Investment Opportunity in Energy Efficiency

Here’s my recent submission to the Hedge Connection, where I contribute a monthly article on some cleantech investment opportunity that I happen to be particularly “hot” on.

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As we’ve all observed, the idea of energy efficiency generally often lacks sex appeal.  The concept of the negawatt, i.e., “the cheapest watt-hour of energy is the one you don’t use,” is normally invisible; it may be insulation tucked inside the walls of your house, or the aluminum components under the paint of the car you drive.  Yet those of us who are searching for a sustainable approach to providing energy to the world’s growing and increasingly power-hungry civilization regard efficiency as the “low-hanging fruit.”

Sure, we can try to replace fossil fuels with solar and wind, and obviously that’s a good idea, but the most practical opportunities to keep the world’s carbon in the ground and out of our atmosphere reside in simply reducing the amount of energy we’re consuming on a minute to minute basis.

This month’s cleantech business deals with this exact notion, in particular, how we can provide heat where it’s needed in a far more efficient fashion that ever before.  Think for a minute about the “radiant” heat from our floors (which is really conduction and convection, rather than radiant), or the heat we provide to our automobile seats, and how these processes are commonly achieved: metal wires of a given resistance that, when a voltage is applied, enable a current to flow that is obstructed by the resistance and causes friction that generates heat.

Well, how efficient is that?  Consider the diagrams and the discussion below, and then use them to arrive at the answer: not very.

Enter a company called LaminaHeat, whose patent-pending breakthrough offers a sheet of material made of non-metallic carbon fiber-based resistive heating; a proprietary mix of cut-to-size carbon fibers in a veil matrix that heats with almost 100% even distribution.  Check this out:

Floor Heating

How does LaminaHeat in traditional floor heating compare to standard hydronic systems where the water is heated by either gas or oil furnace?  The example here compares a water pipe based heating system with typical 150 mm spacing between each pipe with LaminaHeat full-surface PowerFilm. Water pipes need to be placed deep inside the floor for protection and to guarantee zero water leakage and damage.
This deep embedding not only delays the time the heat needs to reach the floor surface, but it also causes a significant amount of heat loss in the floor structure as well.

Based on the 1st Law of Thermodynamics, the LaminaHeat PowerFilm will be 2.2 times more efficient due to the fact of being a full surface heater. Water pipes have 4-5 times less surface area than LaminaHeat PowerFilm to generate heat—hence the deficiency.

The LaminaHeat PowerFilm is less than 50 mm thick and can be embedded directly into a range of industry standard matrices like PVC, laminate or acoustical surfaces instead of being buried in 150 mm of concrete like hydronic pipes. Furthermore, the product is so thin that it can be embedded into the above-mentioned matrices during their production processes without change in final production thickness.  (Standard hydronic pipe based floor-heating system shown on right)

Another key advantage of LaminaHeat is the ability to position the heating element as close to the radiating surface as possible without having any impact on the visual surface finish.  The sample calculation on the right shows LaminaHeat just 2 mm below surface in an 8 mm thick floor laminate. Bringing the heating element so close to the radiating surface causes the heating efficiency to increase again by a factor of 1.34; this in addition to the 2.2 from above bringing the total efficiency to 2.94. Detailed calculations of proof are available on request.

Car seat heating:

Worldwide, about 150 million automotive vehicle seats are manufactured annually, and approximately 20% already have seat heating incorporated. Today almost all are based on resistive wire as shown in the image on the right. The resistive wire will reach a surface temperature well above 100° C, hence the need to embed it inside an insulating foam for protection and place it typically 10 mm away from the surface cover of the seat.  Additional safety features have to be added to make sure that the wire will not overheat and cause a fire.

LaminaHeat in contrast:

• Will not overheat – designed to not exceed 40° C

• 100% of surface heats up at the same time

• Heat is placed directly underneath the textile or leather surface for optimal heating comfort

• Tier 1 supplier can incorporate LaminaHeat in any of his customer desired surface finishes

Additional markets….

Industrial

• Molds, tools, vacuum bags
• Heated presses
• Localized heated flooring on shop floor and manufacturing plants

Comfort

• Garments (Motor bikes, Hunting, Expeditions, Winter gear for elderly people, e.g.)
• Seating (Stadium & Events)
• Building Industry (wall and ceiling)
• Dry Sauna, Countertops, bath tubs, e.g.
• Furniture (personalized heated cubicles, e.g.)

Safety

• Building Industry (de-icing of critical walkways, drive ways, ice dam prevention on roofs)
• Infrastructure (Frost/Ice prevention on bridges, roads, runways, rotor blades on wind farms)
• Transportation (de-icing of truck and bus roofs, de-icing of aircraft wings

Health

• Medical equipment (heated patient tables [CT, MRI, X-Ray], hypothermia patients, incubators)
• Medical support (e.g., heated massage tables)
• Heated mattresses for hospitals and retirement homes
• Hypothermia recovery blankets

Investment Opportunity:

In order to expand its operations, build out its R&D center and build its relationships with OEM customers, the company needs to raise $1.7 million, in exchange for a substantial equity stake.  As always, please let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll connect you directly with the executive team.