NARRAGANSET, R.I.--Homeowner Kim Hageman wanted to "go green" at home without giving up any digital comforts.
Three weeks ago, the public relations and marketing executive, her husband, and their two children moved into a house built from the ground up to be both low energy and high tech. It is the first home to get the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Homes certification in the state of Rhode Island.
It's far more energy efficient than most because the building is tightly insulated and uses a ground-source heat pump, also called geothermal, for heating and cooling. The builders and homeowners followed a number of other environmentally sensitive guidelines to get the LEED certification, including using recycled materials from local sources and a large cistern for most outdoor watering. Through recycling, the entire construction project, which included tearing down an existing building, only sent one dumpster to the landfill.
The building is cutting edge when it comes to high tech, too. It has a home-automation system from Control4 to access movies and music from the TV and touch-screen displays around the house. That system also doubles as the energy management console, giving teh family a way to control temperature and lighting, as well as get real-time data on electricity use.
Since the family has just moved in, Hageman can't say yet whether the energy monitoring system has helped conserve electricity. But at the very least, Hageman knows how much she is spending on average per day. In theory, that information will allow the Hagemans to notice a high consumption rate and turn off unused electronics and lights.
Hageman said she decided to create an LEED-certified green home because she wanted to do something to help the environment and because she thought it would be good for her public relations and marketing business.
One of the biggest challenges of the entire 14-month project was finding qualified contractors versed in green-building design and products. Now, she hopes the house will serve as a resource for other homeowners looking to incorporate some of its features, such as using sustainably forested wood, water-efficient appliances, and a rainwater harvesting system.
The contractors followed the Consumer Electronics Association's guidelines for a "green" audiovisual installation, where wiring is minimized and the technology upgradeable. Hageman estimates that the system uses about half as much wiring as another comparably high-tech home.
The house still has a significant environmental footprint simply by its size--more than 4,500 square feet. But the Hagemans have made a number of energy efficient choices up front, such as using foam insulation throughout and EnergyStar-rated appliances. They are also considering a sizable solar electric array, which could make it a net zero energy home.
Control4 Energy Systems, one of a growing number of home energy display providers, said Tuesday it will supply energy monitors in a planned smart-grid project in rural Texas.
The home energy monitor--a 5-inch-wide monitor that resembles a car GPS unit--will display electricity usage in real time and provide consumers the ability to program a thermostat, according to Will Holford, the public affairs manager at Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
The system works by using Zigbee wireless networking within the home to connect the monitor to the thermostat, which communicates with the utility via a smart meter. Other providers in the project, which the utility hopes to begin work on in the second quarter next year, include smart meter provider eMeter and Silver Spring Networks, which provides a networking card for the meter.
Control4, which is perhaps better known for its home media management systems, raised $17.3 million in July to expand into the energy monitoring business.
Control4's display for managing home energy along with home media.
(Credit: Control4.)Home energy monitors, or in-home displays, are a key piece of the more advanced smart-grid programs being pursued by utilities. By providing more data and ways to program appliances, utilities hope that consumers will be able to find ways to shave back on consumption.
The most useful systems are those that allow people to program heating and cooling settings, say smart-grid experts. For example, a person could let the thermostat temperature change if electricity prices go above a certain price at peak times.
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, serving a region between the outskirts of Austin, Texas and Houston, said it chose Control4 Energy Systems because it's a simple interface for providing feedback on usage and for programming air conditioners, which is one of the biggest monthly budget items for homes in that area, according to Holford.
"We think our members have a right to know how much energy they are using at that moment and how much it is costing them so there is no longer a surprise at the end of the month," he said.
The Control4 system could potentially manage different devices in the home, such as big appliances such as dishwashers and pool pumps, by using "smart switches" that allow a device to communicate on the home area network, said Susan Cashen, vice president of marketing at Control4 Energy Systems.
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative plans to give the devices to consumers for free and pay for it through rate changes. When sold separately, the bundle costs about $200, Cashen said.
Updated at 9:38 a.m. PDT with corrected spelling of electric cooperative.
Home-area network company Control4 wants you to control your energy consumption and home entertainment from the same box.
The Salt Lake City-based company on Wednesday said that it has raised $17.3 million to fund its expansion into energy monitoring and displays. The company plans to introduce its "energy controller," a thermostat that can connect to smart meters, early next year.
One of the investors is the venture arm of Best Buy, which indicated earlier this week that it is looking at offering products for managing climate-control systems in stores.
Control4 is best known for its products for managing a home theater, or music from a console or remote control. Devices are networked via Zigbee or Wi-Fi connections.
Control4's display for managing home energy along with some media.
(Credit: Control4 via Smart Grid News)The company already offers a networked thermostat, the Control4 Wireless Thermostat, that allows people to control temperature settings. With the new funding, the company plans to include smart meters, which have two-way communications built in, into the home-area network.
That integration will allow consumers to monitor their energy use in real time and find ways to save money, according to Control4. Also, Control4's system will allow people to program thermostats, lights, and big energy consumers like pools, according to the company.
There's a growing number of monitoring products, such as Google's Web-based PowerMeter, that show real-time energy usage and details, such as how much individual appliances consume. The idea is that surfacing the details makes consumers more conscious of energy consumption and helps scale it back.
Control4's push into energy monitoring is significant because there are few home energy displays that are appealing to the majority of consumers, wrote Jesse Berst, founding editor of SmartGridNews.com.
"If you look at the results from early pilots with primitive in-home displays, usage falls off after the first three months or so. First of all, who wants to peer at a dinky black-and-white LCD screen and decipher cryptic icons and abbreviated text messages? Second, who wants to tinker with settings every day?"Control4 has a 'cruise control' model instead. Customers set their preferences, who then sit back and relax while the system keeps things in bounds. Meanwhile the energy analytics start providing information customers can use to reduce their bills," he said.
Control4 has also developed a system so utilities can offer demand-response programs to consumers and businesses. That will allow a utility to dial down energy use through a smart meter in a person's home at peak times in exchange for some sort of discount.
Berst said that Control4 has not yet signed on any utilities to offer its home displays to consumers as part of smart-grid programs.
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