Energy is an important part of everyone’s day to day life. Since our project is energy focused, we have a wide range of potential stakeholders. We decided to narrow this range down by focusing on energy use in residential buildings. This allowed us to identify and concentrate on key stakeholders that will be impacted by our project.
Identities of our Key Stakeholders:
Residential Homeowners who want increased control and customization over the climate within their shelter: Our largest stakeholders are individuals who live in residential houses or pay the energy bills for one. The homeowners that we are focusing on are individuals that are interested in more control over the climate in their home. These homeowners also should have reasonable resources in order to implement home equipment changes.
Renters in Apartment Complexes: While potentially not as large a stakeholder for our project as homeowners, renters are still one of our key stakeholders. While living in their respective buildings, their comfort, satisfaction, and potentially their rent price will be impacted by our project. Landlords can bear the upfront costs of our product that will lead to overall savings within a short payback period. These savings can be passed on to the renters in the long-term and can help address the issue of energy poverty.
Private Companies already in the energy business: Gathering information from private companies operating in the energy sector is important when identifying potential problems. These companies are constantly thinking about energy related problems and potential solutions for them. Furthermore, in the future, these companies may be financially interested in our final design if it is successful and makes an impact in the energy market.
Additional Stakeholders that helped define our functional requirements:
HVAC Contractors (Hannabery HVAC): HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) contractors are valuable to us in developing our functional requirements relating to thermal comfort. Their experience with HVAC systems will also be valuable when designing a solution.
Smart home technology Companies (Ecobee): Companies, like Ecobee, produce energy smart, energy efficient thermostats that can reduce load strain on the electric grid. These stakeholders can help guide our functional requirements when defining energy efficiency and grid strain reduction requirements.
Easton Housing Authority: Since our product will be used in residential houses, Housing authorities are another stakeholder that can help give us regulatory guidelines and standards for our functional requirements.
Identifying our stakeholders allowed us to take the next steps of distributing a survey and conducting interviews to learn more about their perspectives and needs.
Some specific individuals and companies that were interviewed include:
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- Ty Newhall, Vice President of Build Equinox: Ty Newhall has a background in academia and is currently the Vice President of Build Equinox, a company that works with smart ventilation systems. Newhall’s knowledge and background in the energy market and in academia was very useful to us when determining potential energy related problems to solve.
- Andy Doble, Engineering Sales Manager from Oxygen 8: The company Oxygen 8 develops energy efficient HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems primarily for commercial buildings. Andy Doble works in sales for Oxygen 8 and has good knowledge about the energy market and the importance of affordability when developing products.
- Ben Paulis Senior Project Mechanical Engineer from Lutron: Lutron is a company that deals with commercial and residential lighting solutions and Ben Paulis is a recent graduate from Lafayette College. Lighting is not what our project is focusing on but Lutron is still part of the energy industry and is able to understand the importance of providing quality solutions at an affordable price.
- Chelsea Till Sales Leader from Lutron: Till works in sales for Lutron and was able to give us insight about what customers are interested in. She gave us valuable information about how people want to save money but are also willing to pay for products that make them feel safe and secure.
- Kate Yoder Senior Project Manager at Trane Technologies: Trane Technologies is a manufacturer of sustainable HVAC systems. Kate Yoder gave us insight about what is important to HVAC manufacturing companies while designing their products.
- Craig Updegrove Director of Administration at the Easton Housing Authority: Craig Updegrove and the Easton Housing Authority were generous, and allowed us to tour the HVAC systems at the Bushkill House in-person and witness how the system is controlled.