Innovative Solution
As the world’s first Expert System for the deployment of Demand Side Reduction solutions, Danú is a radical innovation in the energy conservation marketplace. The system allows an engineer with basic training to conduct a full energy audit of any business and deliver a comprehensive set of recommendations, prices, specifications and return on investment. The DSR solution can then be fully implemented by Danú contracted partners.
Unique Service Advantages
Danú allows clients to access the widest possible range of DSR solutions, fully costed with payback indications and current grants and finance/leasing options. By significantly reducing Energy audit times and improving accuracy, Danú allows partners to scale up in a more rapid and cost effective manner to address a surging market demand for Energy Reduction retrofits.
The Problem being solved
In the last number of years, significant increases in the cost of energy along with the impending implementation of carbon tax in most developed countries around the world has caused an increase in awareness of the cost of energy to most business and an eagerness to reduce energy consumption.
There are three main ways to reduce energy costs and carbon tax liabilities:
- Renegotiate tariffs with energy providers
- Demand Side Reduction – new technologies to reduce consumption
- Renewables – Use the assets of the business to develop renewable power sources using solar or waste to energy.
Negotiating tariffs has the quickest return on investment but can only be done once. The next fastest return on investment is demand side reduction. In deploying demand side reduction solutions to the market, companies struggle with several key areas:
- Accessing information on a wide enough range of products
- Research whether these products are compatible
- Discovering where the biggest energy loads are in an organization
- Developing expertise on installing complex products
- Finding out the return on investment for various products
- Building a business case across many different product areas
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Danú is the world’s first expert system for the deployment of demand side energy reduction technology. |
The system allows an engineer with basic training to carry out a full system audit of any business and offer a comprehensive set of recommendations along with prices, specifications and return on investment.
Features and Benefits
The Danú expert system will have a radical impact on the energy efficiency market
- Danú allows more contractors to deliver more audits to more customers, in a shorter timeframe, at significantly lower cost.
- It allows contractors, together with their customers, to quickly find and specify best-of-breed solutions for each aspect of their project, thereby saving time and avoiding the cost of wrong solution choices.
- It allows all users in the energy efficiency ecosystem to have full, updated, awareness of & access to the latest & best solutions.
- It provides suppliers of energy efficiency solutions with real time market feedback on the demand & adoption patterns for their solutions.
Product Database
Over the last 24 months we have assembled the widest range of energy reduction technologies in the world. This database not only lists the products and part numbers but contains a comprehensive data set on each product. This includes:
- Technical specification of product including sizes, voltage etc.
- Systems that the product is compatible with
- Savings in KWh that the product will deliver
- Installation time in various different environments
This database not only covers obvious DSR categories such as lighting but more complex and energy hungry sectors such as refrigeration, air handling and heating. Danú are also agents or franchise holders for more that 20 different product manufacturers in the DSR space. These suppliers are some of the global leaders in DSR are based everywhere from the US, Asia and Europe.
iPhone App
The iPhone App forms the core of the technology stack. It allows a person with even a basic knowledge of the sector to carry out a detailed audit of their energy use.
The system will record:
- Energy bills by facility
- Detailed information on:
- Lighting
- Heating
- Air Handling
- Air conditioning
- Refrigeration
- Motor Systems
- Building management systems
- Resistive loads
At all points during the audit process the system is constantly error checking to ensure the information is correct. There are some unique features in the system such as, if a client does not recognize a product they can use the iPhone camera function to take an image of the product. We can then analyze the product and enter the correct specification. Future versions of the iPhone app will handle complex areas for most clients such as Savings Verification and Product Installation Tracking
DiCE – Danú Comparison Engine
Once the audit is complete, all information is sent to the DiCE. This is the brain of the system. It analyses each energy consuming product, compares it to over 10,000 energy saving alternatives and recommends the best solution. It also ensures the clients energy bills are competitive to the rest of the market and recommends an alternative supplier if they are not. DiCE will then send a proposal back to the iPhone or allow the account manager/auditor access the quote in a secure online system. DiCE will deliver:
- Full component list off all product required
- Specifications on each replacement product
- Installation cost and time frame
- Return on investment for the product based on current energy costs
- Grant information on the product
- Margin to the reseller for this product
- Delivery timeframe
- Number of tones of CO2 saved
Brightspark – Sales and order processing system
In order for the partner to track potential clients, their orders and the status of products on order Danú includes a full CRM backend system called Brightspark. This is available through a secure web browser
Tridium – Energy Monitoring and Control system
To ensure that both the customer and all interested parties have an accurate view of how energy is utilised, we create a baseline view of energy consumption based on the Tridium platform. The Tridium system can be used to capture energy consumption information on its own, or can be used to control some of the major users of energy in a facility in a much more efficient manner. Tridium can interface with existing BMS systems or can be used to control equipment directly.
Key Benefits to partners
The main advantages to partners can be listed as follows:
- Access to a wider range of products and savings than normally is available
- Reducing audit time by as much as 80%
- Dramatically reducing errors in the audit process
- Reduces the amount of knowledge required by auditors and back office staff
- Gives access to grants and finance/leasing information not normally available in the market
- Allows resellers to grow and scale much faster
