power lines running through a rural area

FAQs

Mosaic Power’s Whole Home Efficiency Network (WHEN) provides a valuable service to the energy grid—the the ability to control the timing of power consumption by residential devices. WHEN changes the timing of energy use, turning devices on when energy is most abundant, and turning them off when demand is high. This minimizes the strain these devices place on the grid therefore reduces their carbon footprint.

Mosaic Power currently participates in the Frequency Regulation Market that is run on the PJM electric grid. We bid, along with other businesses, on the minute-by-minute power use to help make the entire grid cleaner and more reliable. We are paid by PJM for every kilowatt of power we regulate, and we share that revenue with property owners and managers every quarter.

We are currently researching how to expand into other energy storage services and other energy grids across the country

No… at least not yet. Mosaic does not affect the total amount of electricity used by each water heater, we just change the timing of when that electricity is used based on the needs of the energy grid. By utilizing WHEN’s services, electric grids can reduce the need for expensive and polluting peaking power plants by meeting their needs with the energy storage potential of water heaters.

Mosaic Power is currently exploring the possibility of using WHEN to reduce peak demand charges for our customers. This would result in lower utility bills for our customers. However, this functionality is still in development.

WHEN has no impact on your water heater’s warranty or useful life, and it also has no impact on your ability to perform maintenance on your water heaters. WHEN’s equipment is self-contained, connecting to but operating independently from the water heater and its internal mechanics. WHEN simply manages the flow of electricity to each water heater’s resistive elements that were designed for exactly that purpose. As a result, WHEN operates within the water heater manufacturer’s definition of “normal use” of each water heater. As such, your maintenance staff can do their job without touching our equipment- routine maintenance, repairs, and even replacement of the water heater with a similar model.

No. Mosaic Power contracts directly with the property manager and the property owner. We only need to notify the tenant in advance for installations or repairs. Mosaic Power will follow the individual notification and visitation policies of each property.

Mosaic Power has been regulating residential hot water heaters as part of WHEN since 2014. WHEN is compatible with any water heater that is electric, 30-80 gallon, and uses two heating elements while being free of smart heat pump, and demand response/peak shaving components.

One of our WHEN devices reduces the CO2 emissions of a water heater by about 1.4 metric tons a year. So with a network of over 20,000 water heaters, Mosaic Power helps save about 28,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year, showing how small things can do big things together!

WHEN creates an individual usage profile for every water heater in the network that tracks energy usage and water heating patterns. We use this intelligence to anticipate when tenants will need hot water, and that guides WHEN on how to cycle the water heaters on and off. WHEN always prioritizes the tenant experience over making money.

In addition, we operate a 24-hour a-day, 7-days-a-week support line as part of our service to our customers. Even if WHEN is functioning normally, Mosaic Support can help remotely diagnose water heater malfunctions by looking at the energy usage history of the water heater. But should an issue arise that requires an on-site repair of WHEN, which is very rare, Mosaic will respond as quickly as possible to resolve the issue.

WHEN monitors the electricity use of each water heater participating in WHEN to ensure that our operation is in line with each tenant’s usage patterns. If a unit becomes vacant, we will see an immediate and significant drop in the usage pattern of each water heater and we will make an appropriate change in our database for that water heater. WHEN will automatically notice an increase in usage once the unit becomes occupied again and we will adjust the usage pattern of that individual heater so our operation matches the pattern of the new tenant.

Mosaic Power uses licensed electricians and experienced installation supervisors for every installation and repair job. The average installation takes 20 – 30 minutes per water heater, and we expect our equipment to last about 10 years. In the event that maintenance is required, a repair can be done in as little as 5-10 minutes per water heater. We will work with your on-site property team to complete our projects as quickly as possible, scaling up our team as needed. But we do not need your maintenance team to get involved with Mosaic equipment… all we need is supervised access to each unit for installation/maintenance.

Yes! Mosaic qualifies for “energy storage” tax incentives (like batteries), and these incentives exist at the state and federal level. Maryland has had an “Energy Storage Tax Credit” for the last couple of years, and there were significant federal incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (effective for the 2023 tax year). Mosaic projects were a solid financial investment before these tax incentives, but now it has never made more economic sense to partner with Mosaic!

Have more questions?

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about our WHEN system or about Mosaic Power. Visit our contact page to send us a message!