Melon: a different kind of energy efficiency company

Do any of your friends wake up in the morning wondering how they are going to save energy today?  We do.  That might sound strange, but we really get a kick out of saving money and saving the planet at the same time.  That's what drove us to the energy efficiency industry, and that is what motivated us to establish Melon.  

We are not old school, but that does not mean we are not experienced.  We looked around and realized that not all energy efficiency projects are created equal, that some make really great financial sense (lighting, scheduling, commissioning) and some do not usually pay for themselves just with energy savings (see windows, solar panels in Seattle).  

We believe that "you can't manage what you don't measure", so we love to complete Energy Star Benchmarking on buildings.  In fact we think everyone should conduct a low cost Energy Star Benchmark on their building, so we are making it simple and affordable.  Energy Star is a great place to start, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.  From there we are developing a lot of great analytical tools to identify ways to save energy before we even set foot in your building.  Actually we usually won't come to your building (we use our melons remotely), but we will recommend someone from our Melon network who will.

Over the last few years the Melon team has watched the industry move from hype to despair and now to adoption.  But the team believes that while industry thought leaders clamored on the one side for cutting edge data visualization tools assuring instant savings and on the other side deep retrofits with long payback periods and large price tags, customers demand simple, rapid payback solutions.  

Cities across the united states are requiring buildings to tell the world their Energy Star Scores.  In NYC, California, DC, Seattle, Philadelphia, and more private owners are now thinking about their energy usage because they are about to release the information to the public. A good summary of current building disclosure laws can be found here.

The massive utility and government investment in smart meters across the country now provides more than 30 million homes and over 1 million commercial customers interval electricity data.  Thanks to the “Green Button” initiative, third parties can access smart meter data at almost zero marginal cost.  With this data in hand, companies like Melon can deliver new insights at a much lower cost structure than traditional solutions.

For owners and operators of commercial buildings who are required by law to benchmark their building’s energy use the Melon benchmark app is a simple and low-cost application that calculates an Energy Star score and creates personalized recommendations for improvement.  Unlike expensive consultants or a tedious manual process, our product makes Energy Star benchmarking ridiculously easy and actionable.

Melon delivers additional energy savings through new products and partnerships.

Melon is building a thriving business where ideas and logic trump hierarchy.  If you are passionate about doing well by doing good, please send us a note at careers@melonpower.com