Energy Optimizer uses wireless sensors and a web-based dashboard to give building managers real-time data on where energy is being used in facilities.

“The problem today is that you get very little information from your utility about energy use,” Arch Rock CEO Roland Accra said. “But information is the precursor to acting on, for example, a corporate initiative to reduce energy or a federal or state mandate to reduce energy.”

Arch Rock’s system uses Internet-based wireless sensors that are attached to a building’s circuits. The data can be sent directly to any Internet-connected device, like desktops or handheld computers. The company’s Energy Optimizer has so far been used in a handful of pilot programs.

San Francisco-based Arch Rock, which has raised $15 million in venture funding from New Energy Associates and others, is one of a growing number of startups rolling out products to help homeowners and building operators track their energy use more closely and reduce their utility bills.

San Francisco-based Greenbox Technology has built a wireless system with a web-based platform for homes. And Toronto-based REGEN Energy has built a system that wirelessly manages heating and air conditioning in buildings. These controllers communicate with each other and automatically decide when and where they can curtail energy use to drive down costs.

Companies like Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls and Morristown, New Jersey’s, Honeywell are still the big players in the building automation industry. But the incumbent technologies focus on one system at a time, like lighting, while not providing a building’s total energy picture, said George West, president of West Technology Research Solutions. The incumbents also don’t have wireless solutions and rely on proprietary communication standards, meaning their systems generally don’t interact with others in the building.

Studies have shown that people will reduce their energy demand by as much as 15 percent once they have more information about their usage patterns. But the promise of bringing more intelligence to buildings is that most of the energy use reduction could eventually be automated.

Arch Rock said its Energy Optimizer system will initially be priced at just under $10,000, which includes a one-year subscription to a hosted web-based dashboard. The price also includes a router and six sensors that together can monitor up to 18 circuits.