ENERGY
Buildings served by Hank , such as this one in Sacramento , have seen 50-60 percent reductions in HVAC energy consumption , according to Jerremy Spillman , the company ’ s chief revenue officer . PHOTO COURTESY OF JACKSON PROPERTIES
comfort and energy-cost savings for building owners .
Just as importantly , Hank improves existing HVAC systems without requiring new equipment , aside from a router . Often , a customer does no more than sign up for Hank ’ s cloud-based service .
“ We don ’ t need any new equipment , and we ’ re not selling you any new hardware ,” says Jerremy Spillman , the company ’ s chief revenue officer . “ We ’ re taking your dumb equipment and making it smart by supercharging it with AI and advanced energy algorithms .”
Buildings served by Hank , Spillman says , have seen 50-60 percent reductions in HVAC energy consumption . That , he adds , translates into as much as 30 percent off the total electricity bill and with no comfort compromises . At the systemwide level , Hank ’ s technology , applied broadly , could alleviate the demand strains on the grid that can lead to rotating outages , like those during heatwaves that prompt millions to rev up the air conditioning .
Hank was launched in 2016 and in 2018 got a boost from a CalSEED grant of $ 150,000 to help the team prove its concept and create a product . In this period , Hank grew from a program that simply monitored a building ’ s HVAC system and periodically provided a report to the building ’ s owners on how to cut energy costs into an AI-driven program capable of managing the HVAC system .
Today , Hank services several dozen buildings totaling about 3 million square feet — and the sky ’ s the limit in terms of space to grow . Spillman says the built environment is responsible for 40 percent of the country ’ s carbon emissions .
“ You put Hank in government buildings , in all these buildings that aren ’ t Energy Star-rated , and , all of a sudden , you don ’ t need to do a $ 500,000 controls project to make improvements ,” he says . “ We don ’ t sell you any new equipment — we just have a better , more efficient way to run your building , and all you have to do is sit back and let the AI do it .”
Spin Storage Systems
Making flywheel solar batteries to increase energy storage In a tech lab and machine shop in northwest Sacramento , a team of engineers is making wheels turn in phenomenal ways . The team is putting the finishing touches on a prototype for an advanced and low-cost flywheel battery — a spinning cylinder generated by solar electricity and , when the sun stops shining , keeps whirring away under the power of stored kinetic energy .
It ’ s not a new concept . Flywheels have been around for ages . Potter ’ s wheels , waterwheels and bicycles all utilize flywheel principles . Today , flywheels in the form of steel discs play a role in combustion engines .
But the Burlingame-based Spin , launched in 2011 and whose founder Jon Garber invented the QuickCam ( a webcam video camera ), is fine-tuning the basic components of its prototype to make a state-of-the-art flywheel solar battery that competes with conventional energy storage systems . The advantages of a flywheel system include no degradation of storage capacity over time , no toxic or flammable chemicals , and a lifespan of decades .
To charge any battery takes energy , and the customer gets to use that energy later at any time — but not all of it , because energy is lost in transmission . In these respects , a conventional battery offers an efficiency level of 80-something percent , explains Peter Cattaneo , Spin ’ s vice president of product marketing and business development .
Flywheels are better , but they still leak energy and will run out of juice if left uncharged . “ A traditional flywheel might only spin for an hour or two after charging ,” Cattaneo says . “ We ’ re building one that will spin for days .”
Flywheels — even advanced models — also tend to grow unstable on their axis the faster they turn , costing energy and even posing dangers should the flywheel break apart . But Spin ’ s flywheel battery rotates on contactless magnetic bearings , and the whole system is kept in position , revolving around its natural inertial axis inside its case , with magnetic suspension , an improvement over flywheels that turn on ball bearings .
“ We keep it positioned in the center of the case , because we don ’ t want it hitting anything , but we ’ re not forcing it onto any physical axis of rotation ,” Cattaneo says . This means no air resistance , no contact between metal parts , minimal friction and a spinning flywheel that will hold kinetic energy much longer than existing systems . Spin has designed its flywheel with a 30-year design life , with no scheduled maintenance .
46 comstocksmag . com | December 2020