Smart thermostat èvolution

Project Information

SMARTHE

Grant agreement ID: 733426

DOI

10.3030/733426

Project terminated on 10 April 2019

EC signature date 25 July 2016

Start date 1 August 2016

End date 30 April 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 691 087,50

EU contribution

€ 1 183 761,25

Coordinated by

QIVIVO
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SMARTHE (Smart thermostat èvolution)

Reporting period: 2017-04-01 to 2017-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Smarthé is a project presented by Qivivo, a French start-up company based in Nantes devoted to the design of smart thermostats to accelerate the energetic transition and reach the energy efficiency objectives.
Smarthé is the first smart thermostat in the market working completely autonomous and managing the heating by optimizing the comfort perceived by inhabitants as a whole. Our pilot tests done in public buildings have reported savings up to 200€/household per year. For a country like France, with almost 5 million of social apartments, this represents a return of €1 billion of purchasing power.
Since Qivivo received the positive result of their project, they have updated the technical tasks by incorporating the most-recent market demands and revised the business plan for the following years. The most relevant outputs that have been executed are:
• Development of new products to incorporate a multizoned management for central boiler, and the corresponding solution for electric heating
• Boost our presence in the public housing sector by implementing specific solutions for this collective
• Internationalization strategy: an experienced business developer with several connections in Europe has joined our team and is already working in the field in establishing the necessary network of stakeholders to deploy Smarthé.
Smarthé project is already supported by different companies in the entire value chain: Lacroix Electronics (manufacturer), Saint Gobain (shareholder and enabler of the internationalization thanks to their subsidiaries in UK and Sweden), Chappée (heating system manufacturers and distributors), Nantes Habitat and Maine & Loire Habitat (public housing entities).
Smarthé represents an innovative tool in the sector of smart thermostats whose efficiency has been contrasted with our partners Podeliha and Nantes Habitat, independent real estate consultants operating in France.
Thanks to Qivivo thermostat each home can become an active actor against global warming, with a thermostat that allows not only to optimize the perceived comfort but also to reduce the energy bill up to 40%.
With a more natural interaction, we move towards objects that maximize the benefits of connectivity, but integrate the human factor through real consideration of the comfort of the end user. Heating is finally adapted to the needs of people, combining improved comfort and reduction of the bill, avoiding waste of energy and respecting also the environment.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Smarthé is the natural evolution of Qivivo’s current thermostat in the market that is created with the aim of satisfying the needs of several groups of end users and stakeholders. Smarthé will be offering a 40% reduction in the residential energy bill. The main features will be:
• Enhanced learning algorithms with the optimization of comfort as a whole.
• Multi-zoned management of the temperature.
• Optimized reports for end users (Qidiag and Qirenov platforms).
• SaaS platform designed for public real estate agencies.
• Improved management platform (QiviPro) for professional installers.
We already started the commercialization of our technology in 2013 and have sold more than 10,000 smart thermostats in France. The final objective of this project is to launch the new version of the thermostat Smarthé and internationalize our company by targeting other European markets.
In order to achieve this we have already accomplished the following objectives:
-Adapt the thermostat to incorporate an innovative connectivity into the current HW
-Build-up the necessary devices to incorporate the multi-room management. The multizoned solution for electric heating has been fully completed on November 2016. The development is underway for central heating is underway
-Upgrade our current SW with the aim of satisfying current market needs of different end users and stakeholders
-Validate the new features (multi-zoned management and comfort algorithms) together with the QiDiag and QiRenov with our end-users by means of on-line surveys and incorporate their feedback before the release of Smarthé.
-Equip households in the public housing sector with Smarthé to validate the HW and SW upgrades (with inhabitants – end users – and administrators). Pilot testing are currently in progress into public housing. We are testing our solutions in 200 apartments to validate with them the new type of connectivity as well as economic savings.
-Introduce Smarthé in our current sales channels in France (B2C and B2B2C) and consolidate the B2B one by means of strengthening our collaboration with public housing organisms. We are boosting the B2B channel in France by reaching long-term agreements with our current partners. We are completing new agreements with other relevant entities in public housing and the previous strategy is to be followed
-Set a cooperation strategy with professional installers and distributors in different European countries (UK, Germany) to boost the market introduction of Smarthé through the B2B2C channel. Contact real estate agencies as well as energy utilities to boost the B2B channel at European level. We have already presented our product to national associations of installers and distributors, and public housing organisms. Thanks to these direct contacts we are adapting our strategy to the specific needs of each country (firstly UK).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

There are several aspects in our solution that represent an innovation in the market of Smart Thermostats:
• Learning algorithms with a throughout optimization of the comfort. Thanks to the inclusion of several sensor, we can optimize the heating program as a function of many parameters. For example, the humidity sensor facilitates the control of humidity levels; if not properly maintained, occupants may become susceptible to respiratory disorders (especially children).
• Invisible thermostat. Our aim is that end users completely forget about the heating of their homes. The design of our thermostat has been done accordingly to this principle. The screen will illuminate when touching it otherwise our thermostat is almost invisible. Our objective is to achieve the zero-manipulation: occupants do not touch the thermostat. For us, each manipulation represents an uncomfortable situation from which our algorithms should learn to avoid it happens again in the future.
• Renovation works advice. Planning an energy efficient renovation is always difficult especially when it comes to decide where to start. Our algorithms are able to deliver a full thermal diagnosis of the building thus giving the clue on the most decisive factors to be optimized to increase energy efficiency.
• Tackling fuel poverty. The Smarthé thermostat has been designed to be widely deployed into the public housing sector. We are not only designing a beautiful product but also a practical one with societal implications that will benefit a community in strong need of increasing the energy efficiency. Thanks to Smarthé the detection of fuel poverty situations will be done more efficiently and the follow-up of those families will be optimized.

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