Wattbox Ltd launched its new innovative building controller to participants of the Retrofit for the Future project, funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board in October 2009. The technology has been under test and development as part of a university research programme for the last 4 years and is now being rolled out for wider scale field testing and validation.

We were delighted with the response, as Wattbox has been successfully selected on 28 of the 89 Retrofit for the Future projects and we shall be installing a total of 30 Wattbox control units during the course of 2010. We are now customising these units to control a  wide range of the   advanced heating sources specified, including air and ground source heat pumps, wood chip burners, micro CHP, solar thermal and regular gas boilers. For further details download our Newsletter No 1, April 2010

In 2011 we plan to role out testing into a few hundred houses across the UK to further validate ease of use and energy savings

The Wattbox is a new heating controller designed to save energy and improve comfort in residential buildings. The system controls both central and water heating, reducing energy consumption by automatically monitoring and learning occupant behaviour and preferences. It is targeted at retrofit of the 20 million homes in the UK with central heating.

The main strength of Wattbox over competing technologies is its patented ability to monitor the occupants behaviour and continuously modify timing and temperature of heating to optimise comfort and economy:

- Wattbox monitors and learns building occupancy patterns by monitoring electricity consumption

- Wattbox monitors and learns the consumption of hot water

- Wattbox learns occupants heating preferences when they demand 'more heat' and 'less heat' on the user interface

- Wattbox monitors internal and external temperatures and optimises heating

- Wattbox builds a pattern of behaviour and preferences for the occupants within that specific building

1. -Wattbox uses this pattern to automatically adjust heat and water timing and temperature to suit the occupants whilst minimising energy consumption.
   

2. -Wattbox includes a number of subtle optimisation routines.
   

Easier to operate:

1. -There is no time clock interface. Users who have difficulty optimising standard controllers will find Wattbox easier
   

2. -Wattbox is much easier to operate than conventional time clocks and thermostats, with only 2 rocker switches, that instruct more or less heat and more or less hot water

1. -Initial computer modelling by Oswald Consultancy indicates a saving of 12% for an average home.
   

2. -An independent model by Encraft Ltd indicates savings of between 9 and 22% on heat consumption.
   

3. -The first working prototype of Wattbox was fitted to a house with a micro CHP boiler and solar hot water heating panels in summer 2007. The overall energy saving from Wattbox alone was 15.7% during the winter months and 34% for the summer months
   

4. -Energy savings from a second working prototype are being assessed and the occupants have already observed an increased comfort level in the property