People: Juby’s bright spark

Even chief executives need to save money in today’s economic environment. Helping save the world is a good ploy too.

By dint of his position as head of AIM-listed VPhase, Lee Juby was ‘the first in the world’ to have one of the company’s smart voltage management units installed in his home. Attached to a normal household fuse box, the devices save energy by ensuring that the voltage of electricity going into the home remains at a stable level. They cost the same amount to fit as loft insulation, with a similar claimed payback period of less than four years.

Says Juby, ‘On my electricity bills you can see significant changes in power consumption,’ but he is more excited by the device’s sales potential, with an average saving per household of around £50 to £70 a year. This has been heightened recently as one of the three utilities VPhase is paired with, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), has started independently monitored and Ofgem-supported household tests of the device.

Juby declares that these independent tests, expected to conclude in March, will enable VPhase (spun out of 49 per cent holder and AIM peer Energetix) and its partners to include the device in the Government’s carbon emissions reduction scheme. He maintains that they will also provide key data to ‘unlock’ the social housing and other markets.