Methinks you have all read about the recent decisions of Google and Microsoft to back off investments in cloud-based services designed to help consumers managed their home electricity consumption. Google blinked first, then Microsoft. Both cited poor consumer adoption in their decisions. I just think they are impatient. via In home energy management, progress despite Continue reading →
hohm
Sometimes innovative companies can be a little too ahead of their time. Google and Microsoft are arguably two of the most influential and innovative companies in modern history. Part of their success has been to capitalize on emerging trends by anticipating consumer needs and wants. So it was not terribly surprising when both companies introduced Continue reading →
According to a developer of Hohm, Microsoft’s free power-monitoring service, the cause of its demise can be attributed to organizational decisions made under the Windows Embedded Business segment. Microsoft blogger M.J. Miller explained today in a blog that Microsoft decided to end its Hohm online power-savings software utility because “it didn’t fit into the Windows Continue reading →
Internet giants Google and Microsoft have officially given their web-based energy management tools the Donald Trump (as in, “You’re Fired!”), and last week, announced they would be closing them down in the near future. I’ve already dug into a few reasons why I think Google’s PowerMeter tool and Microsoft’s Hohm app didn’t make the cut. But there are Continue reading →
Microsoft is pulling its Hohm energy management platform, but has signaled that it will concentrate instead on commercial and industrial energy applications. The IT giant announced on the Hohm blog that it will be discontinuing the service effective May 31, 2012. The move comes just days after Google announced that it will retire its PowerMeter Continue reading →
First Google kills its PowerMeter energy monitor this week. Now Microsoft has announced it will curtail its Hohm energy monitoring/energy saving recommendations site, apparently because not many people were using it. Hohm will be available to users until May 31, 2012. And boy, the “tributes” are rolling in—and I use that term facetiously. Abject ridicule, some of Continue reading →
More than 60 million U.S. homeowners, by simply typing in their address, can now see how their energy efficiency compares with others in their neighborhood or state. Microsoft Hohm, a free online service that gives tips on how to boost home efficiency, announced Wednesday a new feature that scores homes nationwide. Its estimates are based Continue reading →
Ever wished you could find out whether your eco-obsessed neighbor is really an energy hog? Enter Microsoft’s Hohm Scores, an online tool that allows you to view energy efficiency data about a specific home address. There are already 60 million homes listed in the database, and results can be compared to averages of other homes Continue reading →
One idea behind home energy conservation posits that the more data people have about their own energy use, the better equipped they are to make changes that conserve energy. That’s one of the ideas behind smart meters—if a smart meter tells you that a television left in standby mode consumes 10 percent of your daily Continue reading →
Microsoft says its Hohm website will help you understand the energy consumption of your home. (Get it? “Hohm”?) But what’s the business model? What’s in it for Microsoft — and how will this really help the smart grid? I spoke with Hohm project manager Troy Batterberry about how the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s new site is Continue reading →
Microsoft's Hohm website, an online service designed to make it easier for people to figure out how energy efficient their house is (and how to make it better), has become a great deal more useful with the new addition of real estate data. Now, anyone in the US can enter their ZIP code and get Continue reading →
By this summer you can expect to find the first energy devices — smart meters, energy management dashboards, connected thermostats — that can link with Microsoft’s online energy management tool Hohm. Troy Batterberry, Microsoft’s product unit manager of its Energy Management & Home Automation division, told us in an interview on Tuesday that Microsoft has Continue reading →
Microsoft Hohm , the software giant’s new home energy management system, is now available for the 3.4 million households served by utility Xcel Energy . This is the second time the tool, which makes energy use and pricing data available via a web interface , has been tested with a mass audience. via Microsoft Hohm Continue reading →
Microsoft’s Hohm home energy platform will soon be able to deliver monthly energy use data for all of Xcel Energy’s 3.4 million customers across eight states, all without smart meters. The two companies plan to announce the news on Friday at an event at Microsoft’s campus in Fargo, N.D., a Microsoft spokesperson said Thursday. Xcel Continue reading →
Microsoft Corp. today announced it has developed a reference architecture based on familiar, cost-effective Microsoft platforms that can serve as the basis for development of the “integrated utility of the future.” The Microsoft Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA) is Microsoft’s first comprehensive reference architecture that addresses technology integration throughout the full scope of the smart Continue reading →
When Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu visited the Daily Show with John Stewart last week, he couldn’t give Stewart an honorary membership to the National Academy of Sciences, so instead Chu gave Steward a “Nerds of America Society” t-shirt. Secretary Chu, a Nobel Prize winner who recently joined Facebook, was on Comedy Central boosting the Continue reading →
Nearly four years ago, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates told me the software giant had no interest in playing a direct role in the development of “smart-grid” technologies. In fact, he seemed rather uninformed about its potential. That, of course, was before the U.S. Department of Energy set aside nearly $4 billion (U.S.) to throw Continue reading →
While broadband service provider networks and utilities’ two-way smart grids belong together, the utilities are acting like a reluctant bride in an arranged marriage. Reasonable adults can see that combining the two is a good idea, but utilities and communications companies are oftentimes miles apart over standards, access and security. As a result, utilities are Continue reading →
Bringing people together to save energy and money. Sign up and start saving with Microsoft’s Hohm (U.S. beta) website. via Microsoft Hohm.
n recent weeks many utilities have announced major deals with third-party developers of smart grid software. One that hasn’t made such an announcement is Pacific Gas & Electric. Andy Tang, senior director of the Smart Energy Web at PG&E spoke with Reuters this week about why the company has not chosen a third-party developer. Tang Continue reading →
