Makers of high-tech air monitor sniffed opportunity

When we last encountered Bryan Reichel 12 years ago, the company he founded, PureChoice Inc., had just introduced what was to become known as "the Nose," a high-tech sensor driven by the company's PureTrac software to monitor indoor air quality.

The system, which tracked temperature, humidity, and carbon monoxide and dioxide, was designed to help maintain health and safety in commercial and government buildings. As it turned out, however, prospective clients mainly interpreted the concept of indoor air quality as meaning cigarette smoke, which tended to limit the market to bars and restaurants, said Reichel, the company's chairman and CEO.

That helps explain why the Nose system never topped $375,000 in annual sales, a modest level that promised no-to-slow growth as no-smoking rules went into effect in recent years.

All of which turned out to be exceedingly good news.

The reason: Faced with a potential decline in revenue because of smoking bans, the Burnsville company began a major retooling project in mid-2006.

The no-smoking threat wasn't the only challenge, said PureChoice president Kevin Kuhne. The company also had to contend with changing IT security technology that made it difficult for the PureTrac system to disseminate monitoring data.

The redesign quickly turned into an exceedingly productive enterprise, given that PureChoice engineers figured out that the health and safety information gathered by the Nose also provided data that could be used to conserve energy and manage buildings more efficiently -- a growing concern.

The payoff is a revenue stream that in just two years has doubled the annual sales generated by the "old" Nose after 10 years on the market. The "new Nose," introduced late in 2008, generated revenue of $800,000 in 2009. And, given projects already approved by clients, 2010 sales appear to be headed for more than $2 million.

A study for the General Services Administration (GSA) helps to explain the rapid growth. During the one-year project, an upgraded PureChoice system installed at Fort Snelling's Whipple building slashed energy costs by 20 percent, or $144,000.

That performance, in turn, led to a $100,000 contract to install the monitoring system this fall in the Ford Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The GSA project wasn't the only example. A Nose system installed at a suburban Twin Cities ice arena showed rink managers they were running exhaust fans four to six times longer than needed to eliminate carbon monoxide spewed by Zamboni ice resurfacers.

Even better, where the old system required an engineer to interpret the data, thereby limiting potential clients to larger companies, the new Nose reports its information in simple terms that even a Luddite like me can understand.

A recent development promises to augment the Nose's market potential. PureChoice has introduced sensors designed to alert clients via e-mail or texts when temperatures in data centers reach dangerously high levels. A voice alert will be added soon.

"People are seeing real value in what we have here," Reichel said. And that has generated a client list that includes Colgate-Palmolive, Dresser-Rand, HEI Hotels & Resorts and California's second-largest online electronics retailer, PCMall.com, which is both using and selling the Nose system. Local clients include ApplianceSmart and Best Buy.

Founded in 1992, PureChoice grew out of an earlier business that Reichel, 55, started in the late 1980s to peddle air and water filtration systems.

The inspiration came when a major client plunked down $7,000 to have an environmental consultant check to see how much the PureChoice equipment had improved air quality. The results were positive, but Reichel was more interested in the monitoring equipment the consultant was using.

Where, he wondered, could he obtain a monitoring system that would bypass the consultant to provide ongoing readings of indoor air quality. Told that there were no products that met his needs, Reichel hired some electrical engineers to develop electronic data-collection software and link it to the leading edge of existing sensor technology.

On average, the PureChoice system can pay for itself with energy savings in about seven months, Reichel said.