Arulraja Energy Management Consultant (AREMC) helps its consumers save energy by distributing an array of interesting energy and fuel saving devices as well as has a separate company vertical dealing with products for organic farming. Mr. Mathan Raja T, who is the chief at AREMC while others work under him on a contract basis as projects come in, recently came down to EAI office to show to us one of his products, the Ecoplug, which is a self-learning smart controller for HVAC systems that has been proven to help reduce power consumption up to 30%. We had an interesting conversation, where we found Raja as someone with high green values, which is also behind AREMC.
The range of energy saving products supplied by AREMC includes Chennai-assembled LED lights that will help customers save 50% on energy, a DC fan that provides 50% savings on power (yearly savings from using the fan are listed on the website), and an internationally patented mechanical device called Articmaster that can be used with industrial chillers and air conditioners and provides savings with a short payback period. (All savings mentioned are as listed on AREMC’s website.) The LED lights are available for both domestic and commercial requirements, and can customized according to customer needs.
The vertical focusing on organic farming solutions is also interesting. You can take a closer look here.
The meeting with Raja was however focused on his device, the Ecoplug. It is a convenient energy-saving device that can attach to both industrial and residential (split, window and package type) air conditioners. AREMC has been reasonably successful with the device in the commercial and industrial space, but not so much in the residential space. The device has been tested and approved by Electronics Test and Development Center or ETDC (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology), Bangalore. Raja shared with us reports of the tests of the device done at ETDC; ICICI Bank branch, Ambattur, Chennai; and Blue Star, Chennai. The test each spanned three days at most, and showed saving in the range of 23% to 60%. Here are the questions we asked Raja about this cool device and his answers.
Ecoplug
- In simple 34 lines, can you describe your firm AREMC and explain the cool-looking Ecoplug product that you offer?
AREMC is a young group of committed professionals working in the field of Energy Conservation, Power generation through Renewable Energy and Creating a better place to live through Go Green Activities like Organic Farming. Ecoplug is a smart energy efficient controller for Direct Expansion (DX) cooling systems, a very new concept of making energy savings from the energy we waste or neglect. This is a retrofit controller that fits with all types of window, split, cassette and multi compressor package air conditioners. Ecoplug is designed to deliver energy savings up to 30%. Ecoplug reduces power consumption and reduces heat generation playing a vital role among ecofriendly and futuristic products.
Our specialty focus areas include
2. So how does Ecoplug work and where do the energy savings come from? How has the on-field performance been so far?
Ecoplug monitors the upper and lower temperature threshold limits (dead band) and based on the changing heat load conditions, this dead band is adjusted dynamically with high resolution temperature data. This ensures savings of any wasted energy that goes into unwarranted cooling sessions. We have received great response from industries where energy conservation is now being implemented on a serious note. On an average, we receive 30% energy savings.
The following are some of the savings that we have achieved:
- Visteon, Maraimalai Nagar (Leading MNC and HVAC OEM supplier for all major 4 wheeler brands) – 38%
- Brayan Engineering & Contracting P.Ltd, T.Nagar 39%
- Mazenet, T.Nagar – 47%
- Balaji Distilleries (Kingfisher Group) – 20%
- Mahindra & Mahindra Research Facility, Mahindra World City – 30.8%
- Bluestar Ltd, Chennai – 36.36%
3. Can you elaborate a little on its design?
Ecoplug is a plug and play device that fits almost onto any air conditioner. Once fixed the customer needs to feed in the temperature required by him on Ecoplug and that’s it, Ecoplug takes care of the rest. The customer can have a visual feedback from Ecoplug about its functioning, the savings and the comfort level that it has achieved in the room. On can also control the brightness of the display to have a comfortable sleep. For industrial customers, we also have an option to protect the temperature setting made onto the Ecoplug with a password.
Ecoplug benefits:
- Saves Power upto 30%
- Fits on almost all AC models
- Increases Compressor Life
- Helps in reducing Global Warming
- An ecofriendly device
- Any trained HVAC technician can install in about 20 minutes
4. What is the customer base for you right now?
Industrial customers are always looking forward for new ways to control cost and make savings and being in the engineering field they understand the benefits of Ecoplug more easily than a residential customer. Our major base is industrial customers.
5. Why do you think demand from residential customers is lacking?
For all new innovative concepts and products we need to educate the customer about its benefits. The residential customers lack the time to do some research about what we try to convey. When residential people see the benefits enjoyed by industries slowly they will come forward to try Ecoplug and people who can forecast the savings for a broad time period and who are very particular about the comfort would definitely go for Ecoplug.
6. Could you elaborate a little on any challenges you are facing when you take this product to your customers and describe them the value addition?
Air conditioners has been so common and widely used product that people have forgotten the real intention of the discovery of an air conditioner. Even people from reputed organizations still say and believe that an air conditioner seems to function only if the room gets cooled which includes the furniture in the room. We had a tough time to explain them what actually the air conditioner does and what it really needs to do and why it has got the name as air conditioner. The most difficult part was to convince the industrial experts, where they were not ready to come out of what they already have in their mind like the old Zen saying “You cannot fill a cup that’s already full.”
7. ARMEC also has other interesting offerings, like solar lanterns that are provided in remote areas as part of corporate social responsibility tie ups. Very briefly, how are these other products doing and what’s your focus going forward?
Renewable energy related products are the future of basic day to day consumable products like solar phone chargers, mini solar power plants, solar chargeable lanterns for night time usage etc. Apart from these we also provide devices that protects every households from gas explosions and also gives additional mileage on gas cylinder. We also have other products and concepts that reduces pollution and promotes ecofriendly culture.
At AREMC we believe that technology has to go hand in hand with nature and that’s how our GoGreen vertical started. We are living in an industrial revolution where energy consumption is only going to increase year on year and with a caution we all need to switch to more ecofriendly ways to protect the mother earth. Planting trees and going back to our traditional way of living can only make us live longer and healthier.
Our focus lies on implementing and discovering new energy saving concepts that is more ecofriendly and will work ahead as per our motto “Save today for a better tomorrow.”
Very nice article..
Even Solar Power can also support heavy loads like AC and Water Pumps.. For more Visit : http://www.brihat.in/blog/solar-energy/solar-power-support-heavy-loads-like-ac-and-water-pumps/
Really nice discovery, well condition ac takes less amount of power only. so do regular service with authorised ac service center.