The Power of Knowledge

With new monitors, homeowners can keep track of their electricity use in real time. It can make all the difference.

By RUSSELL GOLD

Tom Tassi's $300 electricity bill had become an embarrassment.

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Cut Your Carbon Footprint and Save Money With New Gadgets

Reducing household energy usage can result in substantial savings and earn you a tax credit

Here's the simple truth: Your home is an enormous energy hog. Now, thanks to some impressive energy monitors in a range of prices, you can easily learn which appliances are the biggest gluttons and put them on a diet.

Energy Inc. is offering a TED 5000 Christmas Special this holiday season, which is a TED 5000-C bundled with a TED t-shirt tied with a red ribbon.

The TED 5000-C system is the top selling home electricity monitor from Energy Inc.’s home energy management solutions.

The TED 5000 system features a sleek handheld display unit and data-logging Gateway component, which includes Footprints interactive software and can store up to 10 years’ worth of data.  The TED 5000 system provides comprehensive information for energy-conscious homeowners who would like to lower their energy bills.

Using patented energy...

Control4, a leader in affordable IP-based home control systems, today announced the extension of its EMS 100 Energy Management System through interoperability with load control device and energy monitor manufacturers Entek International LLC, EpiSensor, Jetlun, Eaton, and TED - The Energy Detective. By broadening the ecosystem of interoperable devices within the home area network, Control4, maker of the EMS 100, can help electric utilities offer consumers more ways to participate in demand response programs to save energy, particularly during peak periods. These strategic relationships also give consumers the ability to manage their energy use without smart meters.

Control4 has partnered with leading providers of electricity monitors and load controllers so that consumers can control multiple devices in the home. Leveraging the Control4® platform to automate home appliances and deliver usage information by device, consumers can choose how to respond to or override demand response and price signals from utilities. Control4 will demonstrate the interoperability of its platform with its energy management ecosystem partners at Autovation, September 12^th-15^th, 2010.

"Control4’s business success has been built by working with strategic partners to simplify the control of the multitude of electronic devices in the home,” said Richard Walker, President of Control4’s Energy Systems Division. “We are applying this expertise to the Smart Grid by seeking the best energy management product partners in order to help our utility customers deliver effective energy and demand management solutions to consumers."

These strategic relationships benefit consumers by enabling broader control of devices throughout the home. Plug load controllers and sub-metering solutions measure both whole-home and individual appliance consumption...

By ALEX DOMINGUEZ (AP) – 18 hours ago

BALTIMORE — Smart meters alone are not enough to save energy and money, a new study finds.

Significant savings are possible, however, and consumers save more when given information tailored to their use. Programs that focus on energy efficiency and conservation also produced more savings than those that sought to move energy use to off-peak hours.

Those are some of the findings of a review of 57 studies conducted over three decades for the Washington-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Smart meters are part of efforts to develop a smart grid that allows communication between power producers, transmitters and end users, enabling conservation and savings when consumers, for example, know how much power costs at different times of the day, and producers can respond better to outages and increases in demand.

Most take advantage of the Internet and other advances in computer and communication technology.

ACEEE Executive Director Steven Nadel said the key is not only the ability to communicate, but what is communicated.

"The more useful, readily understandable and actionable information you can provide, the better," Nadel said. "You don't just want to inundate consumers."

While the most widely used programs are called enhanced billing — in which information on power pricing is provided in monthly bills or separate mailings — devices are being developed to provide consumers with more timely information, including desktop orbs that glow different colors during peak and off-peak times, and web portals.

"One of the nice things about the orb is it's a very simple color, you don't have to get out your calculator and say 'So, what does this information mean?' You know green is good and...

P10NEERS

It takes a little something extra to champion change in the face of uncertainty. These individuals have what it takes.

They’re teachers and technologists, educators and opportunists, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts. Some are focused on energy, others on automotive; some have the consumer in mind, while others are tackling healthcare head-on. Their backgrounds are diverse and market segments varied, but their drive to succeed and vision for achievement couldn’t be more comparable.

With each new year comes new opportunity and new challenge, and the 10 individuals named Pioneers for 2010 carry on the tradition of the men and women honored before them, championing change and innovation in the M2M (machine-to-machine) technology marketplace.

Looking forward, the task at hand for these individuals is to continue forging new ground in the face of a changing marketplace. As new markets open up and customer segments expand, the opportunities become vast, as do the challenges. But what makes these individuals so unique to begin with is their ability to push forward and forge new ground in the face of adversity.

On the pages that follow we honor 10 individuals that are truly pioneering a new direction in M2M technology.

The growing need for electric power is taxing the capabilities of many generating facilities across the nation. Utilities are scrambling to get “smart meters” and the “smart grid” up and running quickly to prevent brown-outs and blackouts caused by surges in peak power usage.

While companies like Whirlpool and Austin Energy (see their Pioneer pages this issue) are making inroads with intelligent sensors and meters that can remotely regulate energy consumption, individual consumers are being asked to monitor their electricity use and offered both negative and positive incentives such as higher peak time rates (negative) and lower...

National Geographic News

Published April 9, 2010

What good is all this energy-saving gear if you can't measure how much of a difference it makes? The Energy Detective connects to your breaker panel and transfers data to a wireless transmitter connected to a wall outlet, which then sends the information to the gadgets pictured here. TED also connects with Google PowerMeter, a free Web app for tracking home energy use.
View full article here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/194621/ted_the_energy_detective.html