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Verizon is now accepting ideas for the 2015 Powerful Answers Award
Expanding its ongoing commitment to innovation and social responsibility, we are currently accepting submissions for the chance to win up to $1,000,000 in prize money. Enter here by June 18th, 2015: verizon.com/powerfulanswers/award/.
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Radiator Labs found an innovative way to bring radiator heat into the 21st Century, earning them a highly coveted 2014 Verizon Powerful Answers Award in the sustainability category and a $250,000 grant.
The company’s efforts include the invention of the “Cozy” – a smart, low-cost drop-on retrofit for radiators that prevents overheating while connecting less sophisticated heating technology to the cloud. This smart-energy storage and distribution system can store, dispense and re-distribute energy based on hyper-local demand, and can help save 30-40 percent in building heating costs by reducing energy use.
We caught up with Marshall Cox, CEO of Radiator Labs, to better understand how he became interested in the Verizon Powerful Answers Program and how Radiator Labs will utilize the funds.
How did you find out about the contest?
I've been in touch with a few people at Verizon about getting connectivity in hard-to-reach places. They told me about the competition, [and it’s also] general knowledge in our incubator (where BandWagon was one of the winners last year!)
Did you think you could be a finalist when you entered?
We're solving a very big New York City problem - so I did think we had a very good chance of finishing.
How will Radiator Labs use the grant?
Radiator Labs is using the grant to fund development - essentially to make a better product to solve this big problem. Part of this development is the integration of Verizon Wireless technology.
What do Verizon’s efforts in this space mean to organizations like Radiator Labs?
Verizon’s efforts in this space are enormously valuable to organizations like us. Connectivity to the cloud is vital to our performance gains in these old buildings (where we use the computational power of the cloud to model building heating dynamics and optimize their energy consumption). The innovations in this field by Verizon are much needed, and the efforts to help small companies like ours are a great boost to our progress.
What’s next for Radiator Labs?
Radiator Labs is fundraising in preparation for a big commercial push. We're designing a next generation system for our market for release in the fall of 2015, and we're very excited about it!