About Home Comfort Zones, Inc

Home Comfort Zones was founded in 2002 by its Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Hal Alles (Ph.D., Physics). Hal is an experienced technology entrepreneur with an in-depth background in industrial research, software, and microprocessor design. Like all of us, Hal was disappointed with the comfort of his home and with the available options and products for improving it. Inspired by a challenge, Hal used his background to integrate a diverse set of technologies (electronics, pneumatics, mechanics, fabrics, and software) to create a room-by-room temperature control system that could be retrofit into an existing home. After trying many approaches, Hal completed a working prototype and Home Comfort Zones was born.

The first Home Comfort Zones System began shipping in 2004. Since 2004 the company has steadily developed its technology and expanded its sales territory. In 2006, the Home Comfort Zones System was voted #1 Coolest Consumer Product at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference. The company launched the current version of its product, MyTemp, in 2007. MyTemp was named to Popular Science’s Best of What’s New 2008 list of top 100 technical innovations and was featured on an episode of Ask This Old House in 2009. MyTemp is currently available in eleven states and the company plans to have nationwide distribution by the end of 2010.

Unlike many other energy savings technologies, MyTemp has four unique features that set it apart:

  1. It addresses the largest source of residential energy consumption
  2. It can be easily installed into existing homes
  3. Homeowner sacrifice is NOT required to achieve energy savings
  4. There is an established market and channel for the solution

Heating and cooling account for nearly 50% of all residential (household) energy consumption and approximately 10% ($100B+) of all US energy consumed, yet it is the least managed energy use. MyTemp’s unique, patented control technology (8 issued and 9 pending) can reduce heating and cooling energy use by as much as 50%.

Central, forced-air systems are the predominant form of residential HVAC (55M+ homes). Despite improvements in the efficiency of the conditioning equipment, and traditional approaches to zoning, the complete system lacks the necessary controls to manage energy consumption while keeping homeowners comfortable.

Home Comfort Zones is targeting existing homes over 2,000 sq. ft. and residential new construction (RNC) with homes over 2,400 sq. ft. This represents 21M+ existing homes and about 50% of the RNC market. Larger homes in more extreme climates with higher energy costs receive the greatest benefits in terms of comfort improvement and energy savings.

MyTemp expands the temperature control and zoning market in two ways. First, it significantly increases the number of homes where retrofit is possible; second, it raises comfort and temperature control to a level, which until now, has been unavailable. In addition, MyTemp will garner additional sales because it's a perfect fit with the growing energy conservation and green building movements.