just over six months.

“Until now, Smappee has focused on monitoring electricity,” says Stefan Grosjean, CEO and co-founder of Smappee, “but actually, that is only a third of the utility bill. The other two-thirds are gas and water, which makes the Smappee gas & water monitor a logical second step. Consumers still receive relatively vague bills from natural gas and water suppliers, much like with electricity. Our new tool should provide consumers with an insight into their consumption, enabling automatic savings. That’s good for them and for the planet.”

Water and gas as scarce resources
According to a study by the UN, by 2050, the demand for water will increase by more than 50%. If the current levels of water consumption continue, two-thirds of the world will be living with water shortages in ten years. This will affect the price of water.

In fact, water prices are already rising worldwide. In the United States, the price of tap water has increased by 41% between 2010 and 2015. It is hard to draw a comparison with Europe, as legislation is vastly different, however countries such as Germany and Hungary have taken the lead with pricing policies designed to lead to a reduction in consumption. Growing numbers of experts are demanding an increase in the price of drinking water to make consumption more sustainable. 
Real-time insight thanks to the Smappee gas & water monitor can help. 

In the wake of falling oil prices, the price of natural gas has also been in decline for some time. Just like oil, gas is highly dependent on geopolitical conditions and prices are unstable. Moreover, it is a fossil fuel with exhaustible reserves. Sustainable consumption is a must.

“Smappee wants to take the lead in the energy transition,” says Stefan Grosjean. “We want to give consumers independence and control over their own use and production. We see these as steps towards the time when homes will function as decentralised water and energy hubs.”

Smappee as a traffic controller at a busy intersection

With the Smappee gas & water monitor, consumers see real-time data about their use. It means a poorly set up or broken thermostat can be easily detected. If people modify their behaviour, for example by resetting the thermostat, they can save 10% or even more.

Thanks to the leak alarm, you no longer have to worry about potential gas or water leaks. Besides the dangers, such leaks are expensive: a two-millimetre hole in a water pipe translates into 192 litres of leaking water an hour. That is about double the average daily use per person in a Belgian family.

The Smappee gas & water monitor is easy to install: simply place the sensors on the existing natural gas and water meters. It is a hi-tech way to help the environment and save money at the same time.

“Homes are evolving into busy intersections where energy is not only consumed but also produced and even stored,” says Stefan Grosjean. “Smappee wants to be the traffic controller by telling an appliance such as a fridge, to use more when the sun is shining and less during the night. The consumer can track this on visual displays, which have already won design awards.” 

In this vision of homes as small, decentralised energy plants, the importance of applications based on the IoT will increase. A smart energy grid and battery technology are essential in this, but the transition will only be complete when water and gas are included, giving the consumer full control. 

Did you know that lighting is one of the biggest energy consumers in and around our homes?  If we want to save electricity, we might just as well take a close look at it.  The right changes can help us lower our consumption up to 80%.  Surely worth the effort!

Have you ever considered replacing your old bulbs by modern and more energy-friendly alternatives?

Europe decided to ban traditional bulbs and halogen lamps from the market, because they were using too much energy and were too harmful for the environment. They were replaced by energy-saving lamps, eco-halogen lamps and of course, LED lamps.  LED lamps have been through an enormous evolution over the past few years and nowadays they are available in all shapes and sizes.  Their popularity is due to their long lifetime and efficiency.  A LED lamp, used with an adjusted fitting, can have a lifecyle of up to 25.000 hours.  A bulb 1.500 max!

So never mind if buying a LED lamp is more expensive, it needs replacement a lot less often, ánd it is energy-friendly and efficient.  Nothing but advantages!   Even replacing a perfectly working bulb by a LED is better for the environment than using the old one until it’s broken.

More than just the choice of your lamps

You can be energy-smart in different ways.  Even if you leave the room for just a moment, it’s always better to turn off the light.  Therefore, put your switches in strategic places.  You will no longer have an excuse to leave the light on : one at each end of the stairs, one at each door in a room, always within easy reach.   Or use a presence detection sensor in rooms like the hall or the toilet.  The light will then automatically switch on when someone is there, and be switched off all by itself after a while.  No needless spending of precious energy!

Another smart idea is using the right lighting at the right time.  When you watch television, all you need is energy-friendly background lighting.  In case someone still wants to read a book or the newspaper, a reading lamp (with an energy-saving or LED lamp) is the best and cheapest solution.   All needs covered, with a minimal comsumption. 

The cheapest light is and will always be daylight

Goes without saying?  Unfortunately, year after year loads of Watts are being wasted for lights being on without anyone noticing.  What a shame! Because let’s be clear:  however energy-friendly they may be, saving and LED lamps also consume energy and might as well be turned off when nobody needs them.

At the time of designing your home or the interior of a room, consider having big windows and placing your desk as close to the window as possible. It helps you to optimise the use of natural light.   You can even enhance the effect of daylight by having the ceiling or the walls painted with light colours.  You will not be tempted to turn on the lights so easily.

Do you also want to save energy?

Learn how Smappee can help you

Smappee, a global provider of energy management solutions, today announced its partnership with the Smart Home platform QIVICON. QIVICON, an initiative by Deutsche Telekom, brings together the solutions and services offered by the participating businesses to promote the principle of smart homes.

With the addition of Smappee, QIVICON has now expanded into a genuine energy management solution, since the Smappee home energy monitor gives users a quick and easy overview of their current electricity consumption. Using electrical devices’ unique signature, Smappee registers consumption by the most important devices in the home and displays them in real time in an app. Users can also activate time switch plans or ‘trigger options’ to switch electronic devices off automatically, for example, as soon as the user goes to bed or leaves the house.

“Our energy management solutions enable users to gain insight into their consumption data and thus help them consume energy sustainably,” says Stefan Grosjean, the founder of Smappee. “That is what makes the QIVICON smart home platform the perfect partner for us in Germany and internationally. We are pleased to join with QIVICON and their partners to advance the issue of energy management in the smart home, thus making it even easier for users to save energy.”

The QIVICON Home Base, the platform’s central control unit, links the various partners’ devices into a network using radio waves. The control, combination and automation of devices and functions is then completed simply and comfortably with apps provided by the various partners for smartphones, tablets or PCs. “Thanks to the integration of Smappee, customers of QIVICON’s partners will also have access in future to energy consumption data for each device in real time through an app. This helps to reduce consumption and consequently also energy costs,” explains Thomas Rockmann, the head of Connected Homes at Deutsche Telekom. “These functions make Smappee the perfect extension for our platform partners.”

How can Smappee identify appliances?

Every appliance that is being switched on and off has its own melody. A lamp of 60 watt sounds completely different from a fridge with the same 60 watt.  That’s how Smappee can distinguish them from one another.

What does Smappee do once it identified an appliance?

Smappee does not only give you readings on the total energy use in your home, but also on the use of each separate identified device.  Via the app you can view data of more than 30 appliances.

Can Smappee detect and identify all appliances?

Unfortunately Smappee can’t identify appliances under 30 watt, the so-called silent appliances, simply because they are drowned out by the louder ones.  Other devices can hardly be distinguished from each other, eg appliances with a heating component such as a toaster, a water boiler or a cooker hob. Or those that don’t have an unambiguous pattern due to the variable capacity, like a heat pump or a TV with ambilight.   

Nevertheless,  Smappee can identify all main appliances in your home, the ones that matter when it comes down to energy saving.  Besides, even if Smappee couldn’t recognize a device, its consumption and power is registered.  The bubbles in the homescreen of the app represent your total use and include the non-detected appliances. 

How long does it take before Smappee gives you a survey of your appliances?

Smappee needs some time to trace your appliances.  As soon as you’ve installed the energy monitor, the homescreen in the app shows you the total real-time use.  Then Smappee starts looking for your devices, starting with those that are switched on and off most often, such as the fridge or the freezer. Afterwards it identifies those devices that are most frequently used.

In the  ‘My Appliances’ list in the app, each device is given a number.  You can look into its DNA, information which is very useful when labelling your appliances.  The function “Label me” in the homescreen helps you to link the number of the appliance to its name.  On average,  Smappee identifies a handful of appliances within a week.  Logically it all depends on the number of appliances in your house ☺, but in general Smappee detects more than 60% of the devices after a month, representing about 80% of total consumption.

And what is it all good for? 

As soon as Smappee has identified a device, it can measure its use separately.  After about a month, it has gathered enough data to make an itemized bill. This bill shows you how much each device has consumed that month and gives you an indication on how much it will cost you on a yearly basis.  Perfect to trace energy guzzlers and to find out which devices are not or no longer energy-efficient.  Which tells you exactly how you can save!

The 2.7 million USD Series A round was led by CEO Stefan Grosjean and COO Hans Delabie, who have already raised 5.4 million USD in total, since Smappee was founded in late 2012. Smappee wants to create an effortless and sustainable change in energy behavior, without compromises to comfort. That is beneficial for the planet, but also for the consumer. Now more than ever, consumers and entrepreneurs realize this could also be to their advantage. Therefore, Smappee offers not only B2C but also B2B solutions with its Smappee Pro.

“This market is huge”, explains Hans Delabie, COO and co-founder of Smappee. “The last few months we have seen a lot of traction from France, Switzerland and Australia but the trend is positive in all countries. The main reasons are fluctuating energy prices, but also changes in legislation and a growing climate change awareness due to the COP21 conference in Paris and the popularity of solar energy.”

A smart traffic controller

At this point in time, Smappee allows to you monitor the electricity you consume and generate, but in the near future homes will become real decentralized power units with smart applications based on the Internet of Things. Smappee wants to play a leading role in this evolution.

Stefan Grosjean, CEO and co-founder of Smappee: “In the end, your Smappee will function as a traffic controller between your solar panels, your appliances and your home battery. It will tell your freezer to work harder when your solar panels are generating electricity and less when the sun is not shining. It will also know at what time in the morning you need hot water for your shower. With this 2.7 million USD funding, we are taking the next steps in that direction by launching new innovations in 2016. We will broaden the scope to other energy sources such as gas and water and enhance the upcoming energy transition with smart energy grid and energy storage. By popular demand, that is.

25 years of experience in energy management

CEO Stefan Grosjean has been an expert in the field of energy management ever since he founded his former company EnergyICT 25 years ago. That company, a world leader in the field of energy management solutions for industrial and commercial companies, government authorities and energy providers, was sold in 2009. Smappee represents Stefan Grosjean’s desire to apply his experience for the benefit of consumers as well.

In the current phase towards energy transition, homes are already becoming smarter homes, but energy use still remains surprisingly unclear to users. Enormous progress is possible here. According to research, consumers can reduce their energy use by up to 12% if they are provided with real-time feedback of their energy use and even up to 30% when old high energy-consuming appliances are replaced with newer more energy-efficient models. That leads to savings on average of 215 USD. Smappee thus benefits the environment as well as the consumer.

To quote Stefan Grosjean: “Just like sorting our garbage at home has become a habit, energy saving will become a habit. This is necessary not only for the climate but for our wallets. We just need to discover how much we could gain and how simple it is.”

Worldwide traction

The term ‘smart home’ is often used to address home automation in a science fiction context, but that is not what a smart home should be about. The more fundamental issue is about tackling a real problem. This explains why Smappee shows such great traction, with sales almost doubled in Q4 2015 compared to the previous quarter, a 70% growth in 2015 compared to the previous year and a rapidly growing community of resellers and partners.

Smappee originates from Belgium, but its market is worldwide. It is sold in over 60 countries and receives increasing interest from utilities as well as telecoms industry. Hans Delabie, COO and co- founder: “Currently the main focus is on Europe, but Smappee will keep expanding its activities in the US and the South Pacific to become the market leader in energy-saving, smart-home applications“

About Smappee

Smappee develops innovative solutions for more sustainable energy consumption. The energy monitor measures the exact use of all important appliances and provides real-time data in a design that has already won several awards. With the user-friendly Smappee app for smart phone or tablet, the user can monitor his energy consumption in real-time and analyse it. Energy guzzlers and standby power consumption can thus easily be detected. With some simple changes in energy behaviour, Smappee pays itself back in one or two years. Additionally, Smappee measures the production of solar panels, should there be any, and the Comfort Plugs™ allow you to switch appliances on and off remotely.

Smappee makes sure that both consumer and the environment benefit from its efficiency solutions. Consuming less energy without compromising comfort is a top priority in the range of solutions Smappee offers to consumers and professional users.

Stefan Grosjean and Hans Delabie, experts in the field of energy management, founded the company in 2012. In 2014 Smappee won the Deloitte Fast50 Rising Star Award. More information on www.smappee.com.

Dobbit TV broadcast a commentary of the Belgian Federation for Ecological Development on energy-efficiency and the Smappee energy monitor. The Federation for Ecological Development’s energy expert, Mario Verhellen, pays a visit to Smappee user Katie Verhelst.  He uses Smappee to evaluate energy consumption in Katie’s home and gives her some tips on how to save electricity.

To deal with energy efficiently, the first thing you should get insight into is the cost of your appliances. The Smappee smart energy monitor doesn’t only show us how much energy we consume. It also provides us with detailed real-time data on the energy use of all important appliances separately.  This insight can help us tackle energy guzzlers and start saving energy.

An important step in the right direction is investing in energy-efficient appliances. But did you also know that...

... it is not advisable to put the freezer in a small and closed space?

Tip! Choose a cool and spacious room for your freezer. That’s where it consumes less. Defrost your freezer regularly to ensure it is working to its optimum efficiency.

... heating water is the biggest energy cost of a washing machine?

Tip! Avoid washing clothes at high temperatures. 10°C more or less will not make the difference, provided that you use a good laundry product.  It can, though, imply savings of 40€ a year on your energy bill.

... the tumble dryer is a real energy guzzler?

Tip!  Choose the right programme!  Your laundry doesn’t necessarily have to be completely dry. If you take it out of the tumble dryer a little damp, it’s easier to iron ánd it saves you energy. Of course the cheapest option is to dry your clothes on the line outside or, if the weather is too bad, in an open and well-ventilated room. Taking into account that every time we use the tumble dryer it costs us 0,5€,  the line can save us up to  50€ a year.

... standby power consumption is more expensive than you realise?

Tip! Always unplug appliances!  If you leave them on stand-by or even simply
plugged-in, they are still using energy. Reducing standby power consumption can save you about 25€ a year. 

Watch the broadcast here.

The beginning of the new year, plenty of good intentions. We are definitely going to eat less and train more. A good thing for your personal energy system, but what about the energy consumption in your house? How do you contribute to a better environment?  At the same time safeguarding the content of your wallet after the hectic and expensive month of December? Five tips on how to save energy and costs:

1. Real-time insight leads to a behavioural change

You might find it a bit patronising and tiresome : all this talk about saving energy. It reminds you a bit of those alternative types, who have their heating standard on 18 degrees. Not really your piece of cake. But did you know that scientific research has shown that insight into your energy consumption - for instance knowing which appliance consumes how much energy - can already account for an average saving of 8,4 percent?  And real-time insight for no less than 12 percent?  Of course, you have to actually do something about it. But receiving data about their energy use on a daily or weekly basis, makes users much more conscious about their consumption and especially about how to save in a simple way.  Once you are aware if this, it takes only a little step to make some changes that can make the difference.

2. From ‘always on’ to ‘ on when needed’

Some of the appliances that are always on, really shouldn’t be.  And I don’t even mean really ‘on’. Even on stand-by mode, most of the appliances are real energy guzzlers. This becomes even clearer when you take a look at the cost : when you leave a game console on stand-by mode 24 hours a day for an entire year, it consumes up to $43. Isn’t that a shame?

When users start being aware of that, they usually decide to switch off these devices completely. Research among the European users of the Smappee energy monitor has shown that turning off these devices completely results into more than 5 percent less ‘always on’ use in half a year. Naturally, some of the appliances can’t be switched off, but a game console, a television or a computer, only have to be turned on when you are really using them. Be smart and take advantage of that!

3. Insight into secret energy guzzlers

So we know that appliances on stand-by mode are real energy guzzlers. But what if you could find out what other appliances secretly guzzle energy. It is actually weird that we have such a limited understanding of our energy consumption, while we do ask supermarkets and phone companies to be transparent about their bills. Installing a smart energy monitor can help you find out which devices use most of your energy ánd what they eventually cost you. By getting a better understanding of your current costs, you can compare them with the cost of a new investment and its benefits for the future, which makes you smart when buying new appliances.

4. Turn off your coffee machine on the road

Whatever good intentions you have, there is always a chance that you forget to turn off your coffee machine. By installing a smart energy monitor that can deal with appliances separately, and some complementary tools, you can easily switch off devices remotely. No need to drive back home to check if you really turned it off.  From now on you can easily find out with the app ánd control it. Or look at it the other way round : you can switch it on on your way home.

5. Long-term behavioural change

The bad thing about good intentions is that we forget about them when time goes by. In January you were really keeping track of everything, checking your energy app and knowing exactly where to save. You made your first profit and then you become less alert.  On Blue Monday you don’t see much point in it anymore and by February you have completely lost it out of sight.  Similar to your new training schedule or your new diet : at some point you’ve had enough.  

You can easily avoid this by using automatic settings. Your television set still switches off automatically as soon as you go to bed.  And your coffee machine turns itself off when you leave the house. For other appliances or to manage your consumption, the app can be very helpful.  For instance by giving you real-time insight into your energy consumption and especially by giving you tips on how to save energy. Like a coach, in fact. But in the end the ultimate motivation will probably be your energy bill.  When you realize that you have saved hundreds of pounds by not leaving your appliances on stand-by mode but turning them off completely, by tackling the biggest energy guzzlers and by adjusting your energy behaviour… What a feeling! And when you suddenly realize that, on top of that, you also contribute to a better environment. Good intentions that make us feel good. 2016, here we come!

From now on, a web version of the Smappee app is available for PC and Mac.  With this web version current and new customers of the independent energy monitor Smappee can consult Smappee information on mobile devices that are not running Android or iOS.  This browser version has the same features as the current apps for Android and iOS, but also enables users to download the data onto their tablet, PC or Mac, in order to further analyse the results.

Smappee gives users insight into their total energy consumption, including “always on” use and the consumption of all main household appliances.  It calculates the corresponding costs and if the user has solar panels, it also shows how much energy they produce.   Forty percent of Smappee users consult the app on a daily basis to get a clear view on their energy consumption.  Others also use the app, in combination with the Comfort Plug™, to switch electrical devices on and off remotely.  Thanks to these features, Smappee users can monitor and manage their home from their smartphone, tablet and as of today, also from their laptop and desktop computers.

In combination with the Smappee energy monitor

The app is to be used together with the Smappee energy monitor.  This “energy buddy” is easily installed, by clipping a clever snap-on connector onto the main cable of your fuse box.  Thanks to the unique electrical signature of appliances, Smappee can measure the total energy consumption in a house as well as the consumption of separate appliances.  The user-friendly app immediately provides you with a clear overview of this data on your smartphone, tablet or PC. Based on the insights procured by the Smappee energy solution, energy consumption can be monitored and optimised.  This can cause a decrease in energy bills of up to 30%, representing an average saving of $220 per year.

Prices and availability

The Smappee app is available free for devices running iOS and Android, and now also in a free web version for PC and Mac. Click here to download the Android or iOS app or visit my.smappee.com for the web version. The independent Smappee energy monitor is available without subscription fee.  The purchase price is $249.00. 

Last year Smappee was voted Rising Star 2014 in the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast50 competition.  A nice recognition, knowing that 50 fast-growing technological companies were nominated for the award. Recently, CEO and founder of Smappee , Stefan Grosjean, and a number of other successful managers, were interviewed by the Belgian quality newspaper De Standaard about the secrets of their success.

The newspaper published five videos, each one of them dealing with a stepping stone for start-ups.  Smappee is proud to share its experience with other entrepreneurs.

How to find the gap in the market?

Starting from an idea that you consider to be excellent or from your vision as a techie, is just not good enough.  No matter how good the idea seems to you, you always have to check whether there is really a need for it, whether there is a demand for your product.  Only then can we speak about a gap in the market.  And only then is your company bound to succeed.

How to convince investors?

Before you try to convince investors as a start-up, it is important to carefully and extensively study your plan :  draw a complete picture of the direction you want to move into,  create clarity about the product itself, and make a risk analysis.  You can only address the same investor once, so it is crucial to be well-prepared.

How to hire the right people?

When a company strives for quality, innovation and quick progress, it is of utmost importance to gather a team of people who are perfectly complementary to one another.  The right people and the right plan account for 50% of your success.

How important is a network?

The right network can add an extra dimension to a team.  Good accountants, the right financial experts and HR specialists can facilitate an even quicker progress.

Stay local or go international?

When you launch a product, you should always stick to your local market during the testing phase.   At the time of developing, however, it’s smart to keep in mind that the product should fit the global market!

Watch the videos here.

There’s a lot of buzz about conserving energy - being energy smart, but do we really understand why, and more importantly – HOW?

Being more aware of how and when you burn energy in your home helps to cut consumption, ultimately saving you money and reducing your carbon footprint.  The how? That’s where smart meters and smart energy monitors, like Smappee come in.

A range of smart energy devices have launched to help you to measure your household energy use and get a grip on your energy guzzling. Sure, there are plenty of tips and tricks online to help you take care of the environment and your monthly energy bills, but beyond switching off and unplugging, how can you get to grips with your energy consumption?

In short, you have 3 options: Traditional / Mechanical models, Smart Meters and Smart Energy Monitors, like Smappee.

1. Traditional

Traditional meters work by keeping an ongoing record of how much electricity your home uses. The meter is read monthly or quarterly (in some countries only once per year!) and you are billed for the electricity you have used. Traditional meters are mechanical in nature, so they have a tendency to slow down and become less accurate over time. What’s more, mechanical meters require annual maintenance and regular visits from meter readers.

2. Smart Meters

Smart meters go one step further, showing you just how much electricity you’re using. Smart meters do away with inaccurate estimated bills as they automatically send accurate energy readings back to your supplier. This can offer peace of mind, knowing you’re only paying for the electricity you’ve used and helps to avoid any nasty surprises.

3. Smappee

Unlike traditional, or standard smart meters, Smappee offers you real-time readings on your energy consumption, delivering data right to your smart phone. Smappee tracks every kilowatt of energy you use, so there’s no more guessing.

What’s more, Smappee outperforms smart meters by tracking your energy consumption down to the appliance level, as each has a distinct electricity signature. With this unique feature, Smappee can help you to quickly spot energy guzzlers in your home (from inefficient freezers, to electricity-loving teenagers). These actionable insights help you detect which devices are working less efficiently, perhaps encouraging you to switch to energy-forward light bulbs, a more cost-effective freezer, or reminding you that lights need to be switched off when you leave the room. In fact, Smappee customers can save up to 30% on their monthly energy bills.

And here is the catch; despite the recent advancement in energy technologies; the influx of smart meters and most smart energy monitors, we’re still burning through far more electricity than we need. It turns out that new technology alone doesn’t lead to a change in behaviour. In fact, in order for smart energy monitors to drive measurable improvements, they must help us to create and sustain new habits. Let’s be honest, this is no mean feat. We’ve all started a new fitness regime in the new year, or a taken up a class with the best intentions of mastering a new skill, only to drop it a few weeks later.

Thankfully, Smappee is one smart energy monitor that bucks the trend, as it has behavioural change strategies at it’s heart. Smappee delivers accurate energy readings, encouragement, tips and customized advice to your phone at a time when you’re most likely to take action. It’s this collaborative and motivational approach that helps Smappee customers to save up to 30% on their energy bills.

Would you also like to save up to 30% on your electricity bill ?

Discover how Smappee can help >

U.S. Ambassador Denise Bauer was pleasantly surprised to learn more about the cutting-edge technology produced in Belgium during a recent round-table discussion on energy efficiency. In the run-up to the Climate Summit in Paris the Ambassador wanted to know what steps Belgium’s entrepreneurs are undertaking to fight climate change. On a recent visit to Smappee in Kortrijk she spoke to several experts in the field of energy efficiency. She was clearly impressed by Smappee’s smart energy monitor, a highly useful tool for both consumers and businesses to become more conscious about their energy consumption habits.

Smappee, the Kortrijk-based start-up specialising in innovative solutions for more sustainable energy consumption, organised a roundtable discussion at the request of U.S. Ambassador Bauer. She wanted to know how modern technology is contributing to energy efficiency among both private individuals and the corporate community in Belgium. During the roundtable discussion, Ms Bauer was also introduced to another type of ambassador: Al Gore’s “climate ambassador” Serge de Gheldere, whose company Futureproofed helps businesses and cities opt for a fossil fuel-free, sustainable economy.

‘This visit to Smappee and the entrepreneurial roundtable are excellent opportunities to learn more about what Belgian companies are doing to fight climate change in the run-up of the COP 21 talks in Paris”, explained Ambassador Bauer. “President Obama’s Climate Action Plan calls for dramatic increases in energy efficiency in the U.S., the kind of energy savings that products like Smappee will help to achieve. Increased efficiency will lower costs, decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, and help us transition to a low carbon economy. Innovative business ideas like the ones I’ve learned about today are essential to address global climate change in realistic and economically beneficial ways.”

Ambassador Bauer’s visit began with a demonstration of Smappee, the first smart energy monitor. Using just one sensor, attached to the main cable with a simple clamp, Smappee can show consumers how much electricity they are using, their stand-by energy consumption and the yield of their solar panels on their smartphone or tablet. Additionally, Smappee is the first device that can monitor the energy consumption of electrical appliances individually. All of this is achieved with a single sensor. Scientific studies have shown that monitoring energy consumption on the household level can lead to savings of 12%. As Smappee can narrow this down to appliance level, savings of 30% can even be achieved, enabling you to earn back your appliance in just one year.

‘This innovative feat of technology will allow consumers as well as SMEs to drastically reduce their energy bills”, says Stefan Grosjean, the founder of Smappee. ‘Taking into account climate change, saving energy is increasingly becoming more important. Smappee has made this as intuitive for consumers as possible by providing real-time insight into energy consumption, all the way down to appliance level.”

On a single day, the sun sends 15,000 times as much energy to the Earth as we consume across the world daily. Renewable energy sources offer substantial benefits for our climate, our health, and our economy, helping us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution. With these multitude of benefits in mind, it’s not surprising that interest in solar energy systems for both homes and businesses is soaring.

Critically, as solar energy systems become increasingly advanced and popular across the world, their prices continue to drop. Solar panels, for example now sell for less than a quarter of their 2008 price, and innovative technologies, like Smappee  can easily measure and monitor their use.

Smappee, world’s smartest home energy monitor offers an innovative way of making the most of your solar energy. Unlike many energy assessment devices that claim to offer solar monitoring solutions, Smappee is setting new standards in solar energy management.  Smappee measures the energy much more accurately than most alternatives as it samples both the current ànd the voltage 1000s of times a second.  Leading market competitors who fail to take both readings can be as much as 20% inaccurate when measuring solar energy. The Smappee actionable insights offer an accurate view of the energy flow in your home, so now you can make decisions about how and when best to use your solar power.

Whats more, thanks to the free Smappee mobile app, you can now programme your home to swith on appliances if the solar generation goes over a certain amount, enabling your home to intelligently use that power within the home and not waste it, by exporting it out to the grid.

Smappee offers:

• Actionable insight, and targeted advice based on your energy readings, to optimise your solar power use
• The chance to manage a more efficient, sustainable and less costly energy source than your traditional energy consumption
• Reduced energy costs, up to 30%, thanks to real-time accurate energy readings of all main appliances

We are in the midst of World Water Week. With climate change concerns and rising energy prices across the world, it's time for a new way to think about water and energy. With Smappee, now your family can learn to use less water and save both energy, and money. 

Most of us know about the importance of saving water, but few think of the connection between our energy use and water use. Heating water for showering, washing, shaving, cooking, and cleaning requires a considerable amount of energy. Homes with electric water heaters, for example, spend one-quarter of their total electric bills just to heat their water. By making a few small changes to the way we use water in our homes we can not only save water, but also generate great savings on our energy bills.

So, how can we start saving?

Well, first we need to understand just how much water we use. Research shows that approx. 95% of the water entering our homes goes down the drain. We annually use more than 400 litres of water for cooking, and certain dishwashers can use up to 15 litres per cycle. With Smappee, we can detect energy guzzlers like inefficient dishwashers and costly water heaters through the real-time readings delivered straight to your smart phone. With Smappee’s actionable insights and innovative Comfort Plugs™ we can use these insights to turn off heaters or water-consuming devices when you don't need them to save water, energy and money. 

There are many more ways we can pay attention to how we are using water in our homes. Start following these water smart tips and you can save water and energy and contribute to building a sustainable water supply for everyone:

1. Take showers instead of baths, and take shorter showers. An average shower uses 10 litres of water per minute, so taking a shorter shower will save water

2. Use a Smappee Comfort Plug™ to turn your hot water heater off in periods when you don't need it

3. Turn the tap off when brushing your teeth. A running tap can use up to 8 litres of water per minute

4. Be sure your washing machine and dishwasher are always fully loaded before turning on

5. When buying water-consuming appliances, check the label to make sure you are buying the most energy efficient appliance

6. Use a basin inside your sink. Basins are handy for washing dishes, or collecting water you use to rinse fruit and vegetables, which can then be used for watering plants

7. Choose the correct pot size for cooking and use the lid when cooking to reduce the amount of water lost through evaporation, so you don’t have to keep adding more in

8. Check for leaks. Is there a sound of running water from your toilet cistern, or a very drippy tap? Repairing leaks can save up to 19,000 litres of water a year

9. Scraping dirty dishes instead of rinsing them before washing can save up to 8 litres per minute

10. Avoid using running water to thaw frozen foods and you can save up to 8 litres per minute

July 22, 2015 - With home break-ins on the rise globally, and holiday season banging on our door in it’s sunhat and shades, it’s time to get serious about home security.

Recent studies show that nine out of ten home break-ins could actually be prevented if homeowners would do some advance planning and take steps to burglar-proof their homes. Enter Smappee, the ultimate housesitter here to make sure your vacation is nothing but sun, sea, sand and a very sound sleep.

So what’s the answer?

Smappee, the ‘always on’ home energy monitor that transforms your house into a smart home, for the price of a smart phone. With Smappee’s front line technology, you can now control your house and all of your devices remotely with a simple tap on your phone. Smappee connects to each of the electrical appliances in your home to provide readings about how and when the energy in your house is activated. With Smappee you can relax knowing your house is being monitored in real time, 24/7. 

How does it work?

Thanks to the free Smappee mobile app and Comfort Plugs™, you can control your house and devices from your phone.  Using Smappee’s Smart Logic capabilities, you can even create automated schedules and commands for your devices.  

Never again worry about your home appearing unnoccupied and vulnerable to burglars, with Smappee you can simulate a presence in your house wherever you may be. Simply schedule your lighting to switch on in the evening, or activate your window blinds to give the impression the family is home.

What’s more, Smappee will offer you endless peace of mind by detecting abnormal energy consumption immediately. Has your bedroom light come on unexpectedly, or has the freezer stopped running ? Smappee delivers actionable insight, to reassure you about the health of your home while you’re away, and will prompt you to investigate further if concerned.

Thanks to real time readings and the free Smappee app, your worries about an oven  power surge, or your washing machine springing a leak can be left behind. With Smappee, you can intervene straight away, potentially saving extensive damages and an equally extensive bill. Your days of wondering if you left the iron on, or guessing if you forgot to close the garage door are over.

Smappee Pro Detects Energy Guzzlers in the Workplace

San Francisco, June 30, 2015 – Smappee, a global energy management company, today announced the launch of Smappee Pro, currently the only energy monitoring and control solution for small and midsized businesses (SMB) that can help them see exactly how much energy they are using in real time and control their office tools remotely using mobile devices -- independent of any utility. Using advanced disaggregation algorithms, Smappee Pro tracks energy consumption down to the commercial appliance level. It also maps and compares the energy usage at different offices, making it ideal for businesses with multiple locations.

While many large companies and corporations use technology to trim energy consumption and costs, there has not been an efficient and cost-effective solution for SMBs until now. Therefore, it is no surprise that small businesses consume the same amount of energy as all residential customers combined and half of the total commercial load in many major cities, according to Lime Energy, a national energy efficiency provider for small businesses.   

“We have leveraged our innovative smart home technology to create Smappee Pro,” said Stefan Grosjean, chief executive officer and co-founder of Smappee. “Together, Smappee, our flagship home energy monitor, and Smappee Pro can give consumers and businesses energy information and the ability to control their appliances remotely. This enables them to develop sustainable behavior to not only save costs, but also combat climate change in the long run.” 

Smappee Pro’s key features include:  

Real-time Visibility: Business owners and managers have access to the Smappee Pro Web portal and mobile app (available on Android and iOS) that show real-time information of their office’s energy flows and costs, across multiple offices. For example, they can see how much energy the air conditioning or lights consume and what the corresponding costs would be at any given moment.  

Actionable Insight: With real-time visibility, users can easily spot energy guzzlers, triggering them to replace them with more energy efficient ones or changing particular lifestyle habits that contribute to that energy expenditure. Smappee Pro’s mobile app sends specific tips and advice to help users conserve energy. It also has data mining tools for managers or energy management teams to see and report energy usage, savings and carbon footprint details.   

Intelligent Control: Smappee Pro allows users to control specific office appliances remotely from their mobile devices. If store managers forget to turn off certain equipment after they leave, they will be able to use the app to switch them off. Using Smappee Pro's Smart Logic capabilities, users can also create automated schedules and commands such as letting an appliance switch another on or off, or have equipment be turned on at sunrise and off at sunset.   

Solar Energy: Smappee Pro measures solar production, so users know exactly when, where and how much energy is being created in real time. It also visualizes the cost-savings of using solar energy, helping business owners see the return on investment from implementing solar panels.  

Born out of the smart home market, Smappee Pro is naturally easy and quick to install. Smappee Pro has nine inputs for current clamps, which measure the energy consumption of a business, and Comfort Plugs^TM, complementary adapters that fit between an office tool and the power point to enable automation capabilities.  The current clamps are clipped around specific cables in the fuse box.  Communication with the Smappee cloud is handled via Ethernet and optionally Wi-Fi or 4G/3G/GPRS via USB dongle. 

Pricing will vary depending on the number of units a business deploys. Smappee Pro is available to be pre-ordered now and early adopters who order it from June 30 to July 30 will receive six free Comfort Plugs^TM. Please visit this page, www.smappee.com/pro, or email pro@smappee.com to sign up. General availability of the product will be available in July 2015.

About Smappee 

Smappee develops innovative solutions that foster sustainable energy consumption. It offers people user-friendly, affordable and efficient ways to use less energy without sacrificing comfort. Stefan Grosjean, an expert in the field of energy management, founded Smappee in 2012. Smappee received the Henry van de Velde Label 2014 for the qualitative design of the product and app.  It was also named Deloitte Technology Fast50 Rising Star 2014 in Belgium for its innovation and market potential. 

Press Contact: 
Kelly Xie 
Kelly.xie@ogilvy.com

Smappee App is Now Available on the Apple Watch

Today, Smappee users can access the Smappee app on the Apple Watch! 

Smappee’s Apple Watch app provides an intuitive and seamless experience for the energy conscious consumer right from the wrist. It displays your home’s total energy usage, “always-on” consumption and corresponding costs, and power generated by solar should you have solar panels. Conveniently, the app allows users to turn on/off specific appliances remotely. If you forgot to turn off the espresso machine before you rushed off to work, simply use the Smappee Apple Watch app to turn it off while on the go. While summer heat is spiking, use the Smappee Apple Watch app to turn on the fan to cool down your house before you get home.  

The Smappee app is currently available on iOS and Android devices, and now also on the Apple Watch. Click here to download.

In fact, by 2022, the average home is expected to have 500 smart devices. Say goodbye to the laborious process of pressing coffee, and say hello to waking up to a machine-made cup that started brewing automatically 10 minutes before your alarm rang, because it was synced with your phone. That will be the new normal.

Of course, the Internet of Things (IoT) will make our lives easier – but what’s more exciting is its potential to significantly change the way we consume energy. In just one decade or less, consumers will have more control over their own energy consumption than ever before. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, the Internet of Things revolution will empower everyday people with actionable insights to help them lead more sustainable lives. Here are three predictions on how IoT will continue to change the energy space by 2025.

The end of light switches

Within 10 years, light switches will be archaic objects. Your devices will be able to automatically sense when you’re home – and how you move through the home – using a beacon in your smartphone (such as iBeacon, which was activated in iOS 7). This technology works by emitting a low-energy Bluetooth signal, which devices can detect and then use to estimate proximity. While retail stores have already begun implementing this (for example, to track how close you are to a check-out counter), we expect that the residential sector will account for the next big wave of adoption. In fact, Bluetooth receivers in your home will soon be able to interact with each other to determine your exact location through triangulation. The benefit to users? Less manual activity and smarter, more intuitive automation.

In addition to living more conveniently, we’ll also see a disruption of certain industries as a result of this shift. For example, because there will no longer be a need to drill holes in the walls to install switches, electricians will become consultants rather than installers, helping people program their homes wirelessly.

Clean, distributed energy on the rise

Climate change science is now indisputable, and we need to begin acting now to combat the human-produced effects. The good news? We’re already seeing positive signs.

Energy is becoming more distributed: It is moving from giant coal-powered burners to localized sources, like small-scale solar and wind facilities. According to the EPA, energy-generating companies expect to add more than 20 gigawatts of capacity to the power grid this year alone. This is dominated by wind (9.8 GW), natural gas (6.3 GW) and solar (2.2 GW), which combine to make up 91 percent of the total additions. Furthermore, more households are installing solar panels, as prices for rooftop photovoltaic systems havedropped 29 percent from 2010 to 2013.

The challenge? We can’t program the sun or the wind based on our energy needs, which is why storage is becoming critically important. We need to understand how to store excess power when we have it, so that we avoid disasters when we don’t.

By 2025, more and more people will adopt residential energy-monitoring devices likeSmappee. In fact, early adopters are already learning how to optimize their own production and consumption, becoming micromanagers of their own grids. By bringing together different measurements – from weather patterns to local energy prices – devices like Smappee can tell users when energy will be the cheapest or most expensive, delivering a truly connected service. In the future, as the need to micromanage resources becomes even more critical, this type of technology will move to the mainstream.

A shift in power – from utilities to consumers

Today, energy intelligence is largely controlled by utilities. In the U.S. alone, 45 millionresidential smart meters have been installed as of July 2013 – but they are designed primarily to provide data for utilities, helping them restore power after natural disasters or manage peak demand times. These “smart” meters are not smart enough to help users make sustainable choices. They lack true disaggregation, typically providing a backward-looking monthly snapshot.

As the smart home revolution marches on, more people will use devices that can detect energy consumption in real-time, down to the appliance level – independent of any utility. These devices use advanced analytics to help consumers detect hidden energy guzzlers, creating personalized recommendations for users based on data gathered from their own homes. For example, Smappee can analyze your refrigerator’s efficiency and then prompt you to upgrade to a model that will reduce your overall energy use.

Utilities will still be needed in the future, of course, but consumer-centric smart home devices can give people greater insights into how they are using energy, and how they can manage it.

With these trends in mind, I’m optimistic about technology’s potential to tackle some of tomorrow’s largest sustainability challenges. But in order to us to truly control our aggregate energy use, every individual needs to act now. We all need to play a role by taking control of our own consumption. Are you ready to take part?

http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/04/internet-things-changing-residential-energy/

Today Smappee makes your electricity costs transparent, without the need for a “Smart Meter”. As the world’s first, Smappee users will be able to use this ‘itemized bill’ functionality within the App to visualize the appliance costs by day, month or year. It will even forecast how much each of your appliances will cost you for an entire year.

Smappee's innovative solution is an energy monitor/home automation crossover, enabling you to get visibility into your entire home’s energy costs and control it, saving up to 12% on your electricity bill. A simple clip-on sensor(s) around your home's power cable, enables Smappee to tell you how much energy your home, and the appliances within, are consuming and costing you. Smappee's latest version of the app now has an ‘Itemized Bill’ feature which breaks your total home bill down into the various appliances that Smappee has detected. Opening your eyes for the first time on where the energy goes within the home. This simple first step is the most important one to being able to manage and reduce that large part of the household budget that is mainly a cost ‘black hole’. So whether you want Smappee to tell you how much your freezer is costing you per year so you can consider trading it in for a new energy efficient one, or if you want to cost effectively turn your home into a ‘smart home’, Smappee is the solution.

Device-Specific Data to Cut Back on Unnecessary Consumption

DECEMBER 10, 2014 – San Francisco, Calif. – Smappee, a new home energy management system designed to help consumers reduce unnecessary consumption, has launched in the United States today. The product works independently of any utility company to deliver actionable insights that save money and reduce excess energy use – without sacrificing comfort.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that appliances, electronics and lighting account for more than one-third of home energy use. However, most Americans aren’t actively aware of their own habits. They may leave lights on while at work, forget to unplug devices such as televisions or rely on outdated appliances that drain energy instead of conserving it. This excess consumption can have harmful implications for the environment, because residential users account for more than 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

“Smappee’s expansion into the U.S. represents a key step forward in our mission to drive sustainable behavior change,” said Stefan Grosjean, CEO and founder. “Our product is designed to make energy intelligence more accessible, by helping everyday users manage their consumption in a smarter way. We believe that Smappee’s data is more accurate, more granular and more actionable than any alternative on the market.”

Smappee gathers real-time energy data through a single clip-on sensor that attaches to a user’s main power line. Through this sensor, Smappee is able to gather accurate information about how much energy and money various appliances and devices consume. The product comes with a free companion mobile app, which presents both real-time and historical information in a user-friendly way. This information empowers consumers to engage and react, reducing unnecessary energy consumption and cost. Each Smappee also includes a wireless Comfort Plug, which syncs with the app to allow consumers to turn appliances and devices on or off remotely.

The company is headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium and was recently honored with the Deloitte Technology Fast50 Rising Star 2014 Award, an annual selection of the most promising startups within the country.

Real-Time Feedback Helps Users Save Money and Develop Sustainable Habits

Until now, Americans have primarily relied on end-of-month billing that includes a retroactive summary of energy usage, with little additional detail. Smappee offers a smart and objective alternative to the status quo. Smappee makes thousands of measurements per second, analyzing individual devices rather than only providing a summary of the total energy entering and exiting the grid.

The difference is quantifiable. Real-time, device-specific data – such as that gathered by Smappee – can help a four-person home reduce monthly energy bills by an average of 12 percent, whereas enhanced billing services only lead to average savings of 3.8 percent. 

“Smappee’s information does more than save money – it also encourages sustainable behavior change,” said Grosjean. “With Smappee, we want to show that individuals, not just businesses, can play a key role in tackling this issue, by reducing unnecessary consumption in their homes. Every small change we make is one piece of a larger and more significant puzzle.”

Beyond Energy – Delivering Added Comfort, Security and Integration

Smappee delivers many benefits beyond its core measurement capabilities. Through the mobile app, available for both Android and iOS devices, users can develop customized commands known as “triggers” that instruct devices about how to interact with one another. For example, users could set their coffee maker to start heating up 10 minutes before an alarm goes off, or they could turn on a slow cooker at the same time each day. Consumers can also use the Comfort Plugs to remotely turn devices on or off, bringing an added layer of convenience. 

Smappee also brings peace of mind. Electricity can act as a signal, assuring users that family members have arrived home safely or alerting them of the presence of intruders. For example, if a burglar walks into a home and switches on a light, Smappee can send a notification to the user immediately.

Smappee’s advanced integration ensures that consumers receive a 360-degree understanding of energy use. In addition to devices and appliances, Smappee is also able to measure the productivity of solar panels, so consumers can monitor the total amount of renewable energy that is generated and consumed. The sensor can also detect when an electric vehicle is plugged in, to give drivers a clear picture of how much it costs to charge.

Availability and pricing: Smappee can be purchased for a one-time fee of $249, or $349 with the solar panel monitoring option, excluding taxes. It works without a monthly subscription, so there are no ongoing costs beyond the one-off purchase price of the product. U.S. consumers can find more information and order Smappee online at http://www.smappee.com. Smappee will be available shortly via Smappee Partners and other retail outlets.

 About Smappee

Smappee develops innovative solutions that foster sustainable energy consumption. It offers people user-friendly, affordable and efficient ways to use less energy without sacrificing comfort. Under the slogan “Let’s win,” Smappee takes care that both the consumer and the environment win.

Smappee is not only the name of the product, but also of the underlying company. Smappee was founded in 2012 by Stefan Grosjean, an expert in the field of energy management. He previously founded Energy ICT, which he built up into a world leader in the field of energy management solutions for industrial and commercial companies, government authorities and energy providers. Smappee represents his desire to apply his experience to benefit consumers as well.

Smappee received the Henry van de Velde Label 2014 for the qualitative design of the product and app.  It was also named Deloitte Technology Fast50 Rising Star 2014 in Belgium for its innovation and market potential.

Press Contact:

(415) 782-4706

keren.goldshlager@ogilvy.com

DECEMBER 10, 2014 – San Francisco, Calif. – Smappee, a new home energy management system designed to help consumers reduce unnecessary consumption, has launched in the United States today. The product works independently of any utility company to deliver actionable insights that save money and reduce excess energy use – without sacrificing comfort.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that appliances, electronics and lighting account for more than one-third of home energy use. However, most Americans aren’t actively aware of their own habits. They may leave lights on while at work, forget to unplug devices such as televisions or rely on outdated appliances that drain energy instead of conserving it. This excess consumption can have harmful implications for the environment, because residential users account for more than 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

“Smappee’s expansion into the U.S. represents a key step forward in our mission to drive sustainable behavior change,” said Stefan Grosjean, CEO and founder. “Our product is designed to make energy intelligence more accessible, by helping everyday users manage their consumption in a smarter way. We believe that Smappee’s data is more accurate, more granular and more actionable than any alternative on the market.”

Smappee gathers real-time energy data through a single clip-on sensor that attaches to a user’s main power line. Through this sensor, Smappee is able to gather accurate information about how much energy and money various appliances and devices consume. The product comes with a free companion mobile app, which presents both real-time and historical information in a user-friendly way. This information empowers consumers to engage and react, reducing unnecessary energy consumption and cost. Each Smappee also includes a wireless Comfort Plug, which syncs with the app to allow consumers to turn appliances and devices on or off remotely.

The company is headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium and was recently honored with the Deloitte Technology Fast50 Rising Star 2014 Award, an annual selection of the most promising startups within the country.

Real-Time Feedback Helps Users Save Money and Develop Sustainable Habits

Until now, Americans have primarily relied on end-of-month billing that includes a retroactive summary of energy usage, with little additional detail. Smappee offers a smart and objective alternative to the status quo. Smappee makes thousands of measurements per second, analyzing individual devices rather than only providing a summary of the total energy entering and exiting the grid.

The difference is quantifiable. Real-time, device-specific data – such as that gathered by Smappee – can help a four-person home reduce monthly energy bills by an average of 12 percent, whereas enhanced billing services only lead to average savings of 3.8 percent. 

“Smappee’s information does more than save money – it also encourages sustainable behavior change,” said Grosjean. “With Smappee, we want to show that individuals, not just businesses, can play a key role in tackling this issue, by reducing unnecessary consumption in their homes. Every small change we make is one piece of a larger and more significant puzzle.”

Beyond Energy – Delivering Added Comfort, Security and Integration

Smappee delivers many benefits beyond its core measurement capabilities. Through the mobile app, available for both Android and iOS devices, users can develop customized commands known as “triggers” that instruct devices about how to interact with one another. For example, users could set their coffee maker to start heating up 10 minutes before an alarm goes off, or they could turn on a slow cooker at the same time each day. Consumers can also use the Comfort Plugs to remotely turn devices on or off, bringing an added layer of convenience. 

Smappee also brings peace of mind. Electricity can act as a signal, assuring users that family members have arrived home safely or alerting them of the presence of intruders. For example, if a burglar walks into a home and switches on a light, Smappee can send a notification to the user immediately.

Smappee’s advanced integration ensures that consumers receive a 360-degree understanding of energy use. In addition to devices and appliances, Smappee is also able to measure the productivity of solar panels, so consumers can monitor the total amount of renewable energy that is generated and consumed. The sensor can also detect when an electric vehicle is plugged in, to give drivers a clear picture of how much it costs to charge.

Availability and pricing: Smappee can be purchased for a one-time fee of $249, or $349 with the solar panel monitoring option, excluding taxes. It works without a monthly subscription, so there are no ongoing costs beyond the one-off purchase price of the product. U.S. consumers can find more information and order Smappee online at http://www.smappee.com. Smappee will be available shortly via Smappee Partners and other retail outlets.

 About Smappee

Smappee develops innovative solutions that foster sustainable energy consumption. It offers people user-friendly, affordable and efficient ways to use less energy without sacrificing comfort. Under the slogan “Let’s win,” Smappee takes care that both the consumer and the environment win.

Smappee is not only the name of the product, but also of the underlying company. Smappee was founded in 2012 by Stefan Grosjean, an expert in the field of energy management. He previously founded Energy ICT, which he built up into a world leader in the field of energy management solutions for industrial and commercial companies, government authorities and energy providers. Smappee represents his desire to apply his experience to benefit consumers as well.

Smappee received the Henry van de Velde Label 2014 for the qualitative design of the product and app.  It was also named Deloitte Technology Fast50 Rising Star 2014 in Belgium for its innovation and market potential.

Press Contact:

(415) 782-4706

keren.goldshlager@ogilvy.com

Smappee voted Rising Star 2014 – wins prestigious competition organized by Deloitte.

The Deloitte Technology Fast50 competition is an annual selection of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies and the ten most promising technology start-ups within Belgium (Rising Stars). The initiative is designed to encourage and promote entrepreneurial, fast-growing technology companies.

This year Smappee was amongst the 10 companies that were nominated for the title of “Rising Star 2014”. An independent jury, chaired by Duco Sickinghe CEO Fortino, judged each company’s elevator pitch for features such as innovative strength and turnover potential. The overall winner is Smappee!

Stefan Grosjean CEO Smappee: “We’ve been in business for two years now, and so to receive this award, is overwhelming. It will also provide our colleagues with an extra boost to work further on our growth.”

Read the press release here.

Some IFTTT Recipes

Find many more here

Last but not least: Smappee will soon be completely Apple Home Kit compatible.

In short: with Smappee, the Connected Home is within everyone’s reach!

Meet us as Utility Week 2014 in Amsterdam! Booth 4G16.

First identify the Appliance, the lights (see other articles to find your appliance).  Once the appliance is identified and you allowed Smappee to collect some usage data for a few weeks, you'll have reliable data and statistics on that lights energy consumption.In my case, I looked at TL lights in our dressing room. 

The DNA of this Light appliance shows me this:

 This light is ON for a total of 10 days per year (2,7% of the time).  Turns on with a timer when presence is detected in the dressing room!  On average 6 minutes 46 seconds.  That's good, we don't let the lights ON when no one is present.  The power is 101W and is correct ( 2 fluorescent tubes of 51W each).  This light will consume 24 kWh per year at a cost of 6,10 EUR per year. 

Can I replace the light with more efficient lights with this 6,10 EUR budget?

No, and I should not as the light is only used 2,7% of the time, thanks to the presence sensor and the timer.  This light is also very efficient and I found out the TL tubes have an A label according to EEL (European Efficiency Label) standard.  Changing how we use our lights by implementing control mechanisms and being conscious of our behavioral habits can save money and energy. 

Here are a few easy things to help you start saving:

• Always turn lights out when leaving a room regardless of how short a period it is for
• Be conscious of how many lights you have on and whether they all need to be in use
• Arrange light switches so that its convenient to turn them off i.e. place switches at top and bottom of stairs, each end of a hallway and each door to a room
• Use a sensor and timer on external lights so they are only in use when they need to be
• Use appropriate lightings i.e. a low back ground light while watching television and a right, concentrated light for reading. By having a range of lights in a room with separate switches will make this easier.

Why Feedback is Likely to Result in Persistent Savings

Feedback helps consumers to learn the energy consequences of specific behaviours, and that information reduces uncertainty about the effectiveness of new behaviours.

Feedback helps people to establish new habits and they no longer need to be energy conscious all the time. New behaviours become automatic.

Feedback elicits energy conserving behaviours and after a while people adapt their attitudes to their new behaviours and energy conservation becomes a new part of their identity.

A qualitative assessment of all 23 studies, indicated that three-quarters had persistent savings.  An assessment of the 9 longest studies indicated that savings are persistent when feedback is persistent or when feedback is provided in a supportive social environment.

The pitfall:  the novelty of energy feedback may wear off and people will fall back into old habits and practices.

Persistent Savings with Smappee?

To avoid the pitfall of falling back in old habits;  Smappee combines the "Energy insights and feedback" with other features and benefits.  As such people continue to use their Energy Buddy because they need it in daily life.

The Energy Buddy and its Comfort Plug® provide simple home automation functions that will be used on a daily basis.  Also the "peace of mind" features providing info anytime,  from anywhere (from your smartphone App) to verify if one forgot to turn off the Iron or to check if the kids came home well after school (garage door used, playstation console in use,etc. ), or get a notification when the freezer door is left open, etc.   Those "convenience" features help to make sure users keep using their Energy Buddy.

While using Smappee for convenience and peace of mind checks,  the Buddy, inevitably shows you your Energy Usage, as you have to navigate via the main "bubble" screen, providing that feedback, achieving a long term sustained and persisted saving.

Sources: Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, Ph.D.  The complete research report is entitled: Advanced Metering Initiatives and Residential Feedback Programs and is available from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy: http://www.ACEEE.org/pubs/e105.htm

Smappee has been nominated for the Rising Star Award 2014. The Rising Star election is part of the Deloitte Technology Fast50 competition and is specially designed for technology companies existing less than five years. The nominated companies will face the challenge on 22 October in Brussels and will compete by means of Elevator Pitches for the title of ‘Rising Star 2014’.

Stefan Grosjean, Founder and C.E.O. at Smappee: “We are honoured to be nominated for the Rising Star Award 2014. This nomination is a recognition for our activities. It shows that we are on the right path and that we continue to grow.” 

Vincent Fosty, partner at Deloitte and Technology Fast50 leader for Belgium: “Once again this year, we have seen a lot of companies nominated for the Fast50 list for the first time. We view this as a very positive development and it demonstrates that there is still plenty of movement going on in the technology sector in Belgium. In the scope of 4 technology segments that cover the technology landscape, the companies in the category IT & Digital Solutions are the most dominant. Companies in operating in the field of Internet, Media & Telecom are also well represented and there are a number of high-tech companies (nanotech, biotech, clean tech & medical technology) on the list, too. And once again this year, the companies nominated for the title of Rising Star look like promising businesses that no doubt we will see at a later stage on the Fast50 list.”

About the Rising Star Award

The Deloitte Technology Fast50 competition is the recurring annual election of the fifty fastest growing technology companies, which for the first time is held for Belgian technology companies (formerly Benelux, in cooperation with the Netherlands). The selection criteria are turnover growth in terms of percentage during the past five years. Companies existing for less than five years can participate to the Rising Star category. These companies are judged by an independent jury on their turnover potential and scaling. Fast50 participants can be private or public sector companies and cover every segment of the technology market, including IT, software, telecom, media, internet, biotech, nanotech, medtech, clean tech & energy technology. The Technology Fast50 programme is more than a competition.  Participants become part of the Fast50 network and can participate in seminars that are organised throughout the year.

Released today in the UK, the Smappee energy monitor individually identifies devices and appliances in the home and allows consumers to take immediate action to end unnecessary power consumption. By intelligently measuring in-home energy use, the Smappee energy monitor, together with a free app for smartphones and tablets, provides instant insights on where energy is being consumed - allowing users to take immediate action to reduce energy waste. Smappee even makes it possible to see if you have left something on when out of the home, and turn it off remotely via the Smappee Comfort Plug^TM.

“The cost of energy waste is an unnecessary burden on British households. Our goal is to reduce power consumption in the UK by helping people to change habits, become more aware of their on-going energy use, and realise sustainable savings. Smappee is the consumer’s energy buddy, measuring, informing, motivating, entertaining and making life easier - always and everywhere. This is not a just a product, but a service,” said Stefan Grosjean, the founder of Smappee. “Depending on a user's consumption pattern, Smappee pays for itself in just over a year and realises cost savings of over £500 across five years. More importantly, you're helping to achieve a more sustainable world for everyone; lowering the burden on already strained power grids and on the environment.” 

The Smappee monitor is easy to install by clamping a single sensor around the main power cable of a household meter. Through this unique single monitoring point, Smappee identifies, measures and sends detailed energy consumption information about the electrical devices in a user’s home. This information is then available anywhere via a simple to use smartphone/tablet app (iOS / Android).

Simple interactive graphs within the Smappee app display energy use and costs per day, month or year, with different appliances and devices in the home automatically identified through the unique ‘interference pattern’ of each item. The performance of solar panels a user may have in their home is also measurable, with the Smappee app showing the contribution these make to a home’s electricity, and how much consumption is therefore covered by solar power.

The information provided by Smappee means users always know exactly what's going on, can take steps to adjust consumption accordingly, and reduce their energy bills. The app also rewards their energy efficiency with awards which can be shared with family and friends on social media.

 *By identifying where electricity is wasted, the Smappee energy monitor can reduce electricity bills by an average of 12 per cent in a four-person household in the UK, which means a saving of a least £110 per year. Source: Consumer Federation; Energy costs for an average household (4 people). In the UK there were last noted to be 25,691,000 households in the Private households by Household Type - Measurement data from the UNECE Statistical Division as accessed on 2 October 2011. A saving of £110 across every UK household is therefore equal to a potential saving value of £2,826,010,000 per annum.

Background

Availability and Price:

The Smappee energy monitor is now available for £169 (RRP including VAT) from the Smappee e-shop as well as all the European Apple retail stores. Each Smappee energy monitor is supplied with a comfort-plug™, with additional units available separately. The free Smappee app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The advantages of Smappee: 

1. Measuring smartly is key to knowledge
The free Smappee app provides you with an instant overview of your current electricity consumption, your standby power consumption and the yield of your solar panels. You can even monitor the consumption of your electrical appliances via a visual dashboard. This way, you gain a clear understanding of your consumption. You can also identify your (hidden) energy-hungry devices and intervene immediately. Via your computer, you can analyse that data in more detail.

2. Instant response.
As soon as you know which devices are consuming too much energy, you can take immediate action: even before you get your energy bill. Consumption in “sleep mode” can be monitored in the exact same way.

3. Mobile.
Monitor your energy consumption at any time from any location via the Smappee app for smartphone and tablet.

4. Peace of mind.
Detect abnormal consumption immediately. And if you’re not sure whether you disconnected a certain device, you can check via Smappee and even turn it off remotely, if you so desire. This feature requires a Comfort Plug^TM (a wireless adapter which fits between the device and the power point, enabling you to switch the device on and off remotely). One Comfort Plug^TM is included in the package as standard. Additional Comfort Plugs^TM can be purchased from the e-shop. These Comfort Plugs^TM are only required if you wish to turn individual devices on and off from a remote location. Smappee monitors and records your energy consumption via a single central monitor which does not require any extra plugs.

5. Easy installation.
Install Smappee safely and simply. The monitor works via a single measuring point – close to the meter box, which makes installation child’s play.

6. Solar panels, too.
The Smappee monitor doesn’t only measure the electricity produced by your solar panels, but also shows you how much more or less energy you produce than you consume.

7. Affordable.
By intervening in the case of energy-hungry devices at home, you can save on average about 12% on your energy bill. If you do the math, you’ll soon discover that a Smappee device will pay itself back in less than 2 years. Smappee works without a monthly subscription, which means there are no extra or on-going costs besides the one-off purchase price of the set itself.

8. Privacy policy.
All data about your energy consumption is anonymous and secure. Your privacy is guaranteed.

9. Objective information.
Smappee works independently of your choice of energy provider and gives you objective measurements with which to understand your energy consumption and – where necessary – reduce it.

10. A winning solution.
Change your behaviour patterns. The benefits of Smappee are twofold: your wallet and the environment

About Smappee

More than just the name of a company, product or app, Smappee refers to a close-knit team. We are hands-on professionals who share a common ambition to develop innovative solutions that foster sustainable energy consumption. In so doing, we offer people user-friendly, affordable and efficient ways to minimise their ecological footprint.

Smappee was founded by Stefan Grosjean, an expert in the field of energy management. Stefan is also the founder of Energy ICT, a start-up he subsequently built up into a world leader in the field of energy management solutions for industrial and commercial companies, government authorities and energy providers. Smappee represents his desire to apply his experience to the benefit consumers as well.

Smappee is based in Kortrijk, Belgium and its products are available via the e-shop: www.smappee.com

Press contact in UK

Blair Metcalfe
Ogilvy Public Relations
+44 207 309 1024
Blair.metcalfe@ogilvy.com

Due to European law-making, the sales of classic light bulbs has been prohibited and they have vanished from the stores. Do you still make use of classic light bulbs? Replace them with energy-saving light bulbs or LED-lamps in places which are lighted during long periods

Classic halogen bulbs are not energy-efficient. An ecological version of the halogen bulb has already been put on the market, using 30% less energy. But even more energy-efficient are the energy-saving bulbs (LED). Nowadays, they come in many formats. Their biggest advantage: they last long. So place them everywhere you often switch the lights on and off.

But after all, the best energy-saving tip we can give you remains: not using lights if not necessary. Even if they're LED.