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INNOVATION RESOURCES

Ewgeco

Breakthrough:
Ewgeco is an energy monitoring device that shows electricity, gas, and water consumption in real-time by using a ‘traffic light’ display. It will help consumers and businesses to save money as well as helping to reduce carbon emissions - so it is kinder to the purse and to the planet.

Inventor:
Tanya Ewing, United Kingdom

Financial reward:
$200,000

The Story:
Ewgeco

Standing outside her Perthshire home in her pajamas in the freezing cold Tanya Ewing was taking a reading from her gas meter. She had just been handed a huge bill and was looking to the meter for some clues as to the unexpected large amount. However, the meter reading and her bill had little in common. The reading was in cubic metres, but the bill was calculated in kilowatt hours; she didn’t understand what it meant. This added to her growing frustration that meter readings were a complete mystery, other than to officials from utility companies. She just wanted to be able to control her bills and see exactly how much energy she was using and how much she could save if she turned down her heating. This was impossible to do; so she searched high and low to find an energy monitoring device, thinking that there would be at least one product to help consumers understand energy consumption, but there was nothing in the marketplace, and so she decided to create her own.

That she was pregnant at the time, had no prior experience in manufacturing, business or science did not put her off. Before coming up with her brainwave she had been a dental nurse and had worked for an insurance company.

The Power of Ewgeco

Ewgeco lets people see what is happening with their electricity, gas, and water bills in real-time, with a ‘traffic light’ system that makes it easy for anyone to interpret. It is a simple and intuitive system that displays the actual cost, kilowatts, liters/hour, and can be calibrated to size of property, number of users, and number of appliances. The gadget connects to a power meter and sends a radio signal to a handheld unit with the red, green, and amber bars displaying whether the amount of energy being consumed is high, normal, or moderate; the colors rise from green to red as energy consumption increases.

The invention also measures carbon emissions so homes and businesses can keep a watchful eye on their carbon footprint. It also aims to encourage people to change their behavior. By switching off devices rather than leaving them in standby mode, or turning taps off when brushing teeth, users can see exactly how these practices reduce energy consumption.

Developing Ewgeco

Simplicity is at the heart of her idea, and her early sketches focused on the ‘traffic light’ display. Remembering that her grandfather had once told her that she must get herself a patent that would look after her all her life, Ewing started to trawl through the patent website to see if anyone else had a similar idea.

During her research she came across a link to ICASS (Innovators Counselling and Advisory Service for Scotland) which is an organization funded by the Scottish government to help inventors develop, protect, and commercialise their inventions. They continued the patent search, and put her in touch with patent lawyers, designers, and developers.

Ewing lacked the funds to build a working prototype and so she constructed a dummy model and engaged an electronics expert to write a paper to explain how the concept would work. This was in 2006 and idea was to get people excited about the innovation. She dipped into her savings to fund the initial stages of development, and then managed to secure some private investment and grant funding, and in 2008 she won the British Female Inventor of the Year Award. In that same year she set up her company to market and distribute her smart energy monitoring system. Ewing has won an additional nine awards, some are for the idea, others are for the business or her personally. Each one has proved to be an important milestone that has helped her along the journey.

Passion for the Planet

Ewing is passionate about the impact her device can have on people’s finances and the planet although she realizes it can take time to change people’s behavior. At the time of writing (Sept 2009) Ewgeco is in beta testing phase, so is not available to the consumer yet, though this will follow. It is being successfully sold to small and medium sized businesses and is a no brainer, as it saves huge amounts of money.

Ewgeco took under three years to get from concept to market. That feat is even more incredible when you consider that Ewing had no prior experience and had never previously entertained the thought of being an inventor until she had her ‘eureka’ moment. She also suffers from the severely debilitating Lyme disease which has made the business challenges she has faced somewhat tougher. But her belief in her idea and its potential have helped to steer her through the difficult times to develop a world-beating invention.

Inquiries have been coming in from all over the planet and her company has been valued at several million dollars. Ewing is an inspiring role model who is also now helping other start-ups to succeed with their own innovations.

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