In this article, we will review sensors that can show the load of electricity and detail it down to a burnt out light bulb. The idea was born out of marital disagreements, and now they want to buy our sensors in other countries of the world. Moreover, we did not stop there, and now we are releasing other products.

This is what our electricity sensors look like. They are simple and easy to install.

Smart Energy Monitor is an intelligent system for monitoring electricity and equipment operation. Sensors detail consumption, and the cloud platform analyzes the data and suggests setting the operating mode. The product reduces equipment downtime and helps save on electricity.

Why is this business?

Most of the company’s monthly expenses are energy bills. To build successful business processes, the owner needs to know where his money goes, control it and reduce costs.

The 24/7 sensor monitors electricity consumption, collects statistics on the consumption of individual electrical appliances, notifies the owner if employees have left something turned on, analyzes the load on the power grid and reports changes to responsible persons.

Why is it for people?

• Many do not understand where the round amounts in electricity bills come from. Almost always the cause is electrical appliances and the lights you left on.

Thanks to sensors, you can know exactly what you are paying for. The sensor monitors the consumption of electricity, notifies you if you left the lights or the TV on, and collects consumption statistics.

Now we sell them only to businesses, but very soon we will complete the power control algorithm for small household appliances and release the sensors for sale for home use.

And this is what the full range looks like.

How the idea came about: smart windows and electricity sensors
It all started in 2015. I am a professional athlete who gave 15 years of freestyle wrestling. When I came home after training, my body wanted a sobering-up station, and I was terribly hot. At night – just quiet horror. And my wife was cold! Therefore, before going to bed, we argued whether we would open the window at night or not.

In the end, I wanted the windows to open automatically at night. I did not find solutions on the market, so I turned to Evgeny, my friend, an excellent engineer. Together we developed a smart window – it monitors the air temperature, controls drafts, opens and closes by itself. My wife and I made peace, and with Evgeny we got the idea of our own business and production.

It was difficult to stop – following the window, we developed a temperature sensor, a leak sensor, a door sensor and an electricity sensor for smart home systems. Here we understand that we do not have enough money to enter the b2c market, to launch production and marketing. At that time, Zhenya was running retail stores: he was well acquainted with the technical problems of retail. Therefore, we decided that we would get to the business with our feet faster than we would burn borrowed money on advertising.

Of all the devices, we settled on an electricity sensor. We understood that the cost of electricity is a large part of the costs in business. It was necessary to make the sensor as simple, cheap and functional as possible so that people could use it in 5, 10, 15 years.

It remains only to do! We tested the hypotheses for six months and eventually settled on the minimum required functionality.

For example, we tested our sensor in a candy store and set the equipment to work. Thanks to the timely inclusion of a sign at dusk, the store increased traffic in the evening. Our other acquaintances, who own a fish shop, have a broken refrigerator, and they lost 200 thousand rubles overnight. We understand that our functionality is not enough. I need to tweak the sensor to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

We often leave the house and think: did I forget to turn off the iron? Thanks to the sensor, you can find out this miles from home. And if you really forgot, we will receive a notification: “Eugene, you forgot to turn off the iron. Switch off?”.

Moreover, it is economical – you do not need to hang the device on every outlet and buy expensive integrated electrical monitoring systems. We install the sensor in the shield and monitor everything through a personal account. There are no incomprehensible, boring graphs in it – the user sees only important parameters that show efficiency. Nothing extra.

Electricity sensors: why they are unique and how they work

Look: any electrical equipment – a kettle, a refrigerator or a TV – has its own “electronic imprint”. It’s like DNA. We collect these DNAs into one library, and then, using machine learning and mathematical algorithms, the sensor itself determines what needs to be turned off, where the light bulb burned out and which refrigerator it consumes as not in itself.

Why is our development unique? It turned out that there are two companies in the world that do something similar – Sense and Voltaware. Even before them, we have an advantage: their devices cannot turn devices on and off, but ours can. In addition, we are developing a mathematical algorithm with which we can detail the consumption of small household appliances. Now there is no one who does it qualitatively, clearly and understandably.

We are confident that with our devices we can influence the reduction of energy consumption in a way that will have an impact on the environment. Greta Thunberg will love it 🙂 And we already know that they can reduce energy consumption by up to 20%.

You will be able to see what works for you: whether the equipment is turned on, charging from the phone, iron, whether all diode bulbs are working properly. On a demo day at StartHub, we showed the capabilities of our sensors with a simple example. There were 3 light bulbs on the stand: we turned off one, and the sensor easily identified the burnt one and immediately reported it.