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could eliminate about 30 per cent of wiring in a home, saving
money and labour, and increasing sustainability through the use
of less copper.
“Everything we are doing is trying to reduce cost so we can
go in and compete against regular, wired switches,” says the
CEO, speaking over the buzz of busy factory machines. Beside
him a little circuit board goes through what he calls “an oven”
that fuses together all its parts. It comes out the back end of the
machine, still warm, its miniscule components looking like pin
drops. These go through an automated inspection machine
examining each of the tiny components for fault detection in
mere seconds and “gets it right every time,” he says.
Keirstead opens the Levven Controls app on his phone. It
displays icons for all 40 of his home’s lights. He can turn them
on and off, dim them, set them to timers, and just about every-
thing else you can expect with home automation.
MAKING ELECTRONIC HARDWARE IS FAIRLY SIMPLE.
It only took two years to go from concept to prototype.
Stitching together 60 or 70 wireless devices on a single network
— that’s the hard part. It’s “a lot of traffic” to control, says
Keirstead. With no comparables, Levven had to invent a soft-
ware that prolongs the lifespan of a typical battery so that
homeowners don’t have to replace them for nearly a decade.
Next, he developed encrypted security to prevent someone from
hacking into a home’s light network. And on, and on, for another
four years, until the hardware and software were user friendly.
And that’s not counting the factory machinery, which
dropped more components than it placed when they started.
“I had to replace the entire line,” he says. “Even these machines
will be updated, because we need faster equipment to keep up
with the demand.”
Naturally, the first customer was Landmark Homes. However,
despite loving the product, it quickly found that their intended
goal of sealing the walls off in the factory did not, in fact,
save that much time or money. After three years, Landmark
Homes went back to traditional wire switches, but Levven tried
to forge ahead with other homebuilders. It quickly hit more
roadblocks.
Wireless or not, light switches still had to pass electrical code
installation requirements that said light switches require switch
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boxes behind them. Of course, Levven’s switches did not have
boxes for wires, because they did not have wires. The code did
not recognize wireless switches; they just weren’t in the books.
They could sell their switches for renovations but not in new
construction.
Without a single region sanctioning their technology,
Levven spent the next six years lobbying chief electrical
inspectors and other policymakers across North America,
but got nowhere, says Keirstead. The turning point came in
2018, when Schneider Electric, one of the largest electrical
companies in the world, happened to start fighting the same
restrictive regulations across North America preventing the
Corporation from also selling wireless wall mounted controls.
With two companies now submitting proposals for changes,
the US and Canada were finally convinced to broaden the
definition of a “wall switch” in their respective electrical codes.
In 2023, eight years since first facing opposition, Levven could
move forward.
LEVVEN LIGHTS AFFIX 150 NEW HOMES A MONTH.
Based on company projections, it could be 500 homes a
month by fall and 2,000 a month in 2026. That’s 60,000
controllers and 80,000 switches. And among their
new partners is Landmark Homes again. “If we didn’t have
Arctic Spas for all these years, this product never would
have made it to the light of day, because it would just cost
too much money [to manufacture],” says Keirstad. “We’re
just at that point now where we’ll probably break even this
summer.”
Homebuilder Minto Group, which installed Levven lights in
all 270 Calgary houses since 2023, credits Levven for shaving
off roughly one scheduled construction day on every
build. Wireless switches, explains Minto representative Graham
McCulloch, also improve the air tightness of a home, providing
more energy savings, and can be moved around, or comple-
mented by more switches, as easily as hanging up a picture
frame. So there’s no need for residents to hire electricians and
drywallers (or worse yet, to move wires themselves).
“Levven,” says McCulloch, “has taken something that might
have been overlooked from an innovation perspective and
completely changed how it functions.” ED.