Telkonet Brings Cost-Effective HSIA to the Classroom with Florida School District Contract Win
Florida's Hillsborough County is the latest school district to select Telkonet's powerline communications (PLC) platform, bringing HSIA to 200,000+ K-12 students
GERMANTOWN, Md.--
Telkonet, Inc. (AMEX:TKO), the leading provider of innovative, centrally managed solutions for integrated energy management, networking, building automation and proactive support services, announces its latest contract win within the education market, following a successful high-speed Internet access (HSIA) pilot at Hillsborough County School District (SDHC) in Tampa, Florida - the nation's 8th largest school district. Telkonet's advanced PLC technology platform, supplied by the company's value-added reseller HGB & Associates, will be deployed in mobile classrooms throughout 209 schools in Hillsborough County as part of an ongoing renovation program. Additional recent education projects for Telkonet include energy management systems for Babson College in Massachusetts, and the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in Texas.
With schools under pressure to implement cost-effective, high performance technology solutions, Hillsborough County undertook a rigorous bid evaluation process to select its HSIA system, requiring a flexible, reliable and secure system that could be rapidly installed in the School District's portable, or "cottage", classrooms, which are used when the classrooms in the main building are being renovated. WiFi has been an option under consideration, but attracted numerous complaints from neighboring communities that experienced security intrusions. The Telkonet iWire(TM) System provided the best solution based on price, performance and support, as it leverages the school's existing internal electrical infrastructure to deliver secure Internet access at every power outlet.
With 10-15 schools undergoing renovations at one time each year, Telkonet's system will deliver reliable wired Internet access to 30 to 60 or more temporary cottage classrooms, giving teachers instant access to the School District's network. Steve Custer, Supervisor CCTV/LAN Networking and A.V. Repair, with the SDHC, explained, "With 209 sites and limited numbers of IT technicians, we needed a reliable, plug-and-play system that was easy to install, maintain and operate. With Telkonet's solution, we demonstrated that our own IT staff and contract electricians could install the system, enabling 20 cottages in a few hours - less than one day - supervised and with solution support provided by HGB & Associates' technician. We were also impressed by the system's robust performance during the trial - it just powered back up after the thunderstorms, without needing any intervention from our technicians. There was no downtime or disruption once Telkonet's system was in place, and we kept everyone online! The assurance that they would replace a Telkonet product if it was damaged was also attractive to us."
In addition to its HSIA solutions, Telkonet is working with schools to realize tangible energy savings, with the advanced Telkonet SmartEnergy (TSE) energy management platform. Babson College and the Austin Independent School District (AISD) have both installed TSE as a key component in their green initiatives, cutting waste and reducing energy costs through improved control over heating and cooling consumption. Located throughout the city of Austin, Texas, and in Travis County, AISD equipped a total of 1,200 portable classrooms with TSE as part of a larger renovation program. As a direct result, it is reporting annual savings of approximately $200,000, together with greater energy efficiency and a substantially increased lifespan for their portable buildings through improved temperature and humidity control. Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts deployed TSE to manage the in-room energy consumption in its 120-room dormitory, McCullogh Hall, based on achieving payback within less than 2 years after the trial indicated energy consumption savings of 30%.
TSE eliminates the wasteful heating and cooling of unoccupied rooms, using occupancy sensors together with intelligent programmable thermostats or PTAC controllers, operating on an individual room-by-room basis. The system is underpinned by its unique Recovery Time functionality that restores the temperature to users' chosen settings within minutes of people returning to a room. Key benefits include reduced wear and tear on HVAC units, ensuring longer life and reduced maintenance, as well as the ability to monitor facilities via downloadable data from a PC, for analysis on energy savings and ROI reporting.
About Telkonet
Telkonet's unique broadband networking solutions currently support more than 1.6 million network users per month, with its energy management systems optimizing energy consumption in over 80,000 rooms. Telkonet's technology innovation is underpinned by the highest level of end-to-end quality of service, with comprehensive technical customer support. Its systems deliver wide-ranging functionality, from wired and wireless high-speed Internet access to energy management, IP surveillance and local area networking. Telkonet's platforms are widely deployed on the global stage - in single buildings and ships, in multi-building complexes, hospitality venues and multi-dwelling units, and at government, education and defense locations.
Telkonet's innovations include the revolutionary Telkonet Series 5 and the Telkonet iWire System(TM), which convert a site's existing internal electrical infrastructure into an IP network backbone - quickly, cost-effectively and without disruption. The portfolio also includes the integrated EthoStream product suite, providing a comprehensive and advanced technology management platform for the hospitality industry, differentiated by outstanding remote management tools and a dedicated customer support facility. Telkonet SmartEnergy(TM) completes the line-up, delivering typical bottom line savings of 30% by controlling in-room energy consumption according to occupancy. For more information, please visit www.telkonet.com.
All company, brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.
Statements included in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties such as competitive factors, technological development, market demand and the Company's ability to obtain new contracts and accurately estimate net revenues due to variability in size, scope and duration of projects, and internal issues in the sponsoring client. Further information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results, can be found in the Company's Registration Statement and in its Reports on Forms 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Source: Telkonet, Inc.
Released April 28, 2008