Frequently Asked Questions

General

1. What is it?
2. How does the system work?
3. How much does it cost?
4. What is the payback period?
5. Who is currently using it?
6. How long is the guarantee / warranty?
7. What is your relationship to Bye Bye Standby?

Smart Energy Controllers

1. What do I need to do to get the Smart Energy Controller working?

Distribution

1. I would like to become a distributor of your products in my country, what is the process?
2. I am worried my customers may try and cut me out of a sale I am working on ... anything you can do to help?
3. What is the difference between a reseller and a franchise partner?
4. Can you localise / translate your system for use in my country?

General

What is it?

The Enistic System is an advanced, wireless smart metering system that allows you to measure and manage the energy use within your buildings, allowing you to get a precise breakdown of where your energy is being used on a circuit by circuit or device by device level.  This is often referred to as a Building Enegy Managements System or "BEMS". With extensive, real-time, online software reporting aimed at helping factories, offices, hotels, schools and colleges it can report energy use:

• by function - for example, air conditioning, lighting, IT servers etc
• by physical location - for example, floor 3 building 5 used X kWh of energy yesterday
• by department - for example, the marketing department used 27% of the energy yesterday, or
• by person - Steve in accounts left his PC on last night and wasted £0.48

The primary function of the system is to monitor, report and analyse but the system also has built-in management systems which allow it to automatically turn off systems at fixed times of the day ("Building Management System" or "BMS")

By breaking down your electricity spend into the various components it allows anyone with a desire to reduce the amount of energy they use to get a better understanding of their energy use and so provide the building blocks to allow that energy use to begin to be managed more efficiently.

How does the system work?

The system uses a wireless communication system to pass messages from the sensors back to a central piece of software that then performs the reporting, analysis and management functions. This central management system, called the Enistic Energy Manager, can be hosted online or locally.  The online system is accessed via an Internet browser meaning you have no software to install. 

Some of our sensors fit into the distribution board and some of them are built into handy 5 way extension strips.  Because the system is wireless, it is very portable and installation is simple, with the average time between opening the box and getting management information less than 5 minutes.

The system uses a wireless signal that hops from one device to another, meaning that in large offices range is not a problem.  So long as each sensor is within 30 metres of any other one of our products, the messages are passed one to another until they reach a central hub called a Zone Controller.  The Zone Controller has the role of managing the network and passing information back to the Enistic Energy Manager.

How much does it cost?

Our starter kits start at around £199. The system is simple to install yourself, but if you would like us to install / configure it we can do so from around £900.

What is the payback period?

Our case studies show a saving of between 21% and 27% per company meaning the payback period is generally 9-12 months.

Who is currently using it?

We are leaders in this sector and have a number of blue chip clients including IBM, Fujitsu, The National Grid and several government departments including many of the local councils.

How long is the guarantee / warranty?

If you buy our systems outright we warrant our equipment for 12 months.  If you rent it we warrant it for the lifetime of the rental period.  Extended warranty packages are also available.

What is your relationship to Bye Bye Standby and Energy Guardian?

Enistic is our range of business energy management solutions. 

We also own the popular Bye Bye Standby brand of energy saving solutions aimed at domestic use and available through many of the better UK and USA retailers, more details here Bye Bye Standby

In addition, we also own Energy Guardian which has a range of systems available for businesses to save energy and uses the Enistic smart metering system shown here. More details: www.energy-guardian.com

Smart Energy Controllers

What do I need to do to get the Smart Energy Controller working?

The smart energy controller will need to be connected to the internet via the RJ45 port, i.e. a normal wired Ethernet patch cable.

In order for the controller to communicate with the centrally hosted management console TCP port 80 will need to be opened outbound from the clients firewall, allowing access to our portal at www.enistic.com.  Enabling access to port 80 outbound is not normally a problem for corporate IT departments as this port is used for everyday internet browsing.

There is no requirement to open any ports for inbound traffic.

Proxy Servers are supported and to get an IP address for the controller, you can either use DHCP or you can set a static IP address manually.  DHCP is enabled as default.

Distribution

I would like to become a distributor of your products in my country, what is the process?

We welcome overseas distributors and deal with each country as a separate distribution area with some larger countries being broken down further into large regions.  For each territory we would initially be able to offer either:

a) Non exclusive reseller rights with a lead protection scheme, or
b) 5 year exclusive distribution rights via the Energy Guardian Franchise System (click here for more information )

If you would like further information about becoming a distribution partner of ours, please contact us.

I am worried my customers may try and cut me out of a sale I am working on ... anything you can do to help?

Sure. Except in exceptional circumstances, in exclusive territories we will deal exclusively through yourself. In non-exclusive territories, we offer a deal registration / margin protection system that works like this:

1. You engage with a customer and gain some traction, i.e. a face to face presentation meeting at least and preferably a tender of some form for a sale of at least £1k value or more.
2. You let us know the details of the opportunity.
3. We may contact the customer to verify the opportunity.
4. If the opportunity is deemed valid, we will provide pricing support for you for six months and not engage in any sales activity directly with the customer or offer pricing support to another reseller for that opportunity
5. In exceptional circumstances, we reserve the right to withdraw the deal registration support or offer it to another partner based on our evaluation of the opportunity.

The small print ...

1. Deal registration is available to authorised resellers only
2. Deals of less than £1k cannot be registered
3. After six months, if a sale has not been closed, the deal will need to be re-registered
4. Deal registrations will be confirmed within 3 working days of notification
5. We aim to support your deals on a reasonable endeavours basis

What is the difference between a reseller and franchise partner?

Resellers: To resell our products you do not need any training or sign any paperwork. You can order on a pro-forma basis using a credit card, bank transfer, cash or cheque. We offer deal registration to authorised resellers as described above.

Franchise partners: Franchise partners undergo significant training and attend ongoing training sessions. They have preferential pricing support, long term exclusive sales territories and extensive brand support. For more information on becoming a franchise partner, please click here .

Can you localise / translate the system for use in my country?

Our system supports multiple currencies and time zones as standard. If you would like to translate it into a different language we can provide tools to enable you to do this.