The future of housing depends on energy. As we slowly shift away from natural gas and other fossil fuels, our electric consumption will have to carry the weight of our needs. But how can we react to the rise in demand?
The Housing Innovation Alliance hosted a panel to discuss just that. In its 3rd Tuesday event for January 2022—The Housing Reinvention Panel—three companies gave a high-level snapshot of what they’re doing to drive the future of housing and enact environmental change.
Hosted by Dennis Steigerwalt, president of Housing Innovation Alliance, and Greg Smithies, partner and co-leader of the Climate Technology Investment team at Fifth Wall; the 3rd Tuesday event dove into discussion on the challenges we face with power, water, and the heating of our homes.
BIGGEST BOTTLENECK: THE ELECTRIC PANEL
Arch Padmanabhan Rao, Founder & CEO of Span.IO, thinks that our capacity for using the full potential of our homes’ energy supply is limited most by one thing: the electric panel.
“If you look at the home as an ecosystem, it becomes painfully obvious that the home electrical panel is one that has seen very little innovation in nearly a century now,” says Rao, who believes that the traditional panel keeps customers from easily transitioning to a fully electric home.
According to Rao, SPAN has built a smart panel to become the new center for connected power in the home. SPAN’s reinvented panel is “connected, intelligent, and beautiful,” as they put it.
It’s the company’s goal to provide an easy way to connect and manage all of the energy sources going to and from the house—from electric vehicles to solar panels and more. Rao believes that by having a simple solution to this modern problem, customers will make the switch that is both ecological and economical.
Check out this short clip from the 3rd Tuesday event:
WATER EFFICIENCY WITHOUT COMPROMISE
Mehrdad Mahdjoub, Founder & CEO of Orbital Systems, has a different approach to simplifying the way we use our home.
Inspired by a NASA collaboration, Orbital Systems has made the world’s first circular shower. The shower saves up to 90% more water and 80% in heating energy by recirculating, purifying, and sanitizing the water in real time.
According to Orbital Systems, this approach to water management is completely new, and is the most efficient shower system for saving water and energy in the world.
Mahdjoub believes in shifting humanity’s mindset to focus on using the resources we have more efficiently, rather than continuing to supply more than is usable. He also acknowledges the importance of the user experience—meaningful solutions without compromise.
“As soon as you compromise on the user experience, you’re going to miss out on the mass market,” says Mahdjoub, who believes that many “green” solutions aren’t as attractive in the mass market due to the consumer having to compromise.
Check out this short clip from the 3rd Tuesday event:
GEOTHERMAL HEATING SOLUTIONS
“What do you do when the natural gas grid is not going to extend to a new development?”
Michael Sachse, CEO of Dandelion Energy, poses this question to homebuilders, and believes they should have a strategy in place to answer it. Dandelion Energy’s solution is geothermal.
According to Sachse, ground source heat pumps are the most efficient way to heat and cool homes, but the biggest challenge is the upfront cost. He has found that Dandelion Energy lowers these costs and builds a sustainable advantage.
In the race to decarbonize, Dandelion feels they have a “clear advantage.”
Sachse realizes that for most customers, this is a dollar and cents issue. It feels like a very real challenge to want to be sustainable, but the hindrance of cost is too big of a burden.
“If you’re financing, you save money on day one-second. If you’re paying with cash, it’s a seven year payback,” he says. Sachse believes that financing will be critical in the future, and necessary for customers who want to implement the systems that companies like SPAN, Orbital, and Dandelion provide.
Check out this short clip from the 3rd Tuesday event:
IN SUMMARY & WHERE TO WATCH
Greg Smithies, Fifth Wall, ended the event by talking about economics:
“Many of these technologies that we are seeing in this market are no longer just an ethical imperative…These technologies, like the three that we've shown today, just make good dollars and cents sense, right? They allow you to sell these buildings for more. They allow you to operate them more cheaply. They allow you to access lower cost of capital, potentially lower insurance… We're at a tipping point here where no longer is it that we just need to do these things because it's good for the planet. Obviously it is good for the planet, but it makes good economic sense as well.”
To watch the free hour-long event, check it out on The Alliance’s website. Their next 3rd Tuesday event on February 15th: Off-site / Prefabrication + Managing Consumer Expectations, is also free and open to the public.
If you missed Housing Innovation Alliance’s Future of Housing event last year—a convenient precursor to this month’s discussion—look no further than Utopia for a detailed summary of the day-long event.
For more on-demand content and conversations about housing-related topics, visit Housing Innovation Alliance.
