Questions

The information here reflects the main things people want to know when we talk to them about PassivEnergy™. If you do not find an answer to your question in the list below, please email tellus@passivsystems.com to send your question to one of our team.

1. Can PassivEnergy™ be installed into any home?

PassivEnergy™ has been designed to work in as many homes as possible but there are two criteria that must be met for our product to work. Firstly, your home must, like the most homes, have a gas or oil fired boiler that can be controlled by a standard programmer or controller. And secondly, your home needs to have a broadband connection.

2. Does PassivEnergy™ work with no internet connection?

The PassivHub uses your internet connection to stay in touch with PassivOnline - our web-based management service. This lets us keep your system up-to-date with the latest software, provide it with weather information, and will soon let you look at a history of the data it's recorded and even manage your home remotely. HOWEVER, your PassivHub will function normally for days or weeks with no internet connection, so if you prefer to disconnect it from time-to-time (or if your internet connection isn't that reliable), you may do so.

3. Will the wireless work in my [big|stone] house?

Almost certainly, yes. The wireless standard we're using (ZigBee) has been specifically designed for home management applications in a wide variety of building types all over the world. Unlike other networks (WiFi, for example) it's a "mesh" network, which means that information can "hop" from device-to-device until it finds a way to get where it needs to be. We can supply dedicated routers (repeaters) to help this process if required in your home.

4. Is it secure?

Absolutely.  We've taken great care to protect your information from unauthorised access, whether in the wireless network in your home, over the internet, or in our servers.

5. Does it detect occupancy automatically?

At present, PassivEnergy™ asks you to give it a daily and weekly schedule of when you expect your home to be occupied, unoccupied, asleep, and so on.  You can then dynamically alter things (say, if you come home early) by simply pressing a button (or soon, using an iPhone App).  In the future, we may introduce dedicated detectors to determine if your home is occupied, or we might be able to infer human presence from other data.

6. Can I access PassivEnergy™ remotely?

Very soon, yes.  We'll introduce an iPhone App that will let you easily change your occupancy state from near or far, and warn PassivEnergy that you're coming home early or late.

7. How much energy will PassivEnergy™ save me?

PassivEnergy™ is designed to cut out energy waste in the home. We use advanced techniques such as optimum start, weather compensation and smoothing which promote energy saving. Our system will almost certainly help you find ways to save. Research into advanced heating controls (part of PassivEnergy™) by BRE show them capable of cutting up to 18% from energy bills in homes. However, if you have been micro-managing your energy use already, the benefit of PassivEnergy™ will be less about cost saving and more about control and convenience.

PassivEnergy™ can also help you live more comfortable, and if you choose comfort over cost, your bills might rise.

8. How much electricity does the PassivHub consume?

We've designed PassivEnergy™ to consume very little electrical power.  We estimate that a typical installation should consume less than 5 Watts.  That's less than 4 units of electricity each month, which would cost less than 50p on a typical tariff.

9. Can I install PassivEnergy myself?

Because it connects directly into your boiler, PassivEnergy™ is designed only for professional installation by Part P qualified installers. But installation is still quick and easy, through one of our team of nationwide installers.