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Enviroscape by BreezePlay - Making your home much smarter

Enviroscape Dashboard

Enviroscape Dashboard

***Update - 2/10/11 - I was re-reading this post, and when I clicked on the links to Breezeplay, none of them were active. Looks like this company is out of business!

My dad called yesterday and said one of his investment letters was recommending a company called BreezePlay.  After I added them to the complete list of energy monitoring companies I did some research and was happy with their offering.   While it looks like they have a commercial offering as well, I'm just going to briefly go over Breezeplay's EnviroScape for residential settings.  Once you get past the intro (that looks and sounds like a lower-budget Prius commercial) you see a tagline that pretty much speaks to the goal of Mapawatt Blog:

Breezeplay develops innovative ways to leverage technology for the purpose of making homes and business more convenient and energy efficient.  With unique products and services, our customers can affect energy conservation with reporting and control tools that save money and the planet.

If you get an EnviroScape residential energy management solution from Breezeplay you get the following:

  • One touch panel
  • One residential energy meter
  • Two 100 amp current transformers (CT’s)
  • One power-over-Ethernet (POE) adapter
  • One power transformer

They also say that other option devices (thermostats, lighting control kits, etc) are available as add-ons for the core product.  Since I have an Ecobee smart thermostat that I can control over the internet, I'd like to learn more about how Breezeplay accomplishes this and how much detail they give on the thermostat.  It would be nice to have the energy monitor and thermostat in one location, so you can directly see the relationship between your home's air conditioning system and energy consumption.  But while they mention control in one section of the site, they also note in their FAQs that:

Does BreezePlay have the ability to access and control devices connected to my touch panel? No, BreezePlay does not have control of any devices attached to the EnviroScape touch panel. The only circumstances where a device is controlled outside the home would be when the user accesses their panel via the consumer web interface, or if the touch panel is installed by a utility as part of an energy demand management program (which requires authorization from the customer).

It looks like part of their plan will be to team with Utilities to offer their solution.  In the picture at the top of the post, they have an example message from Duke Energy regarding Peak Demand and suggesting that users be aware of how much energy they are using during this time as it will cost more.  (**as an aside, I worked as an Intern in a Duke Power nuclear plant. It was a very cool experience).

I'm not sure if the product is available to buy now or how much it costs.  I did see that they were nominated for 2009 Sustainable NC awards and on that page I noticed that they stated the following, which would lead me to believe they are targeting communities as opposed to individuals:

BreezePlay currently has 13 communities/municipalities under contract to initiate pilot programs/studies of the EnviroScape Energy Management system and/or the Green Community Program.

We have also partnered with the University of Southern California's renowned Energy Institute to study the effect of Energy Management technology and efficiency programs on consumers' energy usage choices and behavior.

I'll keep my eye on this company as they look promising.  Has anyone out there tried any of BreezePlay's products?

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Comments

Breezeplay is interesting company. I appreciate their efforts in conserving energy, which is a must in these days, especially at home and public places. People have become lazy and encourage lavish products and are getting carried away. old products are scrapped at low price and new products are encouraged at higher value. To preserve our main energy "MONEY and effort", we rely on china for sources. Ever country the garbage gives you more technology and reduce cost. Every energy saved is every money saved.
ckmapawatt's picture
I don't think they are around anymore?
If you do your homework on Breezeplay you will find that they first failed as Citadel LLC and have merely assumed a alternate identity. Aside from their poor choice to pull out of the Texas market, they also left their entire workforce uncompensated and unpaid for the latter 4 months of employment. I would second guess a company that willingly breaks workforce laws to relocate and resurrect themselves as a profitable facade in the face of economic downturn, hurting dozens of employees with layoffs.
Yes you can cancel .. so they say. 9.95 is suppose to be for controling the thermostat too. This was just me talking to someone at Breezeplay over the phone. He said no contracts. I just don't trust it. Really wish I could find someone that had this installed.
Well, if there are no contracts you don't have that much to lose. I would be happy to pay for a month of your service if you were able to write a blog for us on your experience with BreezePlay :)
I would like feedback on Breezeplay. I offered to do their trial on this for free but am still very nervous about it. My electric company offered this to customers. They come this week to install! After the trial period which I think is 6 months I will be charged $9.95 a month for updates. How many updates does it need in a month? Anyway, I would like to know if anyone has had this installed and is it worth it?
Is there any way to cancel the $9.95/month if you decide you dont like the service? Also, do they include a listing of what this $9.95 a month is going to offer? Is it just energy monitoring, or will you also be able to control outlets and your thermostat?
I was unfortunate enough to have been duped into participating in one of Breezeplay's Enviroscape trial projects. The system is completely unreliable and is surely not worth the cost or aggravation of dealing with the incompetent customer support. If you're looking at purchasing a home energy monitoring device, go with TED, if you want automation, be prepared to spend some cash or wait until Q1 2010 when a variety of products will be coming online that actually work!
Stephen, I dont see any record of this on Google. Do you have any links mentioning Citadel LLC?
I am the VP of marketing for BreezePlay and we really appreciate your input and evaluation of our EnviroScape Energy Management System. I wanted to clarify a few points - the EnviroScape system does control devices in the home; currently thermostats, with market release over the next 3 months for electric water heaters, lighting systems, IP appliances, and any other IP enabled power devices. The section from the FAQs that you cite is addressing the question of whether BREEZEPLAY - the company; not the EnviroScape (the system) - can access and control devices in customers' homes. We want to make sure customers understand that we will not, and cannot legally, control devices in their homes. There have been past pilot programs with some utilities in which the utility had agreements with their customers to remotely access and turn off water heaters, for example, during peak demand periods. For the most part, those programs were not always popular - there's a lot of room for error, and people don't like cold showers. It's a little "Big Brother" for most people. The EnviroScape allows customers to access their systems via an in-wall touchscreen, online customer portal, and web-enabled mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) The system also allows users to set savings goals and to receive alerts when usage is exceeding the range to meet the set goals, or if irregular usage occurs (large spikes or drops.) There is a vast amount on functionality the system offers that makes it fun and easy to use. You are correct that we are currently distributing systems through utility and municipality partners, and are integrating community action programs to help educate people and motivate collective efforts to benefit neighborhoods and communities as a whole. We will be updating our website to reflect more details on our community programs after the conclusion of the current pilot programs. Finally - we won the Sustainable NC Business Council Awards last night in the "Innovation" category - we are thrilled with the considerable honor! Feel free to contact me with any questions or if I can provide more information.

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