Multifamily landlords and residential homeowners looking for ways to shrink utility bills are turning to companies in the growing “cleanweb” sector that use a big data approach to identify energy-hogging buildings.
They’re partnering with companies such as WegoWise Inc. of Boston, which uses software to analyze apartment buildings’ utility bills and recommends cost-saving programs.
Unlike commercial properties, apartment buildings do not have a set of federal Energy Star ratings, so benchmarks for energy efficiency are hard to come by, WegoWise Chief Executive Andrew Chen said. Since its founding in 2010, WegoWise has built its own database of apartment building energy consumption, gathering statistics from more than 12,000 client properties.
“We’ve had great success in this market because we have the largest database in the multifamily sector,” Chen said.
WegoWise compares properties with each other on an apples-to-apples basis. Brick buildings are compared to brick, high rises to other high rises, and external factors such as weather are applied when calculating efficiency, Chen said.
Braintree-based Peabody Properties Inc. is saving $1 million a year on electricity bills after retrofitting more than 100 apartment buildings that it owns or manages on the East Coast, after reviewing WegoWise’s findings. In high rises, motion detectors were added to stairways and corridors previously lit 24 hours a day.
Michael Ferguson, Peabody’s vice president of facilities management and capital planning, said bookkeepers previously entered utility data into a spreadsheet. Peabody now receives up-to-date energy reports from WegoWise on a user-friendly web graphic, Ferguson said.
The next step for Peabody: installing new plumbing fixtures in 30 Massachusetts buildings that were identified as water wasters for a projected $180,000 in annual gas and water savings.
Cleanweb companies’ say they can offer a more affordable energy savings program because they usually don’t need to install any equipment on-site. All of the analysis is based upon the utility data. Landlords pay WegoWise a monthly subscription fee starting at $5 per building.
“There are six-figure hardware systems which tell you everything that is going on in your building,” Chen said. “All that stuff is out there. What’s missing is a portfolio-wide view. It’s not about knowing every detail about every building.”
WegoWise has raised nearly $5 million from Zipcar-backer Boston Community Capital, including $3 million in May, since 2010.
Last winter, it acquired Washington, D.C.-based Melon Power as part of a strategy to attract more commercial landlords as clients. Approximately a quarter of the 16,000 properties that WegoWise monitors are commercial or industrial. Melon Power helps commercial landlords apply for Energy Star designation.
Greater Boston has become a hub of cleanweb entrepreneurialism with dozens of startups in recent years.
After outgrowing its 5,000-square-foot space in the Fort Point Channel area, business incubator Greentown Labs opened a 24,000-square-foot lab space in Somerville in August. The center provides low-cost office and lab space to more than 25 entrepreneurs and startups.
Demand for cleanweb applications is expected to grow as more large cities require building owners to report energy consumption.
In May, Boston passed an ordinance requiring owners or large and medium buildings to report electricity and water usage to the city starting in 2014. The law will be phased in through 2017, when it will apply to all commercial buildings 35,000 square feet or larger and all apartment buildings with 35 or more units. New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. all have similar laws.
“Now as a building owner, you’re being required by the municipality to publish the energy data,” said Blake Burris, CEO of the Cleanweb Initiatives, a San Francisco-based trade group. “It motivates the owners to be in touch with the companies like WegoWise that offer these services. It’s kind of like the best thermostat.”
