Norwegian startup raises $6M to fix this sneaky source of energy waste

A Norwegian startup called Eqon has raised $6 million to tackle waste from electric heating cables, the kind of cables used to keep pipes, equipment, and even sidewalks from freezing. These cables usually run only two ways, fully on or fully off, so they often burn more electricity than needed. Eqon makes a plug-in device, roughly the size of a home internet router, that acts like a dimmer switch for these cables. Using weather data and temperature sensors, it can scale back output to a small fraction of full power instead of running at 100%, cutting energy use and cost.

This is mainly industrial news rather than something homeowners will encounter directly. Eqon's roughly 30 customers so far are factories and industrial sites, such as an Arctic Circle plant making omega-3 supplements, which saw a 20% drop in energy use for its heating cables after installing the devices. The company says savings can reach up to 80% depending on the project, and it's now using the new funding, led by U.S. investment firm Azolla Ventures, to expand into the American industrial market.

The relevance for homeowners is indirect: cities also use similar heating cables to melt snow on sidewalks and roads, so this technology could eventually show up in municipal infrastructure. But for now, there's no consumer product or home application described, just a bigger push to cut waste in an overlooked corner of industrial energy use.