Get Involved
Changing the world takes everyone. Join us.
Want to work with Pecan Street? From homeowners and researchers to businesses and foundations, everyone can make a difference.
Homeowners and residents can work with Pecan Street through our electricity, water and natural gas research.
For more information, contact us at participate@pecanstreet.org or 512-782-9213.
Electricity Research
Pecan Street maintains the largest volunteer network of energy data participants in the world. To do this, we collect electricity data through a device called the eGauge, which is installed by our master electrician in or near a home’s circuit panel. The eGauge measures electricity data at the circuit level and securely transmits it via the internet to our database. If a home has solar panels, this device will also collect energy generation data.
Participants are able to view their electricity usage and generation data in real-time through Pecan Street’s participant portal and can download sets of their personal data.
Water Research
Pecan Street developed a revolutionary way to collect minute-level water data through a device called the BluBand, a non-invasive device that converts existing water meters into smart meters to enable you to monitor your water usage in near real-time.
The BluBand sends the water use data from the water meter via a radio transmitter to a gateway device called BluCube with the home Wi-Fi network and securely transmits the data to Pecan Street’s servers. Participants can then view real-time and historic water usage data via Pecan Street’s participant portal.
Natural Gas Research
Pecan Street collects natural gas usage data from Encoder Receiver Transmitter (ERT)- enabled gas meters through a gateway device that connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network.
Privacy
We know that your privacy is important to you. It is important to us, too. Everything we measure and all the data we collect is transmitted and housed according to strict security standards established by the U.S. Department of Energy. Data from an individual home can be viewed by the homeowner/resident. Researchers that access our database, however, cannot identify any individual participant. For more details, please review our privacy policy.
More than 2,000 users from universities in more than 60 countries use Pecan Street’s Dataport to access Pecan Street’s energy, water and natural gas usage data. Faculty, staff and students at four-year post-secondary education institutions in the United States (and equivalent-level institutions outside the United States) have access to all available data, including the datasets underlying the analysis in Dataport reports, Knowledge Base articles, and a forum. To obtain University Access, users must supply a photo of their current organization ID or a link to their bio on the organization’s webpage to allow the Dataport staff to verify current involvement with the organization. Visit Dataport for more information and details about how to sign up for University Access.
More than two dozen companies in the utility, solar, consumer electronics, wireless technology, battery and transportation industries have leveraged Pecan Street’s research capabilities.
Our network of volunteer research participants provides businesses an eager and tech-savvy user base through which to test and verify prototypes and beta products without establishing their own trial infrastructure.
Dataport, our database of real-time and historic energy, water and natural gas use data, allows companies to test disaggregation algorithms and verify product accuracy.
Our commercialization lab offers a unique prototype and verification environment with state-of-the-art equipment and skilled engineers.
For more information, contact info@pecanstreet.org.
We are, at our heart, a research organization. But we’re in this business to spark energy innovation that will reduce climate emissions and conserve water. Pecan Street has worked with various mission-based organizations to provide quantifiable and verifiable data related to energy use, emissions, renewable energy, electricity price elasticity and product adoption and use.
For more information about our past or current sponsored research, email info@pecanstreet.org.
Pecan Street offers a number of programs tailored to meet the practical needs of start-ups, including subsidized product testing and development support, field demonstrations, business management consulting, and prototype fabrication.
Our established field research testbed, energy and water database, and commercialization lab can help startups avoid expensive and time-consuming testing and verification stages.
Pecan Street’s PLATFORM for Product Launch is a robust platform that integrates data-driven market intelligence, minimum viable product development and validation methods, rapid prototyping capabilities, and collaboration between industry and the technical community. PLATFORM streamlines the process of obtaining investment based on technology validation and provides potential funders with concrete data on which to base investment decisions.
Startups that would like to test their water-related product for the residential market or metering sector through Pecan Street’s lab or testbed can submit an application for access to our Leak Detection, Measurement & Verification platform.
Startups that would like to test an energy-related product for the residential market or metering sector through Pecan Street’s lab or testbed, can submit a general testing application.
For more information, contact info@pecanstreet.org.