Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category
Home Energy Consumption and Monitoring
Jon Udell had an interesting article last week on energy consumption in the home and elsewhere. He raises an interesting point, or implies one, wherein all through the month, homeowners have no realtime idea of how much energy they use. This, in the Information Age, no less. Only after they receive their utility bill do they know how much they used, past tense.
We need networked homes to monitor energy usage: all sources of energy have small networked sensors to report back in realtime the source consumption. Factor in some sort of realtime cost display, thereby giving users an idea of what they’re spending on energy on an hourly basis.
I switched my local phone service over to measured service recently. And I can tell you without hesitation: when I make a local call now, I am highly aware of the pennies flowing out of my pocket into Verizon’s pocket. Acutely aware. Give users the same sense of loss when they turn a light on, or leave the water running while they shave or brush their teeth.
[tags]energy,networked home[/tags]
