Vallejo, Calif. AND Redwood City, Calif. – April 2, 2014 – The Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA) today announced that EcoFactor has joined the organization’s Board of Directors. EcoFactor CMO Ted Fagenson will provide insight for and participate in PLMA activities that include twice yearly conferences, monthly webinars and other industry resources and activities.

“Utilities are increasingly adding new solutions and programs such as energy efficiency to their core residential demand response programs. We have a great opportunity at PLMA to share our experiences and unique approach to residential demand response and learn from the larger community of practitioners,” said Ted Fagenson, CMO at EcoFactor.

“It’s exciting to have EcoFactor among the over 50 other thought-leading organizations that make PLMA the voice of the demand response practitioners,” said Paul Tyno, PLMA Chair.  “We value having them engaged in our ongoing activities. In fact, EcoFactor has already been a significant contributor to PLMA through their recent participation in a DR Dialogue web event with NV Energy that attracted over 200 registrants.”

EcoFactor provides the leading cloud-based solution for residential energy services offering maximum savings, comfort and convenience to consumers. As the only integrated demand response and energy efficiency service, EcoFactor provides consumer-friendly demand response that delivers 25 percent greater load shed than other demand response programs today as referenced in NV Energy’s mPowered program.

Resources:

• PLMA Demand Response Dialogue: Integrating Demand Response with Energy Efficiency Goals
• EcoFactor Data Sheet:  Optimized Demand Response Service

About EcoFactor:

EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently predict and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners.  Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures.  Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners, Aster Capital and NRG Energy, Inc. For more information: www.ecofactor.com.

About PLMA:

Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 as the national voice of demand response. It is a community of experts and practitioners dedicated to sharing knowledge, education and providing resources and expertise to advance the demand response marketplace.  PLMA members represent a broad range of energy professionals and industries – private and publicly owned utilities, technology companies, energy providers, curtailment service providers, meter and equipment suppliers, system integrators, research organizations, consultants, and consumers. Learn more at www.peaklma.org.

Media Contacts:

For PLMA:  Ed Thomas, Executive Director; (707) 652-5333; ethomas@peaklma.org

For EcoFactor: Mary Placido, PR Manager; (415) 623-9006; mary.placido@ecofactor.com

Consumers can save thousands on repairs and energy costs by identifying HVAC system malfunctions early
 

Redwood City, Calif. — January 23, 2014 — EcoFactor, the leader in cloud-based home energy services, formally announced the launch of its HVAC Performance Monitoring (HPM) service after completion of a successful HVAC trial evaluating thousands of homes. Using patented cloud-based analytics algorithms and pattern recognition, the service remotely detects, analyzes and notifies consumers of HVAC performance issues. This early warning service is delivered through EcoFactor’s SaaS energy analytics platform and expands the company’s current offerings, which include residential energy efficiency and demand response. HPM can deliver real energy efficiency savings on top of the 10–15 percent savings already achieved through EcoFactor’s patented automation service.

The results of the trial support the widely-held belief in the HVAC industry that millions of American homes have problems with their heating and cooling systems that go undetected – problems that represent big opportunities to save both energy and money. More significant was the finding that many of these issues can be accurately recognized through data analytics. EcoFactor discovered that six percent of all households in the trial had HVAC system problems that wasted energy and often compromised comfort as well. Furthermore, 68 percent of consumers who experienced issues were unaware that there was a problem. Many of the issues uncovered by EcoFactor’s HPM service would likely have resulted in catastrophic equipment failure possibly costing thousands of dollars to fix if left untreated.

“HVAC dealers will line up for this service because it enhances the value of their HVAC service contracts and lowers customer acquisition costs. In addition, keeping a product running at peak efficiency over its lifetime provides pervasive savings, making it ideally suited for utility energy efficiency incentives.  Many utilities are in the process of integrating fault detection into their energy efficiency programs,” says Tom Kerber, Director of Research at Parks Associates.

The mandatory inclusion of Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD) in commercial roof top HVAC systems in building codes such as California’s Title 24, effective July 2014, will alter the HVAC industry. The ability to diagnose faults with remote analytics will be a powerful alternative to expensive hardware solutions.

HPM key features and benefits:

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

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

– Customer support tools – Extensive customer support tools that can integrate with current energy audit programs and help increase customer engagement and satisfaction.

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

HPM trial results:

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

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

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

“Until now, the smartest device in a connected home was a basic learning thermostat that adjusted itself to be more energy efficient when the consumer is not home,” said Scott Hublou, co-founder and senior vice president of product operations at EcoFactor. “With the addition of this early warning service to our award-winning learning capabilities, we have raised the bar and accelerated the move from a connected home to a true smart home. We’re excited to deliver HVAC performance monitoring in addition to proactive energy efficiency and demand response services in one platform.”

Resources

• Data Sheet: Predictive HVAC Performance Monitoring Service
• White Paper: Residential Energy Savings Through Data Analytics

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About EcoFactor

EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently predict and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners.  Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures.  Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster capital. www.ecofactor.com.

Media Contact:

Mary Placido
EcoFactor
mary.placido@ecofactor.com

Redwood City, Calif. — October 31, 2013 — EcoFactor®, the leader in cloud-based home energy services, today announced the appointment of Steve Smith as vice president of sales. Smith comes to EcoFactor with more than 20 years of experience in the utility and energy industries. He will lead the sales team and oversee strategic accounts at EcoFactor to grow its base of utility providers and energy retailers.

“Steve brings in years of industry and business development experience and is a wonderful addition to EcoFactor,” said Roy Johnson, CEO of EcoFactor. “We are excited to have him on board as we move into our next stage of growth and expansion.”

Prior to joining EcoFactor, Smith was sales and marketing director at Honeywell Utility Solutions, where he built and led a team that sold more than $1 billion of demand response, energy efficiency and smart grid solutions. He is a frequent conference speaker and a leading expert in residential demand response. Smith holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a BSEE from the University of New Hampshire.

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About EcoFactor

EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently predict and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners.  Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures.  Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster capital. www.ecofactor.com.

Media Contact:

Mary Placido
EcoFactor
+ 1 (415) 218-3627
mary.placido@ecofactor.com

New patent leverages the mobile device to further improve automated energy savings

Redwood City, Calif. — October 30, 2013 — EcoFactor®, the leader in cloud-based home energy services, was awarded a United States patent (No. 8,556,188) for the use of geolocation data from smart phones and other mobile devices to optimize home energy management services. This is the 14th patent for EcoFactor, boosting its patent portfolio in the residential energy management sector.

The patented technology will enable EcoFactor to add significant new capabilities to its award-winning service. It covers a unique method for using location-based information, such as whether a consumer is on their way home, to optimize the temperature in the home for comfort to coincide with arrival, or to move to a more energy efficient setting when driving away – all without requiring the consumer to remember to change settings.

“We believe the winning energy management system will be the one that does the best job of seamlessly adapting to people’s lives and preferences without requiring them to constantly make adjustments to their thermostats,” said John Steinberg, executive vice president and co-founder at EcoFactor. “Soon geolocation data from mobile devices will help increase both savings and user comfort while letting consumers get on with their lives.”

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About EcoFactor

EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently predict and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners.  Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures.  Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster capital. www.ecofactor.com.

Media Contact:

Mary Placido
EcoFactor

mary.placido@ecofactor.com

Redwood City, Calif. — October 15, 2013 — EcoFactor, the leader in cloud-based home energy services, announced today that it has closed $10 million in its Series B financing round with NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) as a new investor joining Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners, and Aster Capital. The investment will go towards the development of new services, enhancing EcoFactor’s award-winning home energy service, and expanding its engineering and sales staff.

According to the latest Home Energy Management Systems report by Greentech Media (GTM) Research, the 2013 market is valued at $1.5 billion annually with significant growth expected in the coming years from both the utility and non-utility solutions sectors to more than $4 billion by 2017.  The report also identified EcoFactor as a top player in both markets providing high intelligence and automation to energy efficiency and demand response programs.

A range of utilities and cable companies in the U.S. are working with EcoFactor, most notably NV Energy and Comcast. In late 2012, NV Energy began mass deployment of EcoFactor’s integrated demand response and energy efficiency service under the mPowered program, which achieved as much as 3KW load shed per home and double digit HVAC energy savings. EcoFactor’s energy efficiency service is also part of the Xfinity Home platform by Comcast. The EcoFactor service is available to Xfinity Home customers nationwide under the name EcoSaver which launched earlier this year.

“We’re honored to have the support coming from previous investors and NRG, and proud of the progress EcoFactor has made over the last two years,” said EcoFactor CEO Roy Johnson. “We’ve hit several key milestones in our company’s growth, particularly deploying scalable demand response and energy efficiency services to several large partners. We anticipate a number of new partner and product announcements in the coming months.”

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About EcoFactor

EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently predict and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners.  Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures.  Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster capital. www.ecofactor.com.
About Claremont Creek Ventures

Claremont Creek Ventures (CCV) is a seed and early stage venture firm that invests in companies that serve essential, broad-impact industries – including healthcare and energy – with digital solutions that increase operational efficiency to create high-growth, high-margin businesses. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and institutions, including UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Labs, and Stanford University and UC Davis. CCV has more than $300 million under management in two funds and is located in Oakland California. For more information visit www.claremontcreek.com.

About RockPort Capital

RockPort Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm that invests in the areas of alternative and traditional energy, mobility, and sustainability.  For more than a decade RockPort has partnered with entrepreneurs to foster growth and create value in a broad range of industrial and consumer facing companies whose technologies and products provide innovative solutions to significant worldwide markets.  RockPort has a collaborative approach to investing, deep domain expertise, and insights into all aspects of energy and cleantech. With offices in Boston and Menlo Park, RockPort is globally recognized as being among the largest and most established energy-focused venture capital firms. For more information visit www.rockportcap.com. Follow us on Twitter at @RockPortCapital

About Aster Capital

Aster Capital is a leading clean technology focused venture capital firm sponsored by Schneider

Electric, Alstom, Solvay and the European Investment Fund, global leaders in the energy and chemicals industries who have jointly invested in Aster’s second $130 million investment fund. With a total of $200 million under management, Aster aims to proactively leverage the expertise of these sponsors to support its portfolio companies in their further development. http://www.aster.com

EcoFactor Media Contact:

Mary Placido
EcoFactor
+ 1 (415) 218-3627
mary.placido@ecofactor.com

Supporting Quotes:

Claremont Creek Ventures

“We are pleased to support EcoFactor in this new round of funding and as a leader in home energy management solutions, we’re excited to see what new services and enhancements will come next,” said Nat Goldhaber, managing director at Claremont Creek Ventures.

RockPort Capital

“EcoFactor brings scalability and automation to home energy services which are becoming important requirements for energy efficiency and demand response programs,” said Abe Yokell, partner at RockPort Capital. “We see a tremendous growth potential in EcoFactor’s services and are excited to continue our partnership with this talented team.”

Aster Capital

“EcoFactor has demonstrated enormous traction with major service deployments,” said Todd Dauphinais, partner at Aster Capital. “It’s patented cloud-based service is being implemented by utilities, service providers and energy retailers to deploy multiple home energy programs on a single platform while increasing consumer convenience. It’s an approach that sets EcoFactor apart among many home energy management solutions.”

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF., September 24, 2013 —

WHAT: EcoFactor CEO Roy Johnson will present at SXSW Eco panel session, The Soft Grid: Next-Gen Electric Power, on October 8, 2013 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. The panel session will discuss the evolution of smart grid infrastructure and how new energy data and intelligent analytics will support a distributed, green energy future.

WHO: Roy Johnson is CEO at EcoFactor and joined the company in 2011 after spending four years as CEO at Calisolar, Inc., a vertically integrated manufacturer of solar silicon, wafers and high-performance cells. Prior to his time at Calisolar, Johnson was CEO of Redline Networks. Johnson also held the post of vice president of marketing and business development at 2Wire and spent 13 years at 3Com Corporation. He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College.

WHEN:  Tuesday, October 8, 2013 from 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Central Time

WHERE: SXSW Eco
Austin Convention Center – MR 9AB
500 East Cesar Chavez Street
Austin, TX 78701
#sxsweco

About EcoFactor
EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently optimize and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners. Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures. Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster capital. www.ecofactor.com.

EcoFactor Media Contact:
Mary Placido
EcoFactor
mary.placido@ecofactor.com

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF., September 19, 2013 —

WHAT: EcoFactor will present at Greentech Media’s Soft Grid 2013, a conference focused on how the utility industry is moving from data collection to actionable application, on October 1-2, 2013 at the PG&E Auditorium in San Francisco.
EcoFactor CEO Roy Johnson joins panel session, Developing the Business Case for Big Data and
Analytics for a Modern Grid, which will discuss utility analytics applications and opportunities for big data, analytics, and cloud-based infrastructure and services as applied to current and future distribution grid investments.

WHO: Roy Johnson is CEO at EcoFactor and joined the company in 2011 after spending four years as CEO at Calisolar, Inc., a vertically integrated manufacturer of solar silicon, wafers and high-performance cells.
Prior to his time at Calisolar, Johnson was CEO of Redline Networks. Previously Johnson also held the post of vice president of marketing and business development at 2Wire and spent 13 years at 3Com Corporation. He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College.

WHEN:   Tuesday, October 1, 2013 from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time

WHERE:  PG&E Auditorium
77 Beale St.
San Francisco, CA 94105-1814
#SoftGrid

About EcoFactor
EcoFactor’s cloud-based analytics platform unlocks the value of residential data to intelligently optimize and automate energy savings for consumers. Patented software analyzes data from various sources such as network connected thermostats, weather data, and consumer interactions, and applies optimization algorithms tailored to the unique characteristics of individual homes and of homeowners. Our residential energy services achieve maximum demand response load shed, delivers superior energy efficiency savings, and detects and prevents HVAC failures. Our services are purchased by consumers through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster capital. www.ecofactor.com.

EcoFactor Media Contact:
Mary Placido
EcoFactor
mary.placido@ecofactor.com

REDWOOD CITY, CA – June18, 2013 – EcoFactor, the leader in cloud-based home energy services, has launched a new version of its award-winning energy efficiency service as part of the Xfinity Home platform by Comcast. The EcoFactor service is now available to Xfinity Home customers under the name EcoSaver.

EcoFactor provides a “smart home” solution that learns the unique heating and cooling patterns of a home and makes automatic and incremental adjustments to the thermostat based on real-time weather data, the thermal characteristics of the house and the temperature preferences of the occupants. Over time, the system adapts to user inputs to help reduce energy while keeping the home comfortable.

“With EcoFactor, we saw an opportunity to bring new and exciting technologies to our customers through an automatic energy management solution that works in real-time,” said Mitch Bowling, Senior Vice President and General Manager of New Businesses for Comcast Cable.

Leveraging cloud computing and a Hadoop infrastructure, EcoFactor delivers value through its predictive analytics and optimization algorithms, making subtle, automatic adjustments to the thermostat.

“Our team has worked extremely hard to produce a highly effective solution that delivers energy savings transparently to consumers,” said Roy Johnson, CEO of EcoFactor. “The launch of EcoSaver throughout Comcast’s service territory shows that energy saving services have gone mainstream.”

About EcoFactor
EcoFactor powers residential energy savings through its integrated demand side management SaaS platform. Its patented big data analytics and predictive algorithms generate double digit energy efficiency gains and markedly higher demand response load sheds. EcoFactor’s software incorporates time varying data sets including a home’s thermodynamics, family comfort preferences and local weather conditions, into sophisticated learning algorithms. This benefits the consumer by automating the adjustments of the thermostat and saving hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs. EcoFactor delivers its services through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Based in Redwood City, California, EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster Capital.

Contact Information:
Ted Fagenson
EcoFactor
ted.fagenson@ecofactor.com
+1 (650) 716-4760 Ext. 1011

REDWOOD CITY, CA – Jan. 28, 2013 – EcoFactor®, the leader in predictive cloud-based services for home energy management, will be deployed as part of a comprehensive 15,000 home National Grid smart grid pilot program. The National Grid pilot is focused on helping participants save energy by giving them better control over their usage.

The pilot includes communicating thermostats that will be optimized by EcoFactor’s big data analytics and predictive cloud-based software for demand response (DR) and energy efficiency. EcoFactor’s patented approach to DR events includes pre-cooling strategies individualized for each home. By banking cool air ahead of high demand periods, EcoFactor maximizes the load shed while maintaining high levels of occupant comfort.

“We are excited to have EcoFactor on board as we move forward in delivering exceptional benefits for customers as part of the pilot,” said Cheri Warren, vice president, Asset Management for National Grid.
“EcoFactor brings to the table expertise in cloud-based services that will help facilitate in-home
solutions for pilot participants.”

EcoFactor will track energy savings throughout the pilot and provide National Grid with a series of reports that accurately measure results. Reports will include the exact run time of the HVAC units in each home, and the details of specific DR events, such as customer usage options.

“We are very pleased to be a recognized member of National Grid’s important new pilot program,” said Roy Johnson, CEO of EcoFactor. “EcoFactor’s open architecture is hardware agnostic, allowing for easy integration that is both proven and secure, through solutions such as Ceiva, for in-home connectivity.”

The pilot will test and deliver the energy system of the future to more than 15,000 National Grid customers in Worchester, Mass., and will be in full deployment in early 2014.

About EcoFactor
EcoFactor powers residential energy saving services through its integrated SaaS platform. Its patented big-data analytics and predictive algorithms generate double digit energy efficiency gains and markedly higher demand response yields. EcoFactor’s software incorporates massive amounts of data, including a home’s thermodynamics, family comfort preferences and local weather conditions, into machine learning algorithms. This provides optimal savings while maintaining the household lifestyle — both critical components to ensuring consumer adoption. EcoFactor sells its SaaS services through channel partners including Comcast, Reliant Energy, NV Energy, SMUD and National Grid. Based in Redwood City, Calif., EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Aster Capital.

Contact Information:
Judy Erkanat
EcoFactor
Judy.Erkanat@ecofactor.com
+1 (650) 716-4760 Ext. 1028