Tracking Energy Usage to Maximize Savings

Elevation, based in Austin, Texas, delivers smart energy solutions to benefit a homeowner’s family, wallet, and the planet. The business began as Curb Energy, with monitoring rooftop solar, and quickly expanded to include energy efficiency. In 2020, after acquiring Curb Energy, Elevation added smart energy monitoring technology to its portfolio, giving homeowners a complete solution (Figure 1).

“Curb is an energy monitoring solution that tells the homeowner how they’re using energy all over their house,” explained Bill Chatterjee, vice president of operations for Curb. “It’s not just energy monitoring; it’s also looking at the diagnostics and the health of the appliances that it’s monitoring.”

Curb Energy Monitoring devices use advanced technology, such as energy monitoring and reporting software, energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems, and renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, to help businesses achieve energy efficiency and cost savings. By providing real-time data and personalized notifications, these devices help users make informed decisions about their energy usage habits, potentially leading to significant energy and cost savings.

Chatterjee explained, “In the electrical panels, you have circuit breakers. We put a magnetic current transformer on that. This monitors not just the power, but lots of power characteristics, like harmonic distortion, voltage, and frequency. By looking at all of those things, we can see if the energy coming in is good, clean power, and how the appliances are using energy.” 

The Curb device collects the data from the home’s circuit breakers, and it sends it through a cell connection to the Elevation cloud. The homeowner can open an app, connect to the cloud, and easily see how much solar panels are generating or how much power devices in the home are consuming. 

For example, if an air conditioner’s refrigerant starts to leak, the air conditioner will need to run longer and longer to achieve the same temperature, but the homeowner won’t necessarily know about the problem. Curb presents the power consumption data in an easy-to-read graph. The homeowners can see exactly when and where problems are occurring, so they can take the necessary action to solve the problem. 

Challenge: Finding the right connectors involves more than just price

“One of the things that you go through when you’re designing a product is called component engineering, where you look at every component that you need to build this thing,” Chatterjee stated. “You pick the biggest things, like your processors, first. Then you buy all the other components that go around it, and you search the market to see who the leading players are.”

The previous generation of the Curb Energy Monitor used small pluggable screw terminal blocks. While they were inexpensive, the tools were small, and the screws were time-consuming to install. 

Eric Norwood, CTO of Elevation, said, “My initial perspective was, let’s just use inexpensive connectors. Let’s get something that’s cheap. And I quickly realized that price is not the only variable on which to evaluate connectors.”

According to Chatterjee, “When you’re an electrician out in the field in 110 degrees, and you have to screw in 36 points, it takes time.” 

Solution: Easy connections with Push-in Technology

For the newest generation of Curb Energy Monitoring, Elevation selected PCB terminal blocks with push-in technology, so the installer can insert two stripped wires with the push of a button. These connectors save space and provide economic value (Figure 2). 

The spring contact ensures that the wires are secure without the use of tools. Push-in technology reduces installation time by eliminating the need to use a tool to terminate. The technology also improves reliability by removing the torque spec requirement and continuous contact on the wire, even as the copper wire relaxes over time. Elevation also saved money by using a single, fixed push-in terminal block versus the pluggable screw terminal block used on a previous product.

To ensure the highest reliability, Elevation tests the components to military standards against many different conditions: temperature, dust, shock, vibration, humidity, elevation, and more. 

Chatterjee said, “We want to make sure the product lives for at least five to ten years, so we elevate the temperature to 225 in the chamber and run it for one to two years, which is far beyond the required thousand hours.” 

Results: Reaping the benefits of solar power and energy monitoring

“Ultimately, we found that price was not the most important thing, but it was really about finding the right connector that allowed our product to be installed faster and more reliably,” Eric said. 

“As we bring new products to market, we’ll need different types of connectors that allow us to lower the cost of our product or speed up the installation of our product,” Eric concluded. “Involving the right vendor during the prototype design of our product helps to empower us with the right materials and resources to make that a truly great product.”

Elevation estimates consumers can save up to 95 percent on their annual electricity costs when using the Curb Energy Monitoring system. With the right connectors and a strong support team, Elevation can keep installation fast and affordable for its customers so they can maximize savings and power their lives smarter.

Elevation | https://poweredbyelevation.com/