Free swimming pool equipment sweetens offering from new entrant in the consumer market
Sydney-based Pooled Energy is offering an innovative premium service to pool owners in which they upgrade the customer’s swimming pool equipment, remotely manage the pool, supply them with discounted electricity and save them up to $1000 per year in the process.
CEO John Riedl says Pooled Energy is basically a pool company that also sells electricity.
“The way it works is if you buy our electricity, we’ll upgrade your pool equipment and manage it for you,” he says. “If you have a pool with good quality equipment, then we will put a layer of equipment on top of it – sensors, a variable speed pump, an upgraded salt chlorinator and electronic controllers.” If the existing equipment is not up to scratch, they will replace it all.
Customers sign a five-year contract and if at the end of the contract they decide not to continue, Pooled Energy will return their pool to its original system. But Riedl believes most customers will roll the contract on.
For the past 12 months they’ve been trialling the system on 40 residential pools in Sydney’s north. Chief operating officer Greg Irving says they received extensive data from the trials and also conducted a survey which gave universally positive results.
“The comments were the best I’ve ever seen on any product,” says Irving. “Some people said, you’ve changed my life. They all got a better quality pool, easier to manage and lower electricity bills.”
Pooled Energy has now officially launched, servicing the Ausgrid and Endeavour catchments, with close to 100 customers from Palm Beach to Vaucluse.
“That’s 100 out of 1.2 million, so there’s quite a bit of scope to expand I guess,” says Riedl.
It’s clear from the demographics that it is currently a premium service, but Irving says the economics are pretty good for a pool owner almost anywhere.
There is an initial $500 establishment fee spread over the first 12 months, and a recurring charge for the maintenance and monitoring at $50 per month which covers all the chemicals, monitoring and services associated with the monitoring, maintenance and replacement of any equipment.
Irving estimates the average annual gross savings for a pool owner could be over $1000, less the establishment fee.
Computers and electricity
The on-site computer that manages the functions is linked to a computer in “the cloud” that supervises the system and is linked to weather data. The inline sensors check the pool water every two minutes for temperature, pH, ORP, conductivity, pressure and water level and adjust it accordingly.
“We make adjustments remotely if it requires it,” says Riedl. “But if we need to physically go onsite we will, to swap over a piece of equipment for example. We can also supply technicians to empty the filter basket and clean the pool, for an extra charge.”
The electricity tariffs have been set up so the system runs at the lowest cost for the customer. However, Riedl says the system is devised so they can be prepared for the hot weather when the grid might overload.
“When the grid is getting overloaded we want to back off as much as we can while maintaining a pool that is biologically safe,” he says. “We do that by anticipating the future weather and prepping the pool beforehand.”
He says this is considerably different to the situation in Queensland, for example, where the power utilities can turn off the pool pump via demand side management, but without understanding the condition of the pool water.
“The problem with that is that the electricity company hasn’t got the faintest idea about the chemistry of the water. We adjust the ORP so the pool is in a safe condition. And we won’t turn off the power unless the pool’s okay.”
The system can also be manually switched to “party mode” if required.
When they get a critical mass of pools they will also be able to negotiate with the energy provider to get even better discounts by managing the load of pools in one area collectively.
Impact on the greater industry
Pooled Energy presents a new type of competitor to traditional pool shops and mobile technicians – replacing equipment sales with “free” managed equipment, and managing water quality remotely instead of carrying out physical water testing.
At the moment they only have a relatively small number of customers, but based on the potential energy savings and convenience, there is clearly scope for them to expand.
They are also keen to work with pool builders and install the system with new pools, which Riedl says would be a competitive advantage because the equipment wouldn’t be included in the final price.
Riedl says traditional retail models will face increased challenges with the advent of technology-based model like his, but that it can also bring opportunities. For example Pooled Energy will look to hire pool plumbers and technicians, and have so far employed about 30 people.
“Everything changes with technology,” he says. “But there’ll be a whole new set of businesses that can start up as well.”
Tech23 2015
Pooled Energy will be one of the 23 young, innovative technology companies presenting at Tech23 2015 in Sydney on Tuesday 17th November, 2015.
Venue: The Auditorium, 37 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills
Time: 9.00am to 5.30pm followed by networking and awards ceremony
