The rainmakers – Flourishing balconies for a greener city
A start-up team in Adlershof is developing a smart watering system for balconies
With great precision, the start-up Plances—funded by the Adlershof Founder’s Lab (AFL)—will deliver valuable moisture to the balconies of renters across the city. Their mission: Greener, more liveable cities in which anyone can create a green oasis of their own. In doing so, Plances relies on a circular sustainability model.
Let’s start from the beginning. The two people behind the Plances idea have known each other since kindergarten. Christopher Liebau studied medical technology, Tim Schröder electrical engineering. What united them was a love of nature, plants, and liveable cities.
Both were passionate balcony gardeners, and they had a problem that other people quite obviously had, too. “Whenever we or our co-students came back from holiday, everything was dried up,” says Schröder. On their search for solutions, they were surprised that you couldn’t buy a good watering system.
"We thought to ourselves: where there are obstacles, there is also potential,” says Liebau. Funded with their own savings, they built ten prototypes of an automated watering system. Friends and acquaintances tested them and were excited about it. The system consists of a water tank in various designs, a solar panel, and a smart control unit.
Weather data and data gleaned from sensors in the soil run together in Plances. A dedicated cloud controls the daily watering, while customers can enter their location as well as the number and species of every plant.
In addition to differentiating between cloudy, rainy, sunny, cold, and hot days, the system also knows whether the plants are tomatoes, spring flowers, or small trees and whether they need a lot of water once or a little water several times a day.
“Every balcony is different,” says Schröder, “with or without a roof, facing north or south, does it have small pots of herbs or a large hedge for screening off the neighbours—all these things must be considered and realised in the balcony concept.” Other factors pertain to large rooftop terraces that have other demands in terms of the water supply and the distance from the source to the plant.
The makers of Plances have secured funding from the Berlin Startup Scholarship for one year. Including design, software development, landscaping, and marketing, they are now six people. During this time, they want to build 250 of their watering systems and bring the product to market. The customers who have ordered will receive everything in one package. Simple self-assembly guaranteed.
The next task is to win over buyers and collect comprehensive feedback. Thanks to its modular design and reparability, the water system has a long service life and can simply be freshened up if required. The concept of a sustainable circular economy is important to the smart minds behind Plances. The company’s first customers, who were procured at trade fairs, range from interested botanists to city types who have a black instead of a green thumb, say Liebau and Schröder.
They are confident: “Using our watering system, many more people will have the courage to go green.” Finally, the danger of a hot day or a week on holiday destroying all the work and investment into one’s green oasis will at least have been averted.
They plan to secure subsequent funding through additional grants and the support of business angels. Meanwhile, Tim Schröder has planted the first kiwi trees on his balcony—and they are always perfectly cared for.
Kathrin Reisinger for Adlershof Journal
Click here to view the watering system: www.plances.de/vorbestellen