Residential Water Bill Reduction with Self-powered Diagnostics & Services
The Candide Group LLC
Recipient
Los Angeles, CA
Recipient Location
28th
Senate District
57th
Assembly District
$429,272
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
This project kicked-off in July 2022. Since then the project team has begun material manufacturing for a custom multi-layered piezoelectric capacitor and procuring all necessary components through suppliers and in-house manufacturing within geometric, mechanical, and electrical specifications.
The Issue
The cost of lithium batteries has fallen dramatically in the past decade. For a 4-hour, grid-tied solution, the levelized cost is approaching $0.20/kilowatt-hour (kWh). However, single-use batteries can be 1,000 times more expensive given the need for replacement. Throw-away batteries remain the most expensive source of power in the world today. Consequently, battery devices are extremely low power, typically drawing <1 milliwatt (mW) on average to reduce the burden of replacements or recharging. The poor economics limit the use of battery devices at scale (for instance, large-scale infrastructure monitoring). Alternatively, energy harvesting could support numerous and more powerful devices while generating cost savings over time.
Project Innovation
This project will deploy a novel auto-modulating power source (AMPS) device and demonstrate water and cost savings across approximately 150 affordable housing units in Los Angeles. The bill savings from water and avoidance of lithium battery replacements will be scalable to over two-thirds of California households to meet Assembly Bill 758 mandates and other municipal green initiatives.The target application is multi-family housing where a majority of water meters are read bimonthly and tenants overpay regardless of usage.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
Affordability
Enabling widescale water submetering and quality monitoring can help reduce costs by detecting leaks or other issues with water delivery.
Equity
Most multi-family housing tenants overpay for water due to inaccurate submetering - this technology can increase metering accuracy, which can catch issues early and help reduce costs.
Key Project Members
Kevin Lu
Subrecipients
QorTek, Inc.
Match Partners
Pyro-E, LLC
QorTek, Inc.
