How niche is the Radiator Labs heat-control system? [GigaOm]

Is a way to finally control the heat coming from steam radiators, sparing apartment dwellers and saving landlords money, really a tiny niche? GigaOm throws some serious doubts in the direction of Radiator Labs, a company whose crowdfunding campaign to give people in steam heated buildings a way to reign in the heat and save energy we covered.

This reporter grew up in Kansas and lived in Wisconsin. He’s seen radiators in a lot more places than the industrial Northeast. Could the size of the niche be underestimated?

But, Cox has another problem. the number of apartments with radiators is relatively small — maybe 7 million units he said. That would translate to roughly 25 million radiators. There’s also a commercial market with about 40 million radiators.

And it’s not growing. Basically his market is limited to pre-war apartments on the Northeast that use steam heat. No one is building these anymore, although one advantage for him, is that they are also expensive to retrofit and remove as part of a renovation.

[GigaOm]