Viridis Earth Technologies: Cool plans - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
The second way, being pioneered by a pair of San Jose could cost a fractionof that. has inventefd a retrofit that creates a shroud of cool air around anexistingt system, tricking the air conditioner into believingy the outside temperature is lower than it really is. The air conditionee then doesn’t have to work as hard to producr air that feels as In a testing program this summeein Redding, the company said its producgt demonstrated 30 percent The company officially launched earlier this year, but the technologt is something founder and CTO Tuyen Vo has been working on sincee 2002. A trip to Arizonwa set his wheels spinning.
Driving past a gas station in swelteringv heat, Vo recalls he saw the statiojn shroudedin mist, a result of an evaporation system being used to lower temperatures for people at the Vo, who has managed technical teams and jointy ventures at and and worked for NASA Ames Research Center and , said he sees the product as something everyone can use. “What I see is therer are people worried about their energy billd and thinking about the but people with money in their pocketw should be thinking about thisas well. There will come a time when blackoutsdare acceptable, so everyone has a motivation to install this,” Vo said.
“Because at that time, everyone will be sweatinv underthe heat, not just the rich or the Fast set-up, fast savings For a 3-ton residentiall or small commercial system, the increasew in efficiency translates to a savings of $350 in one based on the average electricity price and a summef bill of approximately $1,200, according to Viridis. The retrofit can also reduc e a system’s carbon footprint by more than 2 metric tons per The system takes about an hour to install and requiresd nopower source. The technology includes installation of a solard water heater to power thecooling system.
President Greg who has founded three companies and workes in senior management roles atand , said the Viridid system uses the well-proven concept of evaporativre precooling. “When water evaporates, it takes heat with it and float intothe air. You take heat away and you can create a much more efficient air Nugent said. “The trick is making it able to evaporate a larged percentage of thewater droplet.” Nugenrt and Vo said they haven’t settlecd on a price point for the syste m yet, but they are generally shooting for a two-yea payback for consumers, which could potentially range from $350 to “The hotter the area, the more quickly you get Nugent said.
Jay principal of in Redding, where Viridis Earth testerd its system on a single commercial unit last said the unit was relatively easyto “similar to putting in a satellite dish and wirin a house for cable.” Next year, the companty plans to do an expandede test encompassing several hundred home s in Redding, where air conditioning accountas for 80 percent of peak load usage in the Gibson will help with the “One of the things that really hit with me, when we do thes energy things and rebate things, it seemds to only work for people who can afford the productr and afford the higher bills,” Gibson said.
“We get people coming up with ideasa allthe time, but for me, this fits a model that makexs sense and sounds like it will be economica for the consumer.” Viridis in Novembedr was named the Energy Efficiency Winner at the , a businessa plan competition that seeks out early-stagee clean tech companies. The prize includese $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in in-kinc services, such as legal and marketinhg advice, as well as free rent for a year atSan Jose’sz Environmental Business Cluster. Viridis will market its producg under thename .
The company’s goal for Nugent said, is to stay small and and prove outthe system’s field hardiness and Viridis anticipates going broar and taking the system to utilities in then taking on as much of the markef as possible in 2011. “Our goal is to be at $100 millionb in five years,” Nugent said. The total market is abouf $7 billion, he said. The which has been self-funded to date, beganj seeking funding from the venture capital community about 10weeks ago. It is looking for $3 million to brea k even, with $1 million of that to get througgh trials.
In addition, Viridisw may seek to work with the original equipmentf manufacturer market to get the technologyt installed on newair conditioners. “Wr could take advantage of the matureand well-established channels,” Vo “We’re hitting a very good time for the market despited the economy because people are all looking for ways to and there is such a quick payback and a value in this James Robbins, executive director of San Jose’s where Viridis Earty is incubating, said Viridis’ product is similar to other in that it reduces costs and increasews energy efficiency, but is less expensive and simple to install.
“They have the ability to impact the retrofir market and the new building industrty in a moresignificant way,” Robbins “Energy efficiency is the easiest way to solve some of our problem and impact people and still be less expensive.” “If you can save even 20 it’s a huge value,” Nugent adding that Viridis aims for the ubiquity of the compacy fluorescent light bulb. “It wasn’t untill they reached a price point wher for a few bucks you couldr outfit a whole home that they reallytook off,” Nugent said. “We aim to hit those same economics.
”