Photo courtesy of Enviro Power

Hillside Ventures, the University of Connecticut’s early-stage sustainability venture fund, announced it’s now a minority investor a local company that’s trying to ramp up production of a boiler for multifamily properties that, it says, can dramatically shrink their carbon footprint.

Enviro Power’s SmartWatt boiler is designed to slot into a building’s existing heating infrastructure. Its designers say the product’s big contribution is its ability to recapture heat and steam lost in typical boilers and convert it to free electricity, helping pay for itself. Each unit can serve buildings between 20 units and 200 units, a company spokesperson said.

“We are excited to partner with Hillside Ventures in our mission to promote sustainable energy solutions,” Enviro Power CEO Dan Nadav said in a statement. “This investment will help us  continue to grow our marketing and sales efforts and bring our SmartWatt Boiler technology to more commercial and residential buildings .Our goal is to make it easy for everyone to implement clean energy programs with an efficient and attainable solution.”