OutSmart Power Systems secured $1.5 million in new funding from private venture investors to support continued commercialization of its technology for monitoring electrical usage at the circuit.
OutSmart deploys sensors, dubbed EnergyMates, which extract electricity usage information from a building’s circuitry and communicate it to a central location, or load master. The data is then sent to the cloud and made accessible via the Internet.
Kevin Johnson, CEO and founder of OutSmart, said there are a lot of players in the energy management business who use sensors to monitor things such as temperature, humidity and carbon emissions. However, installing submeters to measure and analyze electricity in greater detail is very expensive.
Rather than installing submeters, OutSmart’s patent-pending EnergyMate sensors can be connected wherever wires exist, such as at a main distribution panel, motor control panel or sub panel. Electrical data is collected at a hub and then sent to the cloud where it can be monitored and analyzed to evaluate specific equipment and facility performance. OutSmart can be used to verify energy improvements, identify areas of waste, and help predict faulty or failing equipment.
The company is targeting high-energy-density buildings such as grocery stores and other food processing and distribution facilities, as well as laboratory/pharmaceutical facilities and data centers.
“We focus on owner-occupied buildings that use lots of energy at lots of points,” said Johnson. “Because of the high energy density, the ROI becomes much more compelling.”
With the latest round of funding, OutSmart has now raised over $9 million since its founding in 2008.