Plenty of people want to buy electric vehicles, but not everyone is prepared to shell out for an upgrade to their home’s electrical service just to add an EV charger. The worry is reasonable. One study found that upgrading things like electrical panels (that box in the garage or basement that delivers power throughout a home) can more than double charger installation costs.

Rather than rip out the old panel, Noble Carbon has developed circuit breakers that can take the headache out of installing an EV charger, or a heat pump or an induction stove for that matter.

The Pittsfield, Massachusetts, startup is one of 200 startups in this year’s TechCrunch Startup Battlefield, a pitch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in October in which 20 finalists will present on the main stage.

Noble Carbon’s breakers can adjust how much electricity they deliver to an EV charger in real time, allowing the chargers to squeeze into otherwise at-capacity panels.

Electrical panels in people’s homes are typically designed to handle absolute peak usage, something that might happen only “a handful of hours per year,” Spencer Fields, Noble Carbon’s head of marketing, told TechCrunch. 

For example, if someone is hosting family for a holiday, they might find themselves simultaneously using the water heater, air conditioning, oven, and several TVs, all while every light is on in the house. The rest of the time, the electrical panel has room to spare.

A man and woman talking before an electrical device.
Jared Lebos explains how Noble Carbon’s breakers work to Massachusetts Gov. Maura HealeyImage Credits:Josh Qualls, Director of Photography, Office of Governor Healey

In that scenario, Noble Carbon’s smart breakers would turn down the power flowing to the devices they control, essentially guaranteeing that the entire house doesn’t draw more power than the panel can provide.

“In order to avoid a main panel upgrade, you really only need control on your three to six largest loads [the biggest power-drawing appliances,” Fields said.

Co-founder and CEO Jared Lebos was inspired to create the product after experiencing rolling blackouts in his home country of South Africa. He worked with Andrew Crane, the company’s co-founder and CTO, to turn it into reality.

The result is a breaker that fits into existing slots in a home’s electrical panel and, according to the company, takes less than five minutes to install. Some of the startup’s employees have been testing the breakers in their homes for more than a year, and the product is now undergoing evaluation for UL certification, a widely recognized electrical safety standard.

Noble Carbon currently is partnering with the utility Eversource to install its breakers in up to 200 multifamily units in Massachusetts.

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Tim De Chant

Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.

De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing [email protected].

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