Intellihot, the clean technology company creating transformative, next-generation solutions to transform the built environment, today announced the launch of its latest product, the telliBot_ai, the world’s first intelligent water heater systems analyzer. Current telliBot_ai customers include Benihana Inc., the international restaurant chain.

Hot water is critical for hotels, restaurants, and all other commercial and industrial buildings that need immediate hot water around the clock to remain operational. Unexpected water heater malfunctions can become financially and reputationally devastating for businesses. Equipped with advanced intelligence and sensors, the telliBot_ai analyzes operations by monitoring flow rates, temperatures, firing rate, and more. With this data, Intellihot accurately predicts the useful lifespan of water heater systems, allowing customers to plan for replacements to avoid unexpected hot water outages or system failures.

“The water heating industry has been using the same technology for decades, storing and heating hundreds of gallons of water all day, every day. With vast inefficiencies and energy waste, water heating in the built environment is primed for technological disruption,” said Sridhar Deivasigamani, Intellihot CEO and co-founder. “With the telliBot_ai, the latest Intellihot technological innovation, we can cut operational risks for commercial businesses, while also helping them move to a better and more efficient system — a win-win for business and the environment.”

The telliBot_ai installation and monitoring process is simple: Intellihot ships out the smart device to each customer location. The device itself is easily installed — no special tools needed — to existing water heaters of any make and model. After ten days of monitoring, Intellihot issues a detailed health report for all monitored heater units. With this information, Intellihot customers can anticipate future water shutdowns and upgrade to more efficient and precisely-sized equipment — reducing capital and operational expenditures, as well as energy waste.

“Constant, predictable access to the hot water system is critical to commercial business operations, as any restaurant owner will tell you — there is simply no room for compromise,” said JoDee Johnson, Senior Director of Design, Construction and Facilities at Benihana, Inc. “I cannot overstate the peace of mind provided by Intellihot’s telliBot_ai, which continually monitors the health of our hot water heaters and lets us know when we may need a repair or replacement well in advance of a hot water shutdown. Not only does this save us precious time, but it significantly reduces energy and water waste, while keeping us up and running.”

Current Intellihot customers include Marriott, Hilton, Best Western, Levi’s Stadium, and the Baltimore VA Medical Center, as well as many other large commercial facilities. Intellihot’s suite of next-generation technology solutions are used across many industries, including stadiums, restaurants, hospitality, education, health care,senior living, and manufacturing.

For more information on the telliBot_ai, please visit: https://intellihot.com/products/tellibot-ai/

About Intellihot

Founded in 2009, Intellihot creates transformative, next-generation technology solutions to transform the built environment, providing customers with increased efficiency, reliability, safety, and sustainability. Purpose-built for commercial applications, Intellihot’s advanced technology solutions are carefully engineered to provide decades of reliable and predictable service, reducing water and energy waste as well as capital and operating costs for customers.

To learn more about Intellihot, please visit intellihot.com and follow the company on Twitter and LinkedIn.

INTELLIHOT: ROLLING OUT “HOT WATER AS A SERVICE” FOR THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 

Company Promises a Greener, More Economical, & More Reliable Method of Delivering Hot Water 

In the past decade, technology has advanced at a dizzying rate in almost every industry — but some have stubbornly refused to change.

The built environment, which includes hotels, restaurants, and office buildings — as well as the HVAC and hot water systems that power them — continue to use the same archaic technology that dates back to the age of the Victrola.

Consider hot water heaters. A minor hot water issue can quickly become a catastrophe for businesses: hotel guests can’t take showers. Restaurants can’t wash their dishes. Customers get angry. And revenue drops precipitously.

Yet despite the importance of continuous, immediate hot water delivery for showers, dishwashers, and myriad other uses, the technology behind providing water has remained stuck in place. Currently, commercial buildings store hundreds to thousands of gallons of water and need to keep it hot 24/7. Also, they double up the system to ensure redundancy, making it wasteful and highly inefficient.

And every year, Americans waste two million Olympic-size swimming pools of water just waiting for the right temperature.

moth tanks are wasteful, leak-prone, costly, and can be a breeding ground for fatal bacteria such as legionella. It’s a system in dire need of innovation, but no one has stepped up to change it.

Until today.

Deep in the heartland of the Midwest in Galesburg, Illinois, accomplished engineers Sri Deivasigamani and Siva Akasa, have recruited a homegrown team of engineers, machinists, and thinkers to help develop a simpler, smarter, more efficient future. In doing so, they’ve created a profitable company that employs more than 100 people, is bringing manufacturing back to the Midwest, and is dramatically transforming the water-service industry.

Intellihot offers high-tech solutions to these water issues and is leading the charge toward a cleaner, cheaper, safer, and more reliable future. By combining AI with leading-edge technology, Intellihot is prepared to revolutionize the HVAC industry with hot water-as-a-service and change the way people think of hot water.

With a global hot water market of 28 billion dollars, Intellihot’s mission is to turn this corner of the business enterprise green and improve outcomes for their clients. Intellihot’s tankless water heaters provide to 50% in energy savings, take up 80% less space than current systems, improve efficiency by up to 70%, saved 3.1 billion plus tons of carbon emissions and have the potential to cut global CO2 emissions from hot water and HVAC systems by 50 percent, enabling their customers to meet their 2030 sustainability goals.

The company has also created the telliBot_Ai, a water heater forecaster that analyzes the output of any hot water heater make and model to determine its health and when it might need to be repaired or replaced.

These benefits are just some of the reasons that national hospitality companies such as Benihana, Concord Hospitality, and OTO Development speak glowingly about their experiences with Intellihot, and national brands such as Hilton, La Quinta Inn, Best Western, The Capital Grille, Levi’s Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers), and many more count themselves as customers.

A Simple Household Accident Leads to an Industry Transformation

The idea for Intellihot began in 2009, when co-founder Deivasigamani took a vacation to India. After a 40-hour return trip, he stepped into his home in Peoria, Illinois, hoping for nothing more than a warm shower and a comfortable bed. Instead, he heard a strange noise emanating from his basement. A quick sprint down the stairs revealed every homeowner’s nightmare: his basement was knee-deep in water caused by a busted water heater.

This is, however, where the story turns. Most people would have responded to this situation by grabbing a mop, calling a repair company, and going with the status quo.

It’s fair to say Sri Deivasigamani is not most people. Entrepreneurship and innovation run deep in his genes (his grandfather was one of the first people in India to deploy tractors in tough clay) and Deivasigamani spent his undergraduate years building motorcycles and working in robotics.

His knack for engineering brought him to the United States, where he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson University and eventually took a position with Caterpillar. He rose within its ranks to serve as one of the lead engineers in their marine division in the company’s headquarters in Peoria, Illinois.

Which brings us back to Deivasigamani’s water-logged basement. “As I looked at the damage while standing ankle-deep in dirty water, I had an epiphany: it was absolutely ridiculous that there was this massive tank of water just sitting there in my house, heating water 24/7,” Deivasigamani says. “It was clear that there must be a better way to provide the fundamental service of hot water. So I set out to find it.”

Deivasigamani realized the general concept of the hot water heater was inherently flawed: it was a large, heavy tank of water that would eventually — and perhaps catastrophically — fail. It was a grossly inefficient model with high operating costs, and — on a bigger scale — potentially ruinous for business owners if the system went bad.

A Revolution Begins in a Garage

Following in the tradition of Silicon Valley technology pioneers, Deisvasigamani began working in his basement to come up with a better way to deliver hot water. A motorcycle aficionado, he studiously applied principles of marine engines, robotics, and AI to his efforts.

“I realized there was a chance to not only fix this, but do something much bigger: create a better, cheaper, more efficient product that would help businesses while also using less energy, which helps the environment,” Deisvasigamani says. “It was an absolute win-win-win.”

Armed with his engineering background and a fervent desire to change the world, Deisvasigamani and his team have created a water-as-a-service system that will do nothing less than completely upend the industry.

The days of enormous, expensive tanks — so heavy they often need to be installed via helicopter — are over. Gone too are the health dangers these tanks produce, such as the increasing prevalence of Legionnaires’ Disease, which is brought on by bacteria that grow in the stagnant water created by the outmoded hot-water technology.

Instead, Intellihot offers business owners compact, efficient, environmentally friendly machines that greatly decrease energy usage and produce only as much hot water as needed. The savings are real in terms of energy, money, and effort.

Additionally, Intellihot’s models use AI to constantly analyze their own performance, monitoring their output and predicting when parts will need replacing. So instead of worrying about their water systems and hoping they don’t simply quit, owners can relax knowing the Intellihot unit will inform them of any impending issues that could lead to a breakdown. Preventive maintenance can be performed without any loss of service, all in an efficient, environmentally friendly package.