Q&A with Daniel Myers, CEO and Founder of Flair Systems

Flair Systems creates smart vents, thermostats and advanced software for room-level temperature control. This year, Leap began partnering with Flair to help launch its new “Peak Perks” demand response program for California customers. Leap connects Flair’s networks of smart devices to California energy markets, making it easy for Flair to contribute meaningful support to the grid and deliver bill savings for its customers.

We sat down with Daniel Myers, CEO and Founder of Flair Systems, to learn more about the company and his vision for a smarter energy future.

Q: For starters, can you tell us why you founded Flair?

We founded Flair in 2014 to address the shortcomings of traditional HVAC systems that cause discomfort and lead to wasted energy. We wanted to support home and building owners to optimize their heating and cooling for comfort, convenience and cost, at the same time as promoting energy efficiency and supporting the transition to intermittent clean power, like solar and wind.

Q: It sounds like your sustainability mission is really core to the business. How do grid services factor into that?

Our demand response programs are critical to supporting Flair’s mission to bring meaningful energy reduction while improving comfort in people's lives. Our grid services allow for utilities and aggregators to utilize home heating and cooling for managing peaks on the grid. The programs optimize energy usage, reduce carbon footprint, and build a more stable grid, all while maintaining comfort for our customers.

Q: How does the Peak Perks program influence your customer experience? We’ve learned that our customers share our mission and are committed to reducing energy use!

By being part of the program, Flair customers save money on their electricity bills and help keep the lights on in their local community by preventing power outages and brownouts during peak energy usage. In the longer term, these benefits contribute to reducing the need for dirty power plants. Through our partnership with Leap, customers who successfully enroll in our programs also receive a $25 eGift card of their choice.

Q: What challenges have you experienced while getting Peak Perks up and running?

The biggest challenge to growing Peak Perks has been awareness - breaking through the noise and reaching existing Flair customers (to join our programs) and smart home enthusiasts (who don’t know Flair, but would get great value from our solutions).

Another challenge, depending on the utility, is that enrollment can take up to three months - all the more reason for customers to join before the peak periods of winter and summer, when everyone turns on and runs their heating or cooling at the same time.

Q: So, what’s next for Peak Perks?

We partnered with Leap to launch Peak Perks in California in April 2022, for Flair customers in PG&E, SDGE and SCE utility service areas. From the get go, our intention was to expand the reach of our demand response programs across the country and we’re thrilled to work alongside Leap to launch in New York in August 2022, for Flair customers of Orange & Rockland, Con Edison and PSEG.

There’s a long way to go - but we have no intention of slowing down. Every enrollment in our program is one step closer to the transition to renewable energy.

Q: Why did you decide to partner with Leap to facilitate grid services?

We’re partnering with Leap because we’re both working towards building a more sustainable energy future. We first partnered with Leap for our California launch and learned a lot from the Leap team on how to launch and run a successful demand response program.

Leap’s sophisticated software integrations make it easy for customers to enroll and we received remarkable support across all areas of the program - from technical and development support, to launch marketing, to tactics for ongoing recruitment. We look forward to what’s next with Leap, with our New York launch and beyond.

Q: Finally, what role do you hope to see Flair play in the energy transition going forward?

We’re all about supporting the transition to renewable energy. We’ve positioned Peak Perks as a program that furthers this transition while also supplying tangible benefits to the homeowner by saving money, helping the community, and supporting the environment.

Flair is currently managing 60 Megawatts of energy globally and we have lofty goals to scale. We want our smart vents, thermostats and software solutions to help transition the US building sector off oil and gas energy sources as quickly as possible!