Digi Helps E2America Reduce Customers’ Power Consumption

Wednesday, 22 June 2011 12:32

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Digi International today announced that Efficient Energy America (E2America) is using its iDigi Device Cloud, ConnectPort X4 gateways and XBee ZB ZigBee modules to wirelessly enable the E2 intelligent commercial building control system.  E2America’s Smart Grid efficiency technology currently reduces energy consumption and demand by optimizing HVAC efficiency, which saves customers approximately $7,000-$8,000 per site.

Dara O’Neill, E2America CEO, says, “We chose the Digi ConnectPort X4 gateway and iDigi Device Cloud as part of our solution to allow us to integrate additional applications in the future. iDigi simplifies system integration, deployment and management. Incorporating Digi’s ConnectPort X4 cellular gateways and ZigBee radios into our proprietary hardware allows for simple, low-cost installation and enables connectivity and intelligence. Because the system is connected in real-time, we are able to include multiple external factors such as humidity, radiant heat, external temperature and others to keep a building at the most suitable thermal comfort levels with the greatest efficiency.”

Typically, HVAC systems can account for more than 50 percent of the total energy used in a building.  After E2America installs its control interfaces on HVAC units, proprietary temperature, humidity, and occupancy sensors are then installed throughout a building. These devices are connected via XBee ZB modules to the ConnectPort X4 cellular gateway, which controls energy efficiency. Metrics are fed from the gateway to the iDigi Device Cloud over cellular networks where E2America monitors and control the system through a web-based user interface.

O’Neill adds: “Our fully automated, wireless system delivers cash-positive results from day one and ROI within 24 months. Digi has been a great company to work with during our development of this system. It has a deep understanding of the wireless controls market, and has provided valuable insight and support on adding our superior building logic to their devices.”

Digi International develops products and solutions to connect and manage local or remote electronic devices over the network or via the Web. For more information, visit www.digi.com