WegoWise's Measurement and Verification Business Grows 77 Percent

BOSTON and SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- WegoWise, a building intelligence provider, today announced its measurement and verification business surged 77 percent in the last year. WegoWise now measures energy savings for more than 2,100 building upgrades and retrofits.

"The strong growth of WegoWise's measurement and verification services reflect an evolving efficiency marketplace," said Andrew Chen, CEO of WegoWise. "Utilities and government financing entities are increasingly demanding proof that building upgrades are moving the needle. By helping building managers easily confirm program results, WegoWise empowers property managers to meet this rising demand and unlock more efficiency upgrades."

WegoWise automatically tracks and benchmarks utility use across building portfolios to identify the worst performers ripe for upgrades. The company's growing measurement and verification (M&V) services builds on that platform to compare projected utility use against actual use, helping to identify unforeseen outcomes and ensure retrofits deliver expected savings. Key to WegoWise's rapid growth has been its highly affordable pricing. Typical measurement and verification services add 5-10 percent to a retrofit program budget, whereas WegoWise provides M&V as part of its premium platform for just $24 per building per month.

"WegoWise is focused on delivering the data our customers need to bring their efficiency programs from conception to completion," said Dan Teague, business director at WegoWise. "Finding the worst performing buildings is an important start. But without insight into actual savings, it's impossible to measure return on investment."

Chinatown Community Development Center (Chinatown CDC), a San Francisco-based affordable housing provider, recently partnered with WegoWise to measure and verify energy and water retrofits across their portfolio. Initially, Chinatown CDC staff used WegoWise to compare three buildings' energy and water use before and after completion of retrofits.  WegoWise determined that while the water retrofits had achieved the expected savings, energy retrofits were underperforming. As a result of WegoWise's measurement and verification findings, Chinatown CDC adjusted its energy retrofit program to achieve maximum savings. Additionally, Chinatown CDC expanded the successful water retrofit program across 15 buildings. WegoWise confirmed nearly a 20 percent reduction in consumption or $40,000 in annual water efficiency savings for Chinatown CDC alone.

"WegoWise allowed us to see where our retrofits were working and make the case for devoting staff time and financial resources to expanding those measures across our portfolio," said Joanna Ladd, project manager at Chinatown CDC. "But just as importantly, WegoWise showed us where our investments were falling short.  At one building, we replaced the domestic hot water heater and saw no change in the natural gas use.  This let us know that we had missed the mark on our retrofit, and that the true culprit for the building's high gas use was the space heating system. Through our work with WegoWise, we have realized how important it is to understand deeply how our buildings function as we work to improve not only our buildings' resource consumption, but also the quality of life of our residents."

About WegoWise
WegoWise is an industry-leading utility intelligence provider for the real estate industry. Bridging big data and energy efficiency, WegoWise distills large aggregations of energy and water data into useful, actionable information for building owners, managers, energy auditors and building efficiency programs, enabling them to automatically track, understand and benchmark building performance, and make better efficiency investment decisions. WegoWise's platform regularly identifies impressive opportunities for cost savings, as inefficient buildings typically pay four times the utility costs of efficient buildings. Learn more on our blog: blog.wegowise.com.

About Chinatown CDC
Founded in 1977, Chinatown Community Development Center's (Chinatown CDC) goal is to build affordable housing, develop grassroots leadership, and empower low-income residents and youth for civic engagement in San Francisco. Chinatown CDC owns and/or manages 25 properties in San Francisco, totaling nearly 2100 units of affordable housing for over 2,300 low-income seniors, formerly homeless adults, and working poor families. Chinatown CDC's residents are diverse and speak 14 languages including English, Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese.

Chinatown CDC believes in a comprehensive vision of community that includes a quality environment, healthy neighborhood economies, and active volunteer associations. Chinatown CDC is committed to empowering low-income residents, building coalitions, embracing diversity and advocating for social and economic justice.

SOURCE WegoWise