Are you facing problems pertaining to shortage of water and/or excessive electricity bills at your home? If so, you need not worry anymore! This IoT based startup; called FluxGen, has launched a mobile app that enables you to monitor electricity and water usage at your homes. FluxGen Engineering Technologies was founded by Ganesh Shankar, who is a graduate of IISc. According to him, apart from shortage of electricity and water in developing nations, wastage of electricity and water is also another big problem. FluxGen provides low-cost and local Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for energy and water management (EWM).
The mobile app, developed by FluxGen, monitors electricity and water usage, using wireless channels, in any building, be it a residential apartment or a factory or a commercial building and gives estimates on the expected monthly bill. It also gives tips on how to save electricity and water (like leak detection, excessive consumption alert and theft). According to FluxGen, reducing power theft and increasing usage efficiency via mobile – enabled smart meters could save enough electricity in India to power more than 10 million homes! In 2011, 33 – year – old Ganesh Shankar had founded FluxGen as a bootstrapped venture for solar installation and monitoring. The startup got into IoT business last year (2015) and is now part of the NASSCOM CoE – IoT ecosystem. He said that customers would prefer to use his mobile app, over existing EWM solution providers because his company provides cost – effective and wireless solutions to electricity and water problems as opposed to existing companies which provide costly and wired solutions to electricity and water problems.
The FluxGen mobile app can even monitor electricity usage generated from wind or solar energy. It also does automatic scheduling of water tanker by continuously monitoring water levels in overhead tanks and water sumps. FluxGen is winner of the IoT startup of the year 2016 award held at IoT India Congress recently. FluxGen has already provided solutions for various clients, including Indian Railways, Titan Watches, Robert Bosch, Bulher group and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Read more on Mobile Apps
Ganesh Shankar was initially working for General Electric (GE) Company at Hyderabad and then worked for an aviation company. He had resigned his job to ‘do something worthwhile’ for India where people were facing problems of water and electricity shortage. According to Ganesh, the career path ahead of him, wasn’t adventurous enough and didn’t give him enough opportunities to do something useful for the country. Though Ganesh and his team had faced obstacles initially, his company is running at a profit now. “We are touching the Rs. 1 crore revenue mark this year and are investing our profits in R&D”, he said.
The obstacles Ganesh had overcome were also many. “The expense involved in running the business was high as unlike a lot of others in our line of business, we invested significant capital on research and development. We did product development from the margins we made in projects and other consulting work. At times, I had to take personal loans and put that into the company to run some ‘dream’ projects”, Ganesh said. “Sometimes our company faced rejection from investors, cash flow problems and did not get the desired results”, he added. These problems had tested his patience to the core, but he overcame them thanks to the resilience shown by his team and guidance given by his mentors: Gopala Krishna Murthy and Chandru Thimmapiah, who kept his team in good spirit when things were not going well for them.
FluxGen mobile app is a very useful app, especially in a developing country like India, where wastage and theft of electricity and water are high, leading to shortage of water and electricity in many cities and villages. If people can save water and electricity by fixing leakages and addressing theft, the amount of electricity and water saved would be enough to serve a million homes! Since this mobile app monitors water levels and electricity usage wirelessly, customers will find it convenient and cost – effective. The fact that the app automatically books water tankers, if water levels go too low and the that it gives tips on how to save water and electricity is something customers will also find very convenient. Overall it is a very useful app and an innovative startup. The government of India must promote more of such innovative startups. Read more on Startup News
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NEERAJ KAPOOR
November 23, 2016 at 10:26 am
Simplest way to Save Water in the World
Step 1: At a washbasin – Just turn water tap maximum and measure total volume of water in a minute. That’s around 9 liters or more.
Step 2: There is a knob below every wash basin.
Step 3: Turn it little to reduce water flow.
Step 4: Water tap maximum volume of water in a minute should be equal to 6 liters or near it.
So, you save water 33% or more at the wash basin with no cost, time, or much effort.
Computation: Annual Saving on one Tap
3 Litre x 10 minutes in a Day x 365 days in a year = 10,950 litres water saved
Market cost of 1 Litre water Bottle is Rs. 20.00 (In India)
So – Cost of 10,950 Litres X 20 = Rs 2,19,000.00 (Rupees Two Lac Nineteen Thousand Only)
Robin
July 24, 2017 at 3:20 pm
Telegram was launched in 2013 by brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who previously founded the Russian social network VK, but had to leave the company after it was taken over by Mail.ru Group