Whenever I write about smart grid gadgetry, much of it is probably quite boring for the average consumer. Meters, protocols, wireless networks, software — who cares? But just as utility-side smart grid products have grown, so has technology tailored to the consumer. Some of the early offerings have struggled to engage users: Industry executives like Opower’s Continue reading →
dashboard
EnergyHub will give you all of that information and in real time. the system lets you track every appliance in your home, down to the last cell phone charger. The system also connects you to other people in your community, and creates a way for your utility to communicate with you directly. Using the user Continue reading →
Dubbed by Time Magazine as the “Best Invention of 2009,” EnergyHub’s Dashboard which has the rare ability to “rein in the real power hogs” in a user’s home now teams up with GridPoint, Inc., is one of the respected names in smart energy solutions. At DistribuTECH, the two companies announced that GridPoint’s home energy management Continue reading →
Not all home energy monitoring solutions are endowed with equal embedded intelligence. The EnergyHub home dashboard has won impressive accolades, including a Time Magazine “Best Inventions” award as one of the smartest and most consumer-friendly energy products of 2009. I followed up with Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO and founder of Energy Hub, to find out more Continue reading →
Apple, like Google, has a habit of causing major waves throughout the markets it enters. Could the master designers behind the iPhone, iPod, iTunes and Mac, one day revolutionize the way consumers manage the energy consumption of their gadgets and even homes? In effect, can Apple do what it did for digital entertainment and cell Continue reading →
Energy dashboards were a big subject at West Coast Green this year. But the buzz wasn’t as much around new devices on the market as it was pondering how energy dashboards – and the simple fact of making energy consumption data available to consumers – can change our habits for the better, for good. Not Continue reading →
Google PowerMeter, now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provide anyone who signs up access to her home electricity consumption right on her iGoogle homepage. The graph below shows how someone could use this information to figure out how much energy is used by different household activities. Continue reading →
When Michael Murray was a student at Oberlin College, he liked to walk to each dorm, read the electrical meters, and plot the biggest consumers on a Web site. This was the most scientific way, he explained, to find the greenest residents with the greatest devotion to minimizing energy usage. Today, he’s the chief executive Continue reading →
