Question 1

Why do we need to Think Differently about energy?

Accepted Answer

How we deliver and use electric energy has not changed that much over the past 150 years.  Yet, there are many more devices and electric power has become a necessity in all aspects of our personal lives.  We are unaware of the simple things each of us can to do to use electric power better.  If we think a little differently we can reduce our energy consumption by 10% -20% by reducing the waste and inefficiencies underlying this 150 year old system.

Question 2

What is a Personal Enegy Platform?

Accepted Answer

Our Personal Energy Platform delivers power to your critical devices to help maintain your safety, security and communications during times of grid outages and provides daily cost savings by utilizing stored Off-Peak power during periods of highest priced On-Peak electricity rates. When grid outages do happen, the Personal Energy Platform autonomously provides an uninterruped battery backup power capability, without the requirement to swap individual device power cords.   For those who have no access to power or only intermittant power, the Personal Energy Platform offers a portable energy storage solution that can be connected to solar panels, wind turbines, or other power generation sources.  The Personal Energy Platform was designed for global usage, connecting to any grid or standalone power source and giving users the ability to dynamically adjust output power voltages for their specific devices.

Question 3

How can one person affect Climate Change?

Accepted Answer

We tend to view Climate Change as a massive undertaking, which it certainly is, but it is also a result of our individual choices.  By making changes in how we use electric power, we can reduce the need to over-produce electricity to compensate for current inefficiencies.  Here is one way to affect Climate Change.   Electricity is delivered via an AC power grid, but 95% of all end devices use DC power, which requires full time AC-to-DC power conversion, even when the device is not in use. This causes what is known as "Vampire Loads", which can waste up to 10% or 200W-500W per device per day.  The Personal Energy Platform eliminates Vampire Loads by delivering DC power to the device only when in use.  There is no need for constant AC-to-DC power conversion.  One person reducing their power needs by 10% may not seem like it can impact Climate Change, but 100s of millions of people reducing by 10% can make a huge impact.

Question 4

How green are your electrons?  What are your decarbonization goals?

Accepted Answer

Electrons are not equally green. They are produced at individual power plants with varying degrees of dirty emissions through fossil fuel power generation: coal, oil, and natural gas.  Toxic carbon emissions are hurled into the environment without your knowledge or consent. You just use the electricity coming via the wall outlet.  This is not right!   You can make a change, you can select power generation sources that have less dirty emissions.  We all know renewable sources like solar and wind have lower emissions, but we can't always select these greener electrons to come into our homes.  And, at any given time one power source might have lower emissions than another, how can you be expected to manage all this.   What if you could?  What if you could gather the greenest electrons produced in your area, store them until you needed them, and do all this automatically based on your personal decarbonization goals?  The Personal Energy Platform was designed to help make this possible.    Today, there are organizations leading the fight to bring you the knowledge of how green, less dirty, your electrons are.  Our vision is to lash up with these knowledge sources in an automated way and deliver you individualized energy generation selection options to help you achieve a lower carbon footprint.  We can now talk about setting personal decarbonization goals.

Question 5

How can this help the 800 Million without power?

Accepted Answer

We look to partner with other social benefit entities to incorporate our Personal Energy Platform's power management capabilities with existing community development programs around the globe.  Providing a small amount of electric power can truly transform a person's life and the lives of a community.  The Personal Energy Platform was designed to support all global grid voltage systems and dynamically recognizes and configures for those systems.  We want to be more than a product supplier, we want to enable individuals to become small business owners acting as a local resource in supporting electric power systems for small devices. We have seen the benefits of bringing electric power to remote isolated communities; lighting for learning, radios, phones, electric tools to improve handcraft production, and the mixing of medicines.  All power grids, micro-grids, and solar generation facilities have a fixed boundary, the end of a wire.  The Personal Energy Platform is portable and can work in concert with fixed power generation and delivery grids where they can be periodically charged up and then taken back to the remote location. The Personal Energy Platform supports a directly connected solar panel that can eliminate or prolong the need to return to the fixed generation source for recharging.

Question 6

How can this help the 1.6 Billion with limited daily power?

Accepted Answer

Many communities have access to electric power, but suffer frequent, if not daily, lapses in power that can last a couple of hours or an entire day.  Use of Personal Energy Platform units can smooth out these lapses of available power.   When grid power is unavailable, the Personal Energy Platform automatically maintains uninterrupted battery backup power to support your critical devices, such as; communications, security systems, food preservation, and home medical devices without the need to swap power cords.  When grid power is restored, the Personal Energy Platform can resume using grid power and recharge it's battery system in anticipation of the next outage.   The Personal Energy Platform is a scalable portable energy storage system where the customer can select the appropriate sized unit for a specific purpose.  For example, a 2200Wh unit to maintain backup power to a refrigerator or other large appliances for 10hours or longer.  Customers can strategically place individual Personal Energy Platform units throughout their homes to support their most critical devices.  They install in minutes and require no physical intervention when the power goes out or when it comes back on.

Question 7

I rent an apartment, can this help lower my electric bill?"

Accepted Answer

Yes, as an apartment resident you can use the Personal Energy Platform to lower your electric bill, it is not just another battery product.  It is an intelligent power management system directly connected to your AC and DC devices that can store electricity at night when the rates are low and use that electricity during the day when rates are high.  Often the differences in these rates range from $0.15/kWh up to $0.70/kWh, leading to a savings of $0.50 to $1.50 per day for the seasonal periods where rates are high and can  fluctuate greatly.   These small savings may not seem like much on a daily basis, but they add up over time potentially lowering your electricity costs by $75 to $240 per year.  By placing a solar panel or solar shade  on an apartment balcony or window and attaching to the Personal Energy Platform,  these savings could be 2x to 3x higher.  Apartment dwellers are a vast untouched resource to lower the adverse impacts of our energy usage on climate. Think of 200 apartment residents with 5000Wh of combined Personal Energy Platform energy storage, that would equal 1 Megawatt of energy storage.  20K renters equals 100MW of energy storage that otherwise would go untapped.  Shifting 100MW of nightly power to distributed Personal Energy Platform units would lower the demand during daily peak times, lowering resident costs and offsetting a utility's need to spend $200M USD to build equivalent grid level energy storage capacity.

Question 8

Can I use solar to charge the Personal Energy Platform?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the Personal Energy Platform has an integrated solar panel controller and you can plug a solar panel directly into the unit.  When there is insufficient solar coverage, you can create a solar usage profile that directs the unit's battery backup capabilities to cover the 'cloudy day gap' for a few hours.  If you have rooftop solar, the Personal Energy Platform can be charged through the in-home wiring and provide added automatic backup power to the connected devices.  During normal operations when the Personal Energy Platform is connected to both grid power and solar power, it will automatically use solar power versus grid power, thus reducing one's electric utility bill and lowering your individual carbon footprint. If the solar source is not generating sufficient power, the Personal Energy Platform will use grid power to supplement the load.

Question 9

Is the Personal Energy Platform just like other battery packs or power banks?

Accepted Answer

No, the Personal Energy Platform is not just another battery pack or power bank.    Battery packs and power banks are standalone products designed to be used infrequently, mainly during power outages, and require you to swap individual device power cords from the wall outlet to the battery pack or power bank. When grid power is restored, you need to swap the power cords back to the wall outlet. Battery packs and power banks do not provide real time UPS capabilities.  The Personal Energy Platform is designed to be inline between the wall outlet and your  devices. Once the Personal Energy Platform is plugged into the wall outlet and your end devices connected, you don't have to do anything else or worry about them during power outages.    When grid power is unavailable, the Personal Energy Platform's UPS function automatically maintains uninterrupted battery backup power, so there is no need to swap power cords.

Question 10

Personal Energy Platform vs Whole House Energy Storage

Accepted Answer

The Personal Energy Platform provides the ability to leverage electric energy costs and provide backup power capabilities to individual devices. The Personal Energy Platform is not designed to power your whole house internal wiring circuits, instead focusing on your most critical devices and appliances.    Whole house energy storage systems are stationary and cost $15,000 for 13kWh of energy storage plus an average of $10,000 for installation, grid interconnection, and permits. Personal Energy Platforms can be purchased on an a la carte basis to meet your specific needs and budget. They install in minutes, just plug into any wall outlet.   For example, one Personal Energy Platform for your refrigerator, a second for your entertainment system devices, and a third for you home office or smart home security system. Thus, you can deploy an aggregate of 3-8kWh, or greater, of energy storage at a fraction of the cost of a whole house system.  With the Personal Energy Platform, you purchase the appropriate level of energy storage you need; place the Personal Energy Platforms where you need them, and then take the Personal Energy Platforms with you when you move.

Question 11

How can the PEP help the grid during high demand situations?

Accepted Answer

The PEP is a dispatchable energy asset, meaning a utility with the customer's approval could request the PEP to switch from using grid power to it's internal batteries to power their devices.  This dynamic grid load reduction process is generally called "Demand Response" (DR).  Many utilities offer their customers incentives to participate in DR programs where the utility could reduce their energy consumption for 5 to 10 days or events per year.  We are hopeful that utilities will view the PEP as an additional DR asset by which to reduce loads to prevent total grid collapse.  A typical utility customer who rents an apartment could provide 3kWh of dispatchable load reduction per event by using the Personal Energy Platform's stored energy without sacrificing the use of their end devices.