This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.
1. THE BEGINNING
This innovation came to life when…
Technical Director, David Hille, thought it would be great to be able to see how his solar system was performing without having to go outside every day and check his inverter.
There were already a few products in the market that had similar functionality but they were either very expensive ($700 to $3,000) or cheap and nasty. The expensive systems were not an option for your average household and the cheap versions were terrible – the interface was confusing and they didn’t work half the time.
2. WHAT & HOW
The purpose of this innovation is to…
Give you peace of mind and save you money. myWatt helps homeowners and businesses better understand and manage their solar generation (from solar PV systems) and their energy usage (from the electricity grid).
It does this by…
It does this by connecting to your solar inverter and switchboard. It retrieves data about your solar generation and energy use and saves the data to the ‘cloud’.
Data is presented via a web-based interface so the user can track the performance of their solar system. Alerts are sent (SMS, email, phone) if the system stops working or if energy patterns change significantly.
3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS
This innovation improves on what came before because…
Similar products are very expensive (unaffordable to the average person/company) or cheap and nasty (don’t work, break easily, terrible interface).
myWatt is a functional product that provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface, giving information to the user in a clear and attractive way, it is aimed at being affordable to homeowners and businesses – less than $150 for the unit.
Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…
- Protects your solar investment – alerts user if system is under-performing or turns off
- Helps manage electricity costs – alerts user if energy usage increases
- View data/reports in real-time from any internet device
- Low cost, affordable solution
4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In the past, this problem was solved by…
Current low-cost products have limited functionality and very basic, unattractive user interfaces. The products we have tested rarely work as advertised and some are difficult to connect or get working at all. A 24/7 monitoring service (which is available with myWatt) is rare – we only know of one other product introducing this service.
Its predecessors/competitors include…
SolarLog, SMA Sunny Portal, Growatt ShineVision and Wattson.
5. TARGET MARKET
It is made for…
Residential solar – over one million homes already have solar in Australia and a large percentage would have PV systems that are under performing.
Commercial solar market – energy monitoring will be extremely useful for businesses wanting to identify where/when/how they use their power – the first step to reducing electricity bills.
International market – monitoring is cloud based and could be provided worldwide. We are currently finalizing agreement with an inverter manufacturer to integrate myWatt into their product which is sold throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.
It is available for sale through…
Wholesale – Suntrix wholesale division, plus national distributors.
Retail – Suntrix retail division, plus national distributors.
Internationally – inverter manufacturers (incorporating myWatt into their product). We will also be looking for international distributors but haven’t got to this stage yet.
Our marketing strategy is to…
- Introduce at more energy/solar-related conferences this year
- Introduce to our own retail and wholesale customer base (over 4000 solar users)
- Introduce to our closed prospect list (over 9000 recipients)
- Send out op-eds and advertorials to related industry magazines
- Use argeted PR and marketing campaigns
Our soft launch was completed last year at the All Energy Conference.
Your Turn — VOTE!
The Readers’ Choice Index was created to provide an opportunity for Anthill readers to vote on SMART 100 applications, in one of three ways:
- Tweet it: Top left of each page (3 points)
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- Leave a Comment: Anonymous comments excluded (1 points)
We’ll use your vote to create the 2014 SMART 100 Readers’ Choice Index.
FINE PRINT
This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.
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