Innovation that’s hot and cool, all at once

Every now and then, our little island throws us a curveball – this time round, the curveball came in the form of a simple innovation that completely bowled me over.

You might have heard about Mr. Philip Lee, founder of local start-up Omega Thermal, who recently won the Singapore Environment Council-Senoko Power Green Innovations Award at the Green Summit Awards. If you have not, pop by Channelnewsasia for the full article.

Mr. Philip Lee began his business installing solar panels for residential and industrial clients. Three years on, the company releases the S$2,500 Heating Ventilation and Aircon (HVAC) system, a product that uses waste heat from any chiller system (air-conditioning, ice chiller) to make hot water. How very simple but effective.

For the purpose of evaluating Omega Thermal and HVAC for my HOT or NOT category of posts, here are my comments and observations:

• 8/10 for realising that his previous market (landed houses and industrial buildings) would have presented serious growth challenges to his sales – countless other ‘entrepreneurs’ would be perfectly happy to own a business and pocket the steady cashflow that it brings in.
• 8/10 for having the foresight to change strategy and target the air-conditioning in high-rise apartments instead.
• 10/10 for coming up with such a simple but elegant innovation that recycles waste heat, and actually pulling off the engineering.
• 9/10 for winning the award – the award can be a multiplier to his marketing efforts, and help Omega Thermal build mindshare among their potential clients and channel partners.
• 1/10 for taking 3 years to refine the product. I don’t know if HVAC has competing products elsewhere in the world, but heck, a lot can happen in 3 years!
• 3/10 for the existing high cost of the unit. With most high-rise apartments being public HDB flats, and S$2,500 per HVAC versus S$400 for a conventional heater, Mr. Lee will probably need to undertake more R&D to lower costs, while at the same time work out a flexible financing or leasing scheme for apartment owners.
• 2/10 for what I think is a not-too-high barrier to entry. Unless Omega Thermal can file a patent for HVAC while continuing to improve upon its cost and efficiency, as well as diversify its product line AND expand into the regional, if not global market, equivalent competitors can easily emerge and grab market share (globally or regionally, not so much in Singapore).

The verdict? Omega Thermal and HVAC shows promise in capturing the local market, but will need to work a lot harder to gain a foothold overseas. Averaging the above scores gives us…

HOT or NOT
Official rating: 5.85/10