Roberto Salimbeni, the “old school” technician who saves energy thanks to weather forecasts

Roberto Salimbeni he has white hair but a green spirit that has matured in almost 50 years of work as a thermotechnical designer. “I designed a bit everywhere, I gained good experience and in 2015 I met an old acquaintance of mine again. We thought of something new for energy monitoring at 360 degrees, which covered both the electrical and the thermal part” explains Roberto Salimbeni, co-founder of the startup Black Box Green of Fiorano Modenese. Having set off on an adventure, in 2016 they won the prestigious KlimahouseTrend award for the category Plant engineering systems. “Bosch had won the previous year and so we started to really believe in it”, adds the specialist.

“We were thinking above all of the world of companies, energy diagnoses and performance evaluations, in short, but at the time there wasn’t the sensitivity that there is today. And then all things said, saving is always a good engine to stimulate changes in this sector “.

And so Black Box arrived, which promises to reduce the energy consumption of offices, hospitals, schools, chain stores and any type of tertiary or residential building that has heating and cooling systems. The key detail is that it exploits the climate changes underway by playing the predictive card: in practice, it is a system that takes the optimization of the use of boilers, air conditioners and other similar systems to extremes. It is as if Salimbeni had identified a more sustainable way in the hunting area than him. “Among our clients there are for example the Bank of Italy, Poste Italiane, Generali and Prelios (formerly Pirelli Real Estate, ed). We recently completed efficiency tests at a McDonald’s restaurant demonstrating savings of 30%. The result was amazing and with them we are proceeding with the third installation”, continues the specialist.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY

He could call himself an old-school techie, a problem solver. On the other hand, he created his first company in 1977 and works in an industrial fabric that we now call Motor Valley. However, his idea proved to be more efficient and disruptive than the others: the patent of his thermo-technical engineering jewel based on advanced sensors and software, which can also be installed in pre-existing systems, has made the shoes of the giants. “The patent was registered in Europe and the United States. Before us, Honeywell, Samsung and Mitsubishi had filed it worldwide, but we were recognized because ours is more innovative”, he points out.

In practice, the platform is capable of detecting and analyzing data, but also automatically acting on the systems. In summary, Black Box is based on wireless probes that analyze the external and internal temperatures of the infrastructures, a control unit connected to the electrical part of the systems and software that manages everything. “Thanks to the collaboration with Meteo Expert (formerly Epson Meteo Center) we have developed our Predictive Weather System which brings together their measurements and ours, allowing the algorithms to intelligently manage the switching on and off of the air conditioning systems, reducing their hours functioning”, underlines Roberto Salimbeni.

A parallel could be drawn with what happens in homes where there is, for example, an air conditioning system or simple autonomous heating. Usually the thermostat is set and the systems are switched on and off in relation to specific parameters and the temperature detected by the sensor. However, it may happen that the start-up proves to be useless or momentary – therefore in fact a waste – due to variations in external temperature. What would be the point of activating the air conditioner to lower the temperature by half a degree if a decreasing trend was detected externally? Moving the discussion to large systems, such as a 500,000-calorie boiler, a single minute of ignition becomes a considerable cost if we consider the repetition of the action throughout the cold season. Black Box actually focuses on latency.

“We know the external and internal temperature instant by instant, and we combine this with a forecast that can reach up to an hour from the Meteo Expert. The result is that we are able to ensure bill savings of 20% to 30% and more in small buildings , medium and large without changing the status quo and with payback times on average between 1 and 3 years. We have thought of everything, as it used to be done in the old days”, concludes Roberto Salimbeni.