Web-based home monitoring from start-up Greenbox is due for commercial release early in 2009. Greenbox was founded by two of the people who created Adobe Systems' Flash, and it's backed by the former chief executive and chief technology officers of Macromedia.
Greenbox would use analyses of household energy consumption to provide advice for improving efficiency, such as to run the dishwasher at night during off-peak hours. At under $10,000, the system would receive data from sensors in electrical devices and appliances via the Zigbee wireless protocol, as well as from within gas and water systems.
Greenbox is being built to integrate with hardware from any manufacturer, and it could become part of advanced metering systems increasingly explored by utilities, said Matt Smith, vice president of marketing at the San Bruno, Calif., start-up. And eventually, the system would be sold in large retail stores and be available both for new homes and retrofits of older homes.
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