Smart homes are becoming a big market in the developed world where you can control your home and appliances from your phone in plenty of different ways. In the developing world, the realities are a bit different and so are the needs of the market.
The problem
A significant portion of natural gas usage in the winter months in Pakistan can be attributed to the water heater. This is made worse by the fact that these old contraptions are not energy efficient and use gas around the clock without adjusting for the usage of hot water.
This extra high usage of gas not only means that consumers have to pay large sums of money in their monthly bills as the pricing of gas usage gets progressively more expensive with the number of units used. It also means that in a country where gas supply does not even come close to the demand, water heaters’ inefficient use of gas adds to the load shedding across the country.
The solution
Jal Bujh is a startup that aims to solve this solution. The solution is divided into two parts – the hardware and the software. The hardware is a regulator that fits on top of your geyser’s thermostat and the software is the app that controls this regulator from your phone. So instead of going to the geyser multiple times a day and switching it on and off, you can set a schedule on the app and the regulator would turn the geyser on and off for you.
According to the founders, this will save consumers $20 or PKR 2,000 a month in gas bills. The solution and the founders’ efforts are laudable and the integration of hardware and software into a complete package is great to see. The usual solution is to focus on easy to build and scale app based solutions. Jal Bujh’s product brings in engineering to the product design and integrates it with the smartphone through the app to complete the loop and give the control to the consumer.
The progress
The startup ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise $35,000 in a month or so, but only raised around 5,500. In their video, one of the founders explains how the prototype is currently made by hand and takes up to 12 hours to make. The money was being raised to increase the scale of production and bring “thousands” of these to the market. Hopefully, the crowdfunding platform was not their only attempt to gather funds for this amazing idea that must go to market.
It is unclear what the price of this product would be and how it has been validated, but I am sure that those details are being shared with prospective investors.
A bit too late?
The solution has such great potential that the earlier it would be launched in the market the better it is for the country. One would imagine though that in times when the majority of households get gas for only few hours a day and usually plan their use of hot water around that time, a gadget that pulls gas to your house would appeal more to them.
However, Jal Bujh is a long-term solution, it is our responsibility to consume gas responsibly and maximize our efficiency. With Jal Bujh, when you become one of the early adapters, you also get bragging rights to be pioneers in using smart home technology in Pakistan.
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