Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is DreamWatts? Why should I be interested?
A: DreamWatts is a web-based, user-friendly system for automating small site commercial and residential energy management. DreamWatts saves customers money and provides ease and simplicity to their personal and commercial energy management. The solution uses a simple web interface, Internet enabled thermostats and sophisticated centralized energy control software to optimize energy usage and building management.
Q: How will DreamWatts help me save money?
A: Programmable thermostats have been demonstrated to help customers save money by ensuring people don't heat or cool homes unnecessarily when they are away or sleeping. Every degree of temperature the building is raised or lowered can save or cost you substantial amounts of money over the course of a year. Industry data indicates that a large percentage of programmable thermostats are NEVER programmed by the customer. In addition, customers who DO program their thermostats often find them complicated to use and miss opportunities to reap additional energy savings by customizing the programming for specific days and times of the week. The DreamWatts solution makes programming and adjusting your thermostat a snap. Intuitive web-based screens help guide you through the process quickly and easily. The web-based approach makes it much easier to explore different energy management configurations and track your energy usage results directly via the helpful web graphic usage charts. So, not only do you save energy ($$ money) by programming your thermostat, but in addition you save energy ($$ money) by further optimizing your energy management using the feedback from the DreamWatts solution and easily experimenting with different energy profiles within your building environment. Overtime, you can optimize your building for maximum energy savings balanced with comfort.
Q: Is DreamWatts complicated to install?
A: It's quick! A skilled technician can install a DreamWatts system in 20 to 60 minutes depending on the site's unique environment. The installation process includes thermostat and gateway installation and configuration plus the online customer account activation.
Q: Is DreamWatts easy to use?
A: Yes. You can access your account and adjust the temperature settings at your site anywhere you have access to the web. What could be simpler? DreamWatts allows you to program each day individually or treat blocks of days exactly the same way. For example, say your office opens Monday through Friday at 8:00 AM and closes at 5:00 PM and you'd like the office at 68 degrees while occupied and 60 degrees when unoccupied (evenings, early mornings and weekends). With DreamWatts you can easily program a Work "Day Type" to pre-heat the site starting at 7:30 AM to 68 degrees Monday through Friday. After 5:00 PM weekdays and then all weekend you can set the Work Day Type to maintain the site temperature at 60 degrees. If you change your mind you can easily adjust online or if you like, directly at the thermostat.
Q: What is the return on investment for a DreamWatts system?
A: The return on investment (ROI) will vary depending on the site environment (size of building, quality of insulation etc), but more importantly based on the local region's energy costs. In a region with higher electricity rates the ROI will occur more quickly. Our pilot studies indicate a payback range between 8 months to 15 months depending upon the local region's energy costs.
Q: Can a DreamWatts system control more than one thermostat? More than one building?
A: Yes! The strength of the DreamWatts system is that it can support multiple thermostats and multiple buildings all from one simple web interface. This is an incredibly powerful capability. No more wandering around from room to room or building to building adjusting separate thermostats by hand. You can now adjust and monitor all the thermostats and all the rooms from one simple set of web-based screens, anywhere you have internet access.
Q: What do I get in a DreamWatts Solution or Evaluation Kit?
A: The DreamWatts Evaluation Kit consists of a ZigBee-enabled thermostat, a DreamWatts Zigbee-to-Internet gateway and installation instructions. It's everything you need to evaluate the DreamWatts solution in your own commercial or residential test environment prior to your larger scale customer deployments. We will provide phone and internet-based customer support and will contact you periodically to receive your DreamWatts product feedback.
Q: Where can I buy a DreamWatts solution?
A: Currently, DreamWatts is sold exclusively through Heating, Ventilation and Air Condition (HVAC) dealers and distributors. Contact us via email or phone (details on our Order Page or Support Page) and we will direct you to an HVAC provider in your region that carries our DreamWatts solution.
Q: How can I become a DreamWatts reseller?
A: We'd love to talk with you. Please contact us via email or phone (details on our Order Page or Support Page) and we will get a meeting scheduled to discuss the opportunity in more detail.
Q: Do you have commercial deployments of DreamWatts systems?
A: Yes. We are very pleased and excited to have numerous pilot and commercial DreamWatts installations in place. Please contact us (details on our Order Page or Support Page) and we'll be happy to share with you more details regarding this topic.
Q: Can I manually override the DreamWatts program at the thermostat?
A: Yes. Sometimes you may want to quickly adjust the temperature up or down for a very short interval. The DreamWatts solutions allows you the flexibility to do this using the manual controls of the thermostat. For a duration of 3 hours or less you can simply adjust the temperature using the up and down arrows on the physical thermostat. After the manual adjustment interval is complete the DreamWatts internet-based programming will again assume control and the site will return to the previously programmed DreamWatts settings.
Q: Does DreamWatts support software updates from the internet?
A: Yes. PowerMand updates the DreamWatts Gateway and thermostat at regular cadences with updated software functionality and services. This is one of the most powerful aspects of the DreamWatts solution. Without lifting a finger your solution receives new capabilities automatically downloaded via the Internet from PowerMand's central servers and DreamWatts administration center.
Q: Does DreamWatts support only furnaces and air conditioners?
A: Not at all! Dreamwatts supports a broad array of devices, from thermostats to control your furnace or air conditioner to load control modules to allow remote scheduling and control of any 120VAC or 240VAC load, to meters and sensoring devices. Additional supported 3rd party hardware is being brought online frequently. Check back often to find out what new devices we support!