Energy management tools — software and gadgets to help curb energy consumption — are the unofficial must-launch product for greentech firms this summer. And they’ve been coming from everywhere: smaller startups like smart meter software maker eMeter, an international conglomerate like GE (s GE), and mammoth IT firms like Microsoft (s MSFT) and Google. (Read about 10 energy management tools here.) But one New York-based startup called Efficiency 2.0, which has spent the past four years developing sophisticated energy management algorithms, says it’s the first to be able to offer truly targeted energy-efficiency recommendations to customers, which it believes will put it at the front of the pack.
Think about how Netflix (s NFLX) and Amazon (s AMZN) use your demographic and purchase information to recommend books and movies that you’ll actually like and possibly buy. That’s what Efficiency 2.0 is shooting for, company CEO and founder Tom Scaramellino explained in an interview this week. Efficiency 2.0’s software collects a whole bunch of information about the energy consumer — like location, age and demographic data, as well as some answers the consumer provides in response to prompted questions about lifestyle and residence — and churns out recommendations on ways to curb energy consumption that rings true for each individual. For example, if the user is 23 years old, Scaramellino said, then the engine would likely recommend more cost-effective energy-saving techniques that don’t require a lot of upfront expense.
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