Fluke cashes in on federal stimulus money
Published 8:35 pm Monday, July 27, 2009
EVERETT — There’s a big upside to the economic downturn, especially for businesses tapping into stimulus money earmarked for so-called green energy projects.
Fluke Corp., an Everett-based company that develops and markets electronic test technology, is watching money roll in — most notably from city and state governments that received federal stimulus dollars.
“We are getting a lot of business through states and municipalities and, frankly, utilities that are buying our thermal imagers and using them to conduct energy audits of residences,” said Fluke spokesman Larry Wilson.
The device, which sells for about $4,500, spots leaks in homes and other buildings where heat escapes.
Thermal imaging technology has been around for years, replacing the less-than-technical method of carrying a lit candle around a room and watching for gaps where smoke escapes. “Thermal energy technology has been around for years, but until the last five or six years it was expensive — about 50 (thousand) or 60,000 dollars,” Wilson said.
The technology is cheaper and easier to use now, not to mention government-subsidized. But there’s still an education gap; not enough people are trained to use the thermal imagers, Wilson said.
The imager was demonstrated last week in Bellevue at Shirey Contracting at a Zero Energy Idea House, an experiment in making energy-efficient living more comfortable.
Read Amy Rolph’s small-business blog at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.
