Soon the sweater will be taken out of the closet again. This year maybe a scarf and a pair of very thick, warm socks. Winter is coming and then every kilowatt hour counts in view of high energy prices and a possible gas shortage. The motto then is not to heat too much. In this respect, what Julian Dawo and his employees came up with in the Unterfoehringer industrial park came at exactly the right time: the start-up Juconn GmbH promises to trim old heating systems for low consumption. Regardless of whether it is an old oil or gas heating system or a heat pump. Dawo speaks of “approximately 20 percent” smart savings, after a short time and without loss of comfort. So if you use around 2000 liters of heating oil a year, you can save 600 euros a year at the current prices.
It almost sounds too good to be true. But Julian Dawo doesn’t seem at all like someone who is in the mood for fibbing. The 32-year-old computer scientist has already got a lot going in his younger years. He studied at the Technical University of Munich and founded Minnt GmbH in 2016, which today can look back on many years of experience in IT projects and software development. A spin-off from this is Juconn GmbH, which has now again programmed various clever applications with which, for example, district heating networks are digitally optimized at Heatconn or cooling systems at Tempconn. With Immoconn, Dawo now has a product in its virtual shop window that could do great things this winter.
A box like a WiFi router and sensors on two heating pipes: that’s actually all Julian Dawo needs to save energy.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
In this case, Dawo is a real lucky child. In the meeting room of his company on Feringastrasse, he tells soberly how he came up with the idea of developing the small box with sensors that you can easily install on your old heating system so that it reads data and sends it to a software platform forwards. The boiler room was “until now a black box,” says the 32-year-old. Hardly anyone had a deeper insight into it. He thought he could create more transparency for tenants and give landlords a tool so that they could save on unnecessary service trips.
In the past, the main thing was that the apartment was warm. This attitude has changed
A heating system is easier to maintain with Immoconn, says Dawo. More than 50 percent of the systems in the cellars of the Germans are 15 years old or older. A defect is often only noticed hours later when the heating stays cold. Days could pass before the landlord is informed and a craftsman is found.
Another aspect was, of course, being able to better adjust heating systems with the help of the data determined by the device. That wasn’t so important as long as fossil fuels were cheap, says Dawo. The house or apartment should be warm and cozy. The consequences for the climate or the costs are secondary. “When in doubt, more energy and less trouble” – in Dawo’s opinion, that was the motto according to which many people operated their heating systems. Of course, Russia’s war against Ukraine and its consequences have changed this attitude.
Wiring in the boiler room: The Juconn company wants to use simple means to optimize old systems. It doesn’t matter whether they run on gas or oil.
(Photo: private)
Now it plays a role when the water, which is heated with precious because scarce energy, is actually needed. “A shift worker showers at a different time,” says Dawo. No standardized day-night circuit fits into his life. With the help of artificial intelligence, Dawo’s company Juconn, which offers the devices for heating optimization, evaluates the data read out and provides specific recommendations for action. According to the company boss, the first findings were already available after a week, and after a month the picture of the situation was pretty clear. Then it’s just a small step to adjust the heating, says the man from Unterföhring. “It really can be done. In every boiler room.”
It was already put to the test in Magdeburg, where the technology was used in several blocks of flats. According to Sarah Wannagat, head of property management at the housing manager Bricks, the app now gives early warning if something goes wrong in the boiler room. “So we can react before the tenant notices the problem.” In the past few weeks, the system has also been used to gradually reduce energy consumption. “We have probably succeeded quite well in this. The feedback from the tenants is positive.”
Savings were achieved in a test run in residential complexes in Magdeburg.
(Photo: private)
Juconn GmbH is convinced that the technology could be put to good use by many property management companies in order to save energy this winter. The devices are available and deliverable at short notice. “The caretaker can install it in a few minutes,” says Dawo. The one-off costs are 1500 euros, later a license fee of 20 euros per month will be charged. Depending on the energy price, the investment will have paid for itself after around three years.
Christian König also believes in the success of the project because he thinks it is very cheap. König is an investment manager at Grünwald Equity, a company that also puts money into green energy projects and invests wherever returns can be expected. One project was the geothermal power plant in Traunreut, says König, which was recently sold. Now the Grünwalder are counting on the small software company in Unterföhring making a big splash.