News

Smart Energy | Remote Home Thermostat Control Capability
- Oct. 7, 2010

EchoFirst, Inc., a provider of solar energy systems, announced the availability of Echo Advanced Controls Platform for controlling home thermostat remotely. The company’s Echo is a solar energy system that supplements conventional solar electric PV panels with a unique solar thermal technology that captures the heat from the PV panels. The system generates electricity and hot water for washing and bathing, as well as thermal energy for home heating and home cooling. The system delivers twice the energy of a basic solar electric system.

In a press release, Josh Plaisted, CTO of EchoFirst, said, "The Echo solar system already delivers electricity, water heating, home heating and home cooling, providing homeowners with the convenience and energy savings of remote home thermostat control was a natural value-add."

With the help of the new remote home thermostat control for Echo Solar Systems, owners of Echo solar system will be able to control their home's heating and cooling from anywhere in the world via mobile phone or Internet.

Plaisted continued, "Echo's Advanced Controls Platform gives our customers the ability to control their home thermostat with simple, one touch commands like 'home' or 'away'."

The Echo solar system as a whole encompasses real time performance monitoring through an intuitive, user friendly graphical user interface. The system provides clear, easy-to-understand color graphics and charts that facilitate homeowners to see how much energy their system is generating.

In addition, the Echo solar system saves homeowners money considerably on their utility bills while enabling them to generate more of their own energy because the system can deliver twice as much energy as a basic solar electric system.

Plaisted further said, "This feature previously cost thousands of dollars and was only available in expensive custom homes, but Echo brings this value to our customers today. And because it's so simple to use, it's easy to keep the home comfortable while saving energy at the same time."

Meritage Homes, one of the nation’s homebuilders, have incorporated Echo solar systems as a standard feature in multiple communities.

C.R. Herro, vice president of environmental affairs at Meritage Homes, said, "Including Echo in our new homes helps make them approximately 70 percent to 80 percent more energy efficient than our competitors' homes.”

Herro continued, "Homes in our communities offering superior energy efficiency are selling over three times faster than our competition; our homebuyers will love being able to adjust their home thermostat when they're away from home."