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Three Boston College sophomores who formed a start-up company in their spare time are close to launching an energy consumption-monitoring device that can track and display power usage in real time.
Applied Power Innovations, the brainchild of entrepreneurs C.J. Reim and Rich Rines, students in the Carroll School of Management, and College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate Kevin Driscoll, has created Power Dashboard, a prominent display of the real-time usage, costs and carbon dioxide emissions as a result of home or office energy consumption.
The founders think it should be as easy to see the financial and environmental costs of energy consumption as it is to check the time on a clock or get a reading from a thermostat. Clamping the base unit onto a home or apartment’s power supply is about a 10-minute installation process, they say, and they project they can sell a finished product for about $200.
BC could become the first customer on a pilot basis as the company targets energy and cost-conscious universities as their first customers.
A future sale aside, Reim says the University has provided a great environment within which to launch a company.
“It’s a lot of work. But at the same time, college is a great place to start a company. There are a lot of resources. People have your back. You’re not alone. [CSOM Professor John Gallaugher] has helped us. The Boston College Venture Competition has a lot of resources. It is a lot of work, but at the same time you can use it to your advantage.”
While the start-up has made fast progress – finding a partner to shoulder the engineering and development costs and lining up manufacturing sites in India and China – that wasn’t necessarily the goal, Reim said.
“There was never really any specific plan as to how quickly we could do something, but we just set our goals and the jobs we needed to do and went about getting those things done. We’ve just keep moving and end up where we end up.”
Boston College administrators are considering the role the monitor could play in the University’s efforts to conserve energy, said Energy Manager John MacDonald, and may undertake a pilot program in selected locations as early as next month, pending an review of how to implement the test from a technical standpoint.
For energy-conscious students, faculty and staff, conservation efforts could grow exponentially just by having real-time information about the energy required to supply power to lights, equipment, televisions, phone chargers, computers and the hundreds of other electronic devices used in campus facilities each day and night.
“I think this is a fantastic idea,” MacDonald said. “We all want to save energy and having the Power Dashboard right there where you can see it would be a tremendous asset. It’s fast and easy to deploy. I think it has a lot of good features.”
Associate Professor of Information Systems John Gallaugher has watched the trio develop since Reim and Rines entered another business plan in last year’s Boston College Venture Competition. He credits the group for their bold strategy, but also for making the most out of opportunities offered by summer internships, BC alumni and mentor connections and free advice from seasoned entrepreneurs.
“The combination of low cost technology and the ease at which products can reach wide markets makes this a golden age for student entrepreneurship,” said Gallaugher. “The dreamers can see their visions turn into real businesses in a matter of months. With C.J. and Rich, they built a business faster than it took them to get through their University and Carroll School core courses. We’re fortunate to have so many alums supplementing classroom learning in a way that creates a huge laboratory for the launch of real world businesses.”