
Resideo buys thermodynamic modelling tech for smart homes
The technology creates a thermodynamic model of a home to accurately predict home heating and air conditioning run time and energy use to enable homeowners to use less energy.
“Whisker Labs has been a great partner for us, and adding this capability is yet another example of our commitment to compelling growth opportunities that strengthen and complement our smart-home offerings through the use of intelligent data,” said Mike Nefkens, president and CEO of Resideo. “With our presence in 150 million homes and unparalleled channel of 110,000 professional contractors, we are in a prime position to deploy this technology at the next level, making our smart-home products even smarter while saving homeowners money on their energy bills.”
This is the second acquisition by $4.8bn Resideo since it became a standalone, publicly traded company after the spinoff from Honeywell in October 2018. The thermodynamic modelling technology from Whisper sits alongside Resideo’s connected thermostats such as the Honeywell Home T-Series Smart Thermostats which use wireless smart-room sensors. Resideo will look to strategically integrate the energy efficiency technology into the company’s smart-home comfort offerings.
San Francisco-based Whisper Labs is continuing with various other technology developments, such as an AI-based electrical network monitor called Ting. This monitors a home’s entire electrical network looking for the precursors to electrical fires, micro-arcs and sparks that develop over time in cords and wires.
Plugging Ting into any outlet in a home and pairing to WiFi, the service measures electromagnetic data from the home’s electrical network to look for arcs and sparks occurring in any part of the home. Whisker Labs’ expertise in electromagnetic sensing, signal processing and machine learning enables the company’s platform to efficiently detect these possible fire hazards.
The system also monitors power quality in the home. Fluctuations in power quality, such as changes in voltage or line frequency, can cause damage to devices and appliances which often requires a full replacement of the appliance. Ting will continuously monitor power quality to the home, and provide real-time visibility through both the enterprise dashboard and an app.
www.resideo.com; www.whisperlabs.com
Related stories:
