Switchee has won the 2017 Impax Ashden Award for Energy Innovation. Switchee’s smart thermostat, designed specifically for the social housing sector, is intended to cut fuel bills for tenants and help housing providers to maintain the quality of their stock.
The Ashden Awards are given to pioneers in sustainable energy and are a globally recognised measure of excellence.
Adam Fudakowski, CEO, Switchee, said, “We’re absolutely thrilled to have won the Ashden Award. To be recognised by such an established sustainability champion is huge for us. We are passionate about saving residents money and giving landlords the insights they need to make better energy efficiency improvements to their housing stock.”
Ian Simm, chief executive, Impax Asset Management and sponsor of the energy innovation award for the past five years, said, “Switchee provides social housing providers with an innovative tool to monitor and maintain their housing stock, while ensuring the comfort of their tenants and reduced energy bills. This is a sophisticated integration of the very latest technologies, all wrapped up in one simple package – a smart thermostat.”
By gathering data on temperature, humidity, light levels, motion and air pressure, Switchee thermostats can learn a household’s weekly routine. They use this data to anticipate when the house will be empty and automatically turn the heating off when no one’s home, turning it back on again when it knows the house will be occupied.
Switchee not only helps cut energy use, its dashboard also provides housing providers with data insights that indicate the performance of their housing stock. Data from Switchee is used to rank properties by a range of performance and welfare indicators, including insulation quality, mould risk and fuel poverty risk. Switchee can detect homes that are slow to heat, too quick to cool, or are at risk of mould growth. These insights prompt landlords to make proactive maintenance improvements such as boiler upgrades, mould washes or fitting insulation.
