Help Bring the Personal Energy Platform to Life!
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$2,155 raised of
17 donations
The 10-Year Marathon: An Inventor's Mission
For the past decade, I've been on a singular mission: to bring simple, safe, and independent energy control to everyday people. The Personal Energy Platform (PEP) isn't a corporate hobby. It has been a 10-year labor of love involving intense R&D, patent filings, late-night engineering, and prototypes built right on my workbench. Along the way, I've listened to hundreds of renters and apartment residents who all say the same thing: "We've been completely left out of the clean energy transition."
At OTW Energy, I am not trying to build just another tech gadget. I am building a way for everyday people to finally own their energy future. PEP is a compact, apartment-safe, plug-and-play smart battery system designed to sit on a kitchen counter or living room shelf, allowing renters to store cheap grid or balcony-solar power and use it when rates spike or the grid goes dark. The foundation is solid, the patents are secured, and the architecture is ready. Now, I just need your help to cross the final finish line.
Real Validation, Then a Real Setback
This isn't an abstract concept — it's a working reality that has already been tested against the real world. We were named the Sacramento Area Startup World Cup Regional Champion.
On November 14, 2024 CBS Sacramento ran a local news segment on PEP and the shutoff-power problem it solves. The story was picked up and rebroadcast across CBS affiliates in California, Oregon, and Washington over the following days: 800 people accessed our website, I communicated with 95, and 38 joined our waitlist to buy one, and 10 reached out about investing.
Sacramento-area company wants to provide emergency energy during PG&E power shutoffs.
After months of work with the Community Resource Project's Chief Executive Officer, we received a Letter of Intent on November 15, 2024 for a federally funded pilot to place PEP units in 100 low-income California households, targeted for summer 2025.
The validation was real. The demand was real. The LOI was signed.
Then, in March 2025, our federal grant funding was cut. Overnight, a fully vetted, publicly validated pilot — backed by a signed LOI and real household demand — was wiped out. Not because the technology didn't work. Not because the need wasn't there. Because federal funding priorities shifted, and we were caught in it.
I was devastated. Throughout 2025, I wondered if an independent inventor could truly survive in this landscape. I had to ask myself the hardest question a founder can face: "Do I give up, or do I carry on?"
With the help of my family, friends, and the people who believe in PEP, I chose to carry on. I decided to take this straight to the community.
I've poured my personal finances into this and worked grueling side jobs — including my current role as a First Responder Drone Pilot — to keep the lights on in the lab. But I need to get this out of the lab and into communities where PEP can make a difference. I need to focus 100% of my time on a PEP Pilot sprint without distractions.
Why GoFundMe?
This is not a pre-order. This is not an investment.
You won't receive a product, and you won't own any part of the company. This is a donation to help get PEP into the hands of the renters who need it. Your support funds the final push — outreach, partnerships, and the work required to bring this technology out of the lab and into real homes.
Why $15,000? Breaking Down the Sprint Budget
We are in the absolute final mile.
To get PEP manufactured and into renters' apartments, I need to share PEP’s story directly with the public and private groups currently working to help building owners with decarbonization-electrification, and to renters seeking lower utility bills and protection from power outages.
A PEP Pilot Plan is the exact tool needed to show housing advocates and community leaders that this technology is ready for real-world deployment.
Every dollar raised here goes directly into the Sprint to fund this 6-month push:
- Pilot Vendor Outreach: (~$4,000): Gain commitments from supply-chain vendors for Pilot battery cells, PCBs, manufacturing, and local technical support.
- Pilot Project: (~$5,000): Gain commitments from public and private stakeholders to support the Plan and to commit funds for a Pilot rollout.
- Dedicated Time to Connect: (~$6,000): I'm asking for help with expenses — no side jobs, no distractions.
Taking the Solution Directly to the Streets
This campaign will fund vital pilot partner development, including face-to-face meetings with public agencies, community groups, housing leaders, and renter advocates in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.
These states have passed decarbonization-electrification mandates and allocated public funds to transition older apartment buildings from legacy gas to modern electric cooking, but their aging building electrical grids can't handle the added power demands.
PEP is the missing link that can solve this bottleneck for thousands of families, without landlords having to tear open walls.
Additionally, I will be meeting with proponents of Balcony Solar. Renters are winning the legal right to put solar panels on their apartment balconies — but they have no safe, apartment-friendly way to store and efficiently manage that power. PEP is built precisely for this moment.
The Balcony Solar movement is expanding across the US, 10 states have passed supportive legislation.
What Your Donation Powers
When you support this campaign, you aren't just funding a project — you're joining a movement for true energy equity:
- Energy Freedom: Giving apartment residents the power to break free from skyrocketing utility rates.
- Commercial Grade Safety: Bringing industrial, reliable emergency backup power right to a kitchen counter or living room during grid blackouts.
- Fairness for Renters: Making sure the economic and safety benefits of clean energy belong to everyone, not just people who own a roof.
Even a $50 donation buys an extra day of focused partner outreach or another PEP Pilot conversation with a rental housing or a decarbonization advocate.
I'm 10 yards from the finish line of a 10-year race. Help me get PEP off the workbench and into the world, where it can start benefiting the people who need it most.
Thank you for your belief, your support, and your donation.
Bob Guimarin
Founder, OTW Energy
US Patent # 11,791,636
WFH Desktop PEP prototype supporting a laptop, monitor, phone, smart speaker, and tablet.
Here's a video of our early PEP prototype test powering AC and DC devices, and controlling PEP device ports via our mobile app.
PEP was designed to match your lifestyle, this PEP prototype is supporting a fridge, microwave, smart speaker, and phone charger in a tight kitchen space in a Vancouver Flat.
Building PEP prototype battery packs at the kitchen table.
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