Germantown, Maryland-based startup Whisker Labs is offering real-time alerts about power outages and electrical fires — sometimes even before utilities are aware of the problems.
“If you’ve got medical equipment or you’ve got pets, you need to know when the power is out.”
Bob Marshall, CEO at Whisker Labs
The fire prevention startup rolled out a free tool in September to track outages. With data from its network of smart sensors across the country, anyone can now log into its app to see nearby incidents, no device required.
“This data is one of a kind,” CEO Bob Marshall told Technical.ly. “Utilities don’t even know, for the most part, until people call them that the power is out in a neighborhood.”
Marshall considers sharing the information essential for public safety as the electrical grids become increasingly strained. The US has seen twice as many disruptions in the past decade compared to the decade before, according to a 2024 Climate Central report.
Through the Ting app, users can access an interactive national outage map to check whether their area is affected and see when power is restored. That insight can be crucial for residents deciding when it’s safe to return home after an extreme weather event, according to Marshall.
“If you’ve got medical equipment or you’ve got pets, you need to know when the power is out,” Marshall said.
The map is powered by the network of 1.2 million homes that own Ting sensors, which cost $99 for the first year but are often provided by home insurers. Connected to Wi-Fi, the devices use AI to analyze a home’s electrical signals for warning signs of issues like damaged outlets or frayed wiring that could spark fires.
If a problem pops up, homeowners with the sensor receive an alert from the Ting app and a call from Whisker Labs’ fire safety team, who can guide them to flip circuit breakers until the warning stops. Then, the team follows up in person to fix it.
“Our technology detects fires very early,” Marshall said. “An alert is typically not an imminent threat.”
Aiming to prevent wildfires
Marshall spun Whisker Labs out of his first company, weather intelligence group Earth Networks, in 2017. He was inspired to develop the technology after his sister-in-law lost her home in an electrical fire.
“I challenged our chief technical officer and our chief scientist to hole ourselves up in a conference room for two years, day and night, until we figured out how to make Ting work,” Marshall said.
Whisker Labs began selling Ting sensors in 2020 and, according to Marshall, the Montgomery County startup has prevented electrical fires in 21,000 homes.
The company’s data collected by its sensors can also be used to identify grid issues.
During the Los Angeles fires last January, Whisker Labs’ sensors detected faults on the utility grid near Altadena both in the morning and just minutes before the fire began that evening, though that claim has been met with some controversy.
Despite high winds, local provider Southern California Edison did not cut power to the transmission lines during the incident and is now facing lawsuits over its role in the blaze.
While Whisker Labs has since shared its data with Edison, the utility company has expressed uncertainty about the information. Edison says there’s no conclusive evidence that Whisker Labs can spot potential problems in the power grid before they happen.
Still, Marshall hopes the startup can expand its work with utilities to help prevent wildfires.
“Our objective now,” Marshall said, “is to stop fires inside homes, protect communities with power outage alerts, and increasingly, prevent wildfires.”
