Google Rolls Out Home Energy Software

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/google-rolls-out-home-energy-software/?hp

by robg • 17 years ago

10 16 17 years ago

greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com

pg• 17 years ago

Notice the fine print about how you get the data. You have to have a device installed by the power company. Few power companies do this, and few meters support it.

Wattvision does the whole thing, from your existing meter to your iPhone: http://wattvision.com

physcab• 17 years ago

Last year I built an application that aimed to integrate existing utility information. At first I just scrapped the info from a utility-login, but they weren't too happy about it.

I eventually met with the IT department of our local utility to strike some kind of agreement. I learned that energy history is extremely hard to come by with lots of federal laws protecting its dissemination.

I often wonder about the barriers placed on consumers in having their consumption measured. Even with Google pushing for open access, the utilities (and the government) have steadfastly refused innovation in this space. Right now there seems to be lots of niche solutions, but all of them are work-arounds because of the restrictions in place. When these chains are lifted, you'll see some rapid changes.

foppr• 17 years ago

cool, thanks for the link!

wmf2• 17 years ago

Is Wattvision's gadget going to be free? That's the big advantage of Google.

robg• 17 years ago

I would pay for a similar product, especially if it's saving me money.

savrajsingh2• 17 years ago

If you're interested, do contact us at info@wattvision.com and we can get you on our private beta, which is currently free.

paulhart• 17 years ago

This is true... today. Lots of utilities are already starting to install smart meters. Unless Wattvision is able to build a large installed base in the next 2-3 years, their technology won't have meters to attach to (or they'll be doing a new device with machine vision to read the digital displays on new meters, or they'll be interfacing with the meter information in a similar way to - or from - Google).

tptacek2• 17 years ago

The installed base of smart meters is going to dwarf Wattvision deployments, but you can probably safely bet that a YC startup will kick the ass of the consultants the utilities bring in to build "portals" and reporting.

tptacek2• 17 years ago

I just got back from the EPRI/NIST "Smart Grid" workshop in DC, and can report that every meter installed by every power company within the next couple years will support this capability, and the rollout costs are going to be borne by the taxpayer. There is a metric crapton of cash getting plowed into this very specific initiative (AMI meters, most of which can link to "home area networks" via ZigBee, all managing an ANSI standard table definition).

For reasons that I hope are somewhat obvious, Matasano has had some limited involvement with actual on-the-ground projects here. The products are there, the PO's are getting cut, meters are getting retrofitted or replaced by the tens of thousands.

I think it's hard to say whether this is good news or bad news for the current crop of "smart grid" startups. You worry maybe that this is going to be a walled garden for the utility companies, but then a lot of these meters speak open standards, and there are jurisdictions (like, all of Texas) that mandate that customers own their power data. I also heard more than one utility talking about products that were going to bypass the utility/vendor AMI networks and just do a lot of this stuff over the Internet.

One of the more interesting (or at least complex) ideas that I saw getting tossed around was Demand Response / Load Shedding startups; the idea that a startup could contract with a utility to sign customers up for a program that would trigger different power profiles (like, "turn off your air conditioner") when the utility needed it, and in return get a break on their bill.

smokinn2• 17 years ago

Does anyone know of an appliance where you can just plug it into the wall and plug anything into the appliance?

Basically it would act as a pass-through that could keep track of how much the thing plugged into the wall is costing. It would be nice if you could set a price on it and have it display in $/h or something but that's not necessary, just a running total would be fine. I can handle the watt-to-dollars conversion myself.

rms• 17 years ago

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715...

smokinn2• 17 years ago

Thanks!

tocomment• 17 years ago

I'd be interested in a watt vision beta if you have any.

Google Rolls Out Home Energy Software

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