GainSpan, Radio Thermostat, and Our Home Spaces Partner to Bring Wi-Fi-enabled Thermostats to Market

New smart thermostats allow consumers to track and manage home energy consumption using Wi-Fi enabled phones or devices

LAS VEGAS and LOS GATOS, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire/ - INTEROP EXPO, booth 2513, - GainSpan(R) Corporation, a leader in low power Wi-Fi semiconductor solutions; Radio Thermostat Company of America (RTCOA), provider of programmable communicating thermostats; and Our Home Spaces, supplier of energy management solutions for homeowners and developer of iPhone(TM) applications; have joined forces to bring Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats to market. GainSpan's semiconductor technology powers a module that plugs into an RTCOA thermostat to enable it for Wi-Fi, allowing users to remotely control it.

One of RTCOA's communicating thermostats, the CT80, is on display this week through Thursday at Interop Expo in Las Vegas, booth 2513, where GainSpan will conduct a demonstration of the thermostat being controlled from an iPhone.

"The collaboration among our companies has enabled the development of a solution that is easy to provision and install for the typical consumer, yet highly secure," said Bernard Aboussouan, VP of marketing, GainSpan. "GainSpan will extend the availability of low power Wi-Fi technology to other devices, such as water heaters and load shedding devices that can be easily installed and controlled locally or remotely through a Wi-Fi enabled iPhone, iPod touch(R), smartphone, PDA or PC."

"Our customer feedback indicates that low power Wi-Fi technology will be the communication technology of choice for consumers as most are already equipped with Wi-Fi access points and devices," said Dan Goodman, CTO of RTCOA. "Wi-Fi is now everywhere, consumers are familiar with it, and installation is very simple and secure. Also, GainSpan's ultra low power technology allows us to bring battery-powered thermostats to market using the same Wi-Fi module, providing consumers with simple installation in retrofit applications."

"With the new RTCOA thermostat, consumers can dynamically monitor and control their home energy usage wherever they are," said Janet Peterson, CEO, Our Home Spaces. "This capability empowers consumers and makes it extremely easy for them to minimize energy usage, save money, and reduce their carbon footprint."

RTCOA's Wi-Fi-enabled CT80 is an extremely versatile three-stage heat, two-stage cool, programmable communicating thermostat integrating two communicating modules. The modules conform to an industry standard being developed by the U-SNAP Alliance whose mission is to ensure compatibility of devices as the Smart Grid extends into homes. Modules can be snapped into a thermostat or other appliance, allowing users to integrate devices into existing home area networks using Wi-Fi or other communications protocols, and enabling devices to be easily upgraded as technology evolves.

The Wi-Fi module in the CT80 thermostat is powered by GainSpan's GS1010 system-on-chip (SOC), the industry's lowest power consuming Wi-Fi semiconductor solution. The GS1010 contains an 802.11 radio, media access controller (MAC), baseband processor, on-chip flash memory and SRAM, and an applications processor in a single package. It provides a highly scalable, reliable, manageable, and secure wireless link for sensor networks and other applications.

RTCOA's CT80 is available through multiple channels of distribution, including retail outlets such as Home Depot, wholesale HVAC distributors, specialty distributors, and value added resellers. The CT80 is already shipping and the low power Wi-Fi module will start shipping mid-summer.

About GainSpan

GainSpan Corporation, a spinoff of Intel Corporation, is a leader in ultra low power Wi-Fi semiconductor solutions. GainSpan provides the industry's lowest power consuming Wi-Fi single chip solution for battery-powered or energy-harvesting sensor devices and other embedded systems. Devices using GainSpan's solution can run for up to 10 years on a single AA battery. GainSpan enables its customers to leverage the large installed base of Wi-Fi access points and devices and create new products for residential, commercial, and industrial applications, while reducing the overall operation and installation costs of sensor networks. www.gainspan.com.

About Radio Thermostat

Radio Thermostat Company of America (RTCOA) supplies a platform of communicating thermostats that will support virtually any type of communication required by systems integrators. RTCOA currently supports several communication protocols, including Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and Z-Wave, and is continually partnering with technology providers to offer more flexibility to customers. In addition, customers can use our easy-to-use interface to incorporate a wide array of communication protocols to suit their individual needs. www.radiothermostat.com.

About Our Home Spaces

Our Home Spaces provides technology, services and products that empower the consumer, through information and understanding, about their energy consumption at its point of use. We believe that an informed consumer will adjust their use and habits to minimize energy use and costs and hence reduce their carbon footprint. Our Home Spaces' goal is to aid the State of California in meeting their objective of cutting the energy consumption of 13,000,000 homes in California by 50 percent by 2020 by providing energy awareness tools to the consumer. www.ourhomespaces.com

GainSpan is a registered trademark of GainSpan Corporation.

Apple, the Apple logo, iPod, and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc.

SOURCE GainSpan Corporation

RELATED LINKS
http://www.gainspan.com
http://www.radiothermostat.com
http://www.ourhomespaces.com