Remotec and Nowi’s Strategic Partnership Transforms the Industry by Introducing Solar Harvesting Remote Controls
Remotec and Nowi have announced today the start of a strategic partnership to develop a range of eco-friendly perpetually powered remote controls. With the signing of a strategic supplier agreement by both parties, Nowi has committed to volume production of its NH2 chip to meet future demand from Remotec customers.
This collaboration will address market needs in the control and automation industries, where sustainability is growing as a core feature of new product development. By associating Remotec’s expertise in remote control utility solutions, a global leader in providing high quality remote controllers and smart home solutions, and Nowi’s multi-awarded NH2 Energy Harvesting chip, the two companies are creating sustainable and green remote control solutions.
Remotec has come up with a unique design for its first innovative eco-friendly TV Remote Control: it combines its Android TV BW8615 universal remote control with a unique patented single-battery system, as well as photovoltaic panels and Nowi’s NH2 PMIC. The NH2 PMIC boosts and converts the power to efficiently perpetually power the remote control.
Nowi’s Energy Harvesting chipsets allow for great integration in remote controls:
- In a cost-constrained market, Nowi’s chipsets perform extremely well thanks to its unique engineering design enables cost-efficiency, induced by a minimum need for external components.
- The integration of Energy Harvesting is simple with Nowi. Its unique Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm, requiring no pre-programming, makes the chip self-adapting to changes in the environment and optimizes the resulting fluctuations in power for optimum performance. Additionally, little design effort is required due to the small bill of material and footprint.
- By eliminating the need for battery swaps, Energy Harvesting saves up to 12 AAA batteries per remote over its lifetime, hence allowing the industry to become less battery-dependent and to move towards more sustainable options.
Additionally, the extension of battery life makes for a better user-experience as it completely removes the need for impractical battery changes.
Jayne Law, Managing Director at Remotec, adds: “Combining Remotec’s solutions with the energy harvesting leader Nowi on new types of remote controls will enable us to continue supporting our customers with innovative and best-in-class solutions. We are very proud to be one of the first providers of this energy harvesting single-cell battery ATV universal remote control and see this collaboration as a giant step towards reducing the industry’s dependence on polluting batteries.”
A first prototype of eco-friendly TV RCU is already available, with more developments and line extensions to come.
www.nowi-energy.com
