These days, it seems there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished by the use of online social communities. Even lowering energy consumption.
That’s the approach taken by GroundedPower, a Gloucester, MA-based startup that produces a system that monitors consumers’ real-time energy consumption and spurs them with goal-setting and online community engagement to lower that consumption over time.
Energy conservation in the home and business just got a lot easier thanks to Empower Software’s release of their SmartHome energy management software. As experts in usability and design of energy monitoring, Empower provides user friendly access to the smart grid with a user interface that every consumer can understand. This industry-leading technology lets consumers see their appliance and total household/building energy consumption in real time by Day, Week or Month via an in-home Zigbee network.
via Empower Software Gives Smart Energy Management To The Consumer.
Viridity Energy, a smart grid company that transforms large energy consumers into virtual energy generators, and Drexel University’s College of Engineering announced their joint participation in a panel discussion today highlighting their work together. “Sustainability: Beyond a Buzzword to a Better Bottom Line” is a special breakfast seminar to discuss the economic benefits of sustainability initiatives. Viridity and Drexel are working on a project to transform—and ultimately optimize—the university’s energy consumption system. This breakfast seminar is a precursor to the Drexel Advanced Energy Leadership Conference that will be held at Drexel University April 8-9.
Technology available today can be employed to create viable, sustainable, smart cities. That will be the message that Bob Gilligan, vice president–transmission and distribution for GE Energy Services, will deliver to delegates at the Chatham House conference, “The Future of Cities.”
via GE Smart Grid Technologies Build Sustainable 21st Century Cities – MarketWatch.
Consumers do not know how much energy they have been using until they get the bill that usually surprises them at the end of every month. Although a bit expensive, smart meters can be one of the answers to this problem and to the energy capacity distribution.
GE is introducing an energy information panel for the home that will grant consumers insight into how they are using energy and the control needed to properly manage energy consumption. The multi-function unit is designed for the home consumer.
Whirlpool Corporation ( WHR) is presenting a smart grid-compatible clothes dryer demonstration unit during the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Las Vegas January 19-22, 2010. The Whirlpool smart dryer demonstration illustrates how smart grid-compatible dryers will operate in consumers’ homes, reacting intelligently to peak-demand signals from a smart electrical grid and automatically modifying energy consumption.
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 phones, for the energy of computing?
Utility Xcel Energy and OPower want to see if community shame is an effective deterrent in Minnesota.
The two will randomly select 50,000 homeowners to participate in a Home Energy Reporting program in the St. Paul area. Under the program, the homeowners will get detailed information about their gas and electricity consumption. 35,000 will also get reports with their monthly bill. Along with telling consumers how much energy they consume, they will get tips on how to cut down their energy consumption and how well they do compared to similar households.
Plans to install smart meters throughout Britain could be thwarted unless government officials and regulator Ofgem are able to convince the public that the new smart meter system is capable of securely sharing information.
Concerns have been voiced in the Netherlands that criminals could capture smart meter data or that police or insurance companies could use energy consumption information without permission from the consumer. These fears have effectively put the Dutch project on hold, according to a report from Datamonitor.
via Jitters over security may derail British smart meter plan.
Control4 has unveiled a Zigbee-enabled thermostat with a touchscreen interface that allows its users to view energy data and help minimize energy consumption by controlling the devices that consume the most power.
via Control4 Debuts Energy Management System 100 At CES 2010 – Ecofriend.
The D-Link® Home Energy Monitoring Starter Kit is one of the first products that allows consumers to measure energy consumption of electrical appliances in the home, making it the ultimate smart energy “Green Machine.” It actually changes the way homeowners or renters deal with the age-old challenge of how to keep their home energy consumption to a minimum. It also provides practical tools for power management. When linked to the Home Monitoring Starter kit, consumers can use D-Link’s mydlink.com portal to program devices to power-down when the home is empty, helping reduce carbon emissions and lower utility bills by saving electricity.
via PRdomain.com | D-Link| D-Link Honored for Innovation by Consumer Electronics Association.
Smart Grid technology is aimed at creating a more dynamic power grid where users can ‘interact’ with the system and actively control their energy consumption thus reducing costs. It can use digital technology in delivering energy which leads to an increase in reliability and transparency. Ambitions of what Smart Grids can accomplish are grand, but so are the possibilities.
In conjunction with utilities, tech companies and state and federal agencies, Stanford University is doing a number of experiments to see how psychology affects people’s energy consumption.
via Will ‘Smart’ Electric Meters Lead to Smarter Consumers? – NYTimes.com.
North Carolina was rated among the highest in Energy consumption in the US. Listen to how the Consert “Smart Grid” Pilot Program is the future of energy use that can save energy and money.
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