How it started – Founders story
Are you interested in energy efficiency and renewable energy? I would like to share with you, my journey of working in these fields since 2008.
Back in 2008, South Africa started experiencing, its first grid power failures, from insufficient generation, and too much consumption of electricity. This, is when the term loadshedding, was first introduced. A new technology also became available and affordable at this time. This technology could reduce the energy consumption of light bulbs by more than 80%! This exciting technology called LED or Light Emitting Diode lights.
In 2010, I was looking for a new challenge, after 10 years of software development. So, I though I could help with, the challenge of loadshedding by selling LED lights online. Later we also implemented energy efficiency projects, where all the lights in the whole restaurant, hotel or guest house would be replaced with new energy efficient LED lights. This was done at many Mugg and Bean and Wimpy restaurants in South Africa.
We could calculate the savings in Excel, and created an impressive spreadsheet to calculate these savings. But it was just theoretical, ideally, we would have liked to measure power and energy consumption for a week, before the project, and for a week after the project, to verify the energy savings. But the energy loggers available on the market at that stage, were unaffordable expensive and started at R 50 000 or more.
So, we started using devices like the Efergy and Owl energy loggers. These devices were OK, for showing the current power consumption and energy consumption over a period of time but it had several disadvantages. Firstly, there were no voltage measurements, so the data were not that accurate, it only measured the current and the voltage were set at a set number. The CTs (Current Transformers) were huge and very difficult to install in tight DBs (Distribution Boards). And thirdly there were no way, to export the data to Excel to generate graphs and reports.
Then back in 2015 Solar power started to become affordable, I changed my focus and started designing, selling and installing solar power systems. I was still manually calculating, what size systems are required based on the consumption of the appliances that needed backup power. This was a hit or miss method, of calculating the backup power and energy requirements. Ideally one would split all the loads that required backup power in the DB and then measure the power and energy requirements. We did that with the equipment available, but still there was no affordable solution.
So, we had a problem that there were no “affordable energy loggers, that are easy to install and create reports. Finally in 2021 I did some research and found exactly what we were looking for. We imported these loggers and made it available on the South African market. First there were not that much demand, but as word spread, it became so popular that we could not keep up with demand and were constantly out of stock. We sold more that 300 devices and in the next two years. With 100s of satisfied customers and very low failure rates.
I also figured out how to download, import and visualise the data from the loggers into Excel. Most logger manufacturers just give you the data then expect you to analyse the data in Excel yourself. But most electricians and energy professionals are not Excel experts and have difficulty doing this. So, I created a template to do this very easily with clear step by step instructions. So now, instead of spending a day or two figuring out Excel and how to create the graphs needed. One can easily within 10 minutes import and display the data. Also, if anyone gets stuck at any point, we offer online assistance on a video call and screen sharing.
So, we have three energy loggers available, entry level, mid level and advanced. The entry level meter is good enough for most uses and circumstances. The mid level meter comes with a easier to use interface and a few more features. The advanced level meter come with all the features an electrical engineer could possibly need. Below is a table comparing the three portable loggers with each other.
Hope we can be of assistance in your energy and power metering and logging requirements.