Bosch Thermotechnology Corporation of Londonderry, NH and MyPointNow have launched a series of online systems on August 20 for the Buderus Boiler Line. This program, coined as the Compass system, is a comprehensive online array of interactive resources including:

• Online product registration and feedback systems for both product owners and installing contractors
• Comprehensive contractor search functions including a ranking system that allows consumers to identify the top Buderus installers in their community
• A lead management system whereby potential customers can contact contractors online combined with a responsive contact management system that will allow participating companies to improve their Buderus sales.
• The Compass contractor intranet site. Every Buderus contractor can log into their own intranet site to manage leads, register installations, review consumer feedback, access technical information, and participate in training.
• A Compass Flex-Content system that can customize intranet site content to meet the needs of other trade partners such as builders, engineers, institutional users, and utility or regulatory personnel.
• Full sales management integration with Buderus wholesalers, independent sales representatives, and Buderus personnel.
• Full integration with MyPointNow contractor website systems and the MyPointNow network.

Compass is the most comprehensive online system in the HVAC industry today. It empowers trade participants and allows them to efficiently improve their sales and market share by better serving the hydronic heating and domestic hot water markets.

By: Todd Woody

The anemic economic recovery may have hit the dog days of summer with consumer spending and factory orders slowing, but the new energy economy continues to surge, according to a report released Tuesday by Ernst & Young.

Venture capital (VC) investment in renewable energy, electric cars, energy efficiency, and other green technology jumped to $1.5 billion in the United States in the second quarter of 2010, a nearly 64 percent spike over the second quarter of last year. Green tech investment now has returned to the record levels of the third quarter of 2008, before the global economic collapse shut down the VC’s ATM.

So where’s the money going? Between March and June, at least, investors hitched a ride with startups developing electric cars and the infrastructure to support them. Better Place, the Palo Alto company building electric vehicle charging networks around the world, snagged $350 million. Fisker Automotive, a Southern California startup building a sexy and pricy plug-in hybrid sports sedan called the Karma, scored $35 million, according to the report.

Solar remains a hot opportunity for venture capitalists, with nearly $439 million invested in the second quarter, a 183 percent increase from the year-ago quarter.

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According to business intelligence provider, IntertechPira, the total value of clean technologies by end-use category globally is expected to rise by over 250% to a sizeable $525 billion in 2019. This represents average annual growth of 13.5% for the ten year period from 2009.

Clean technologies include products and technologies designed to be economically competitive by using less material and energy to reduce their environmental impact compared with incumbent technologies. “The Future of Clean Technologies” report published by IntertechPira takes an in-depth look at the future of clean technologies with quantitative market forecasts to 2019 broken down by product, technology and end-use sector. It details prospects for raw material and technology suppliers and identifies the key materials, products, technologies and end-use sectors most likely to undergo significant growth over the next ten years.

The report covers the global market for clean technology devices and materials. Global is defined as including western Europe, eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa, principally South Africa. The report finds that growth rates in clean technologies “greatly outperform those aimed at the traditional power generation industry”. According to IntertechPira, the pace of growth, and the promise it may hold, has a lot to do with the high-profile involvement of governments and private investors in many of the sectors.

Clean-tech still seen as expensive

Clean technology investments are still seen as astronomically costly by many venture capital firms, who tend to become nervous when faced with capital-intensive industrial segments. As such, most are making smaller sums available for small R&D teams to work with, rather than releasing larger sums, more appropriate for project finance-type capital investments. The emphasis seems to be very much upon supporting ventures headed by people with operational experience and technical expertise.

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By Dan Holohan

I once asked a friend how he had managed to become so financially successful. “I study what knuckleheads do,” he explained, “and then I do the opposite.”

Here is a recipe for complete and utter disaster. It contains wicked acts people in the heating industry have actually done, or have, on certain days, at least considered doing. Use it wisely. To be successful, study it well, and then do the opposite.

1. Have all your price quotes end with the numbers 666.

2. When the woman of the house comes downstairs to see how you’re doing, smile sweetly and say, “That’s a lovely dress you’re wearing, Mrs. Cleaver.”

3. Replace a steam boiler, but don’t flush out the old wet returns.

4. Never perform a heat loss calculation. Heat loss calculations are only for people who have had no real world experience. It’s always better to guess.

5. Get either of these vanity license plates: ICHEATU or ROBUBLND

Read the entire list.

As countries around the world seek ways to balance supply and demand of energy, so-called “smart grids” and related home automation sensor technologies are stepping up to fill the need. Bluetooth low energy technology promises to change the way we think about power consumption.

Imagine creating a network of tiny wireless sensors in your home that monitors energy costs and controls electrical appliances to save energy and reduce cost. That’s the idea behind the concept of a “Smart Grid” – a two-way monitoring system that allows consumers and utility providers to better control electricity supply and demand. Making that type of intelligent network a reality is closer than you might think.

It’s no secret that, over the past few years, increasing demand for electricity has strained electrical grids to the point of near or total failure. High-profile blackouts, like the August 2003 blackout that crippled New York City or the blackout that disrupted services in Italy and Switzerland just a month later, and overworked systems like the one in California, have made consumers and utility companies painfully aware of the need to reduce energy consumption.

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