Meet the finalists: Smart Home Technology

Smart Home Technology, an ETH Spin-off, creates smart and energy efficient appliances for homes and industries. They provide ultra low power and secure solutions for connected devices with Zero Standby Power and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). With their business solution Smart@Home® they offer sensor-based and real-time data collection.

What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur?

Above everything else is a clear vision, with a committed team. Sure a lot of grit and determination too, but those factors are the raw ingredients needed to ensure strong execution of your strategy and allows you to adapt in the most efficient way.

Which advice would you give to someone who wants to start a start-up?

Control your expenses and talk about your solution to potential customers as soon as possible. This will allow you to focus on the most value adding activities.

Why did you apply for the Impact Hub Fellowship Energy-Cleantech?

Smart Home Technology was founded with the goal of bringing the Internet of Things to our homes and industrial processes by creating smart, safe and efficient appliances. Our key solution Zero Standby Power (PCT patent pending) drives down energy waste and the CO2 emissions of devices, which makes it possible to operate electrical devices, including household appliances, with zero standby losses. We applied to the Impact Hub Fellowship to share our invention and seek support in maximising its application to reduce energy losses.

What were the things that you benefited most during the cohort phase of the Impact Hub Fellowship ICT4Good?

It provided a very advantageous business coaching with great program of engaging talks and events to develop the company's profile and guidance on our company organisation and administration (especially the Marketing class, account class and sales class).

Why should the jury pick your project as the winner on September 7?

The low energy efficiency of current IoT solutions is already presenting a limitation to the wide spread adoption of IoT devices and will become an increasing environmental and financial issue in the future. Therefore, the premise of our Zero Standby Power Technology is an important milestone in stopping standby losses.

By reducing the standby power to zero, a household can expect to save at least 200 CHF and 130 kg of CO2 emissions every year. By deploying this technology all over Switzerland, 455,000 tons of CO2 could be saved every year. This is equivalent to the annual CO2 output of 190,000 cars in Switzerland. To reach this saving 315,000 conventional cars would need to be replaced by hybrid cars with equivalent replacement costs of 1.39 billion CHF. This energy saving is equivalent to 3.7 times the annual energy production of the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

As these calculations show, the implementation of our Zero Standby Power supply is not only a financial benefit for every individual but also presents an important, cost efficient and practical contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change.