At the Cop15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen on Tuesday, a group of advocacy groups and high-tech companies including Google and Intel urged governments to ensure consumers get real-time information on energy use.
Giving consumers regular data on consumption will help them take steps to be more energy-efficient and will be an effective way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the coalition.
Studies have shown (click for PDF) that access to detailed information, rather than only getting a monthly bill, can reduce energy use by 15 percent in a home.
When aggregated at large scale, these savings would be significant. If all households in the developed countries achieved a 15 percent energy savings by 2020, it would be the equivalent of taking 200 million cars of the road in the European Union and shutting down 124 coal power plants, according to the coalition.
"By empowering citizens with information and tools for managing energy, governments and businesses around the world can harness the power of hundreds of millions of people to fight climate change--and save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in the process," the group statement said.
The call to action was signed by Google, General Electric, Intel, Dow, Whirlpool, venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers along with a number of non-governmental organizations, including the National Resource Defense Council, The Climate Group, the Alliance to Save Energy, The Energy Future, and the Center for American Progress.
There are already a handful of home energy monitoring displays available. But millions more will be installed in the coming years as part of utility-run smart-grid programs, although not all home energy displays need a smart meter to function. More sophisticated products will provide information on a small display, the Web, or a TV, and give consumers recommendations on how to program appliances and lighting for efficiency.
Although real-time energy information is helpful, time-of-use electricity prices are also needed to give consumers financial incentive to use energy-hungry appliances, such as dishwashers, at off-peak times.
The coalition at Copenhagen said that national governments should ensure consumer have access to real-time or near real-time energy use data; pricing; and the carbon intensity of electricity sources.
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.
The Panasonic TC-P50V10 plasma flat-panel HDTV.
(Credit: Panasonic)Panasonic plans to invest $1 billion by 2012 to develop green technologies for the home that would include energy-monitoring systems, marking a major shift in the company's focus.
Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said in an interview with the Bloomberg news service this week that growing consumer interest in more efficient products has led Panasonic to decide to develop new core businesses.
"Our growth is not enough . So we want to change our fighting ring from our current categories to a different field," Ohtsubo told Bloomberg.
The company plans to offer home energy management systems, as well as develop existing interests in lithium ion batteries for electric cars, solar panels, and smart appliances.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that the world's leading plasma-TV manufacturer is getting rid of its star product.
As one of its green product ideas, Ohtsubo told Bloomberg about a system in development that would allow people to monitor the electricity generation of their solar panels and the electricity use of their home appliances through their television sets.
One can't help but wonder if Panasonic's interest in a new core business was in any way influenced by the U.S. Department of Energy's decision to curb Energy Star seals for supersized televisions. Very large televisions could fall out of favor if an increasingly energy-conscious public relies on the Energy Star seal when deciding which products to purchase for their home.
It also remains to be seen if this means Panasonic is going to abandon its plasma TVs in favor of the increasingly popular LCD and LED-based LCD televisions. Panasonic already does make LCD televisions, in addition to plasmas.
Dozens of home energy monitors are coming to market, but nobody knows whether only hybrid Prius owners will use them.
Whole home energy monitors, or displays, are designed to help consumers conserve energy by providing far more detailed information than a monthly bill. These types of devices are already available, but millions more are poised to enter U.S. homes in the next two years, largely through utility-run smart grid programs.
The gadgets themselves vary, but the common thread among them is the ability to capture a stream of energy information from a meter at a given moment. Simply by surfacing real-time data, either with a small device or Web software, it's believed the system will prompt people to change their habits and ratchet down consumption by 5 percent to 15 percent, according to studies (PDF).
But even as more sophisticated and user-friendly products come to market, it's unclear whether consumers will track energy use regularly, particularly once the novelty wears off.
"Not everybody is an energy nerd yet," said David Schatsky, principal at consulting company GreenResearch. "While people who study this area are aware of the energy space, the average consumer is not."
Schatsky recently completed a study on home energy displays and concluded that they won't likely be a hot holiday season gift anytime soon. In the next two to three years, he projects there will be millions of these devices installed, with the numbers ramping up to tens of millions after that. Existing displays cost roughly $100 to $200 but Schatsky expects that many consumers will initially receive them for free from utilities as part of smart-grid programs.
In a survey, he found that about half of consumers said they were interested in tools to lower home energy bills. But in reality, the percentage of people who will actively manage their energy is probably much less. There are also technical hurdles to making these devices provide real-time information and useful recommendations.
As a result, he expects that energy-efficiency programs run by utilities in the next few years will drive adoption and provide some lessons on what resonates with consumers and not. As part of the multibillion dollar smart-grid grant program announced last month, about one million consumers will get in-home displays from utilities looking to lower consumers' energy consumption in smart-grid programs. Those programs are expected to get off the ground in the next few months.
Motivating consumers
The drive behind smart-grid technologies is to enable the grid to use electricity more efficiently, integrate more solar and wind power, and potentially eliminate the need to build new power plants to meet growing demand.
Countries around the world are investing to upgrade their grids, but there's a gnawing concern in the U.S. that consumers aren't sold on the benefits. Home energy displays are supposed to be one of the ways that utilities can help consumers save money and lighten their environment footprint.
At their most simple, a whole-house energy monitor shows what's happening on an electricity meter and translates that into cost and kilowatt-hours. For example, seeing that a home's current electricity use is higher than typical could lead a person to unplug a video game console or turn off lights. More sophisticated devices can provide information on how much individual appliances use and generate statistics.
When used as part of smart meter rollout, these devices can be a gateway for energy-efficiency services offered by a utility, such as demand response. For instance, a monitor can employ a color system where red indicates that the electricity rate has gone up because it's a time of peak demand.
The Web is a natural extension to these energy gadgets. Google's PowerMeter is being offered through utilities that install smart meters, which feed real-time energy use to the Web-based monitoring application. But Google is starting to offer PowerMeter through other devices, including a small monitor called the TED 5000.
The information and displays are meant to not only inform consumers but to motivate them to be more efficient. In order for that to work, the devices need to be simple to install and useful just at a glance, say monitor makers.
"There's all this talk about the smart grid, but if customers don't participate, it will be a bust," said Paul Nagel, the vice president of strategic development at home automation start-up Control4. "If they don't engage, then they'll never get energy savings."
Home area networks
One of the challenges that all energy display companies face is the technical barriers to getting them installed. The most sophisticated system would use a home-area network built around a smart meter and a network of Zigbee-enabled appliances and thermostat. But even with big investments in the smart grid, millions of homes still won't have smart meters.
Energy management companies are developing alternatives for getting data regularly from the meter to a display. Bridge devices can read meter information using the automatic meter reading (AMR) protocol, which is already available in millions of meters. Another approach is to clamp sensors onto a circuit box to get data or to install "smart plugs," which transmit data from appliances.
Even if a consumer is willing to navigate these technical issues, there is the question of whether the device will provide energy savings over time.
New home energy management companies are focusing on doing more than just monitor data because they are worried about what's called "mean time to kitchen drawer." That is, a person may have a small display on a kitchen counter as a reminder about energy use. But when the batteries run out, will they simply stash it in a kitchen drawer and forget about it?
Companies are now building in data analytics to provide recommendations or to automatically control appliances to ratchet down energy use. EcoFactor, for example, is developing a hosted software application that can analyze data from wireless thermostats and make changes to make the home more efficient.
Control4, a company which does touch-screen displays to manage video and music in a home, is now branching into energy management. Its EMS 100 device, which runs Linux on an Arm 9 processor, is powerful enough to analyze daily information to provide recommendations on how consumers can make changes to save energy, said Nagel. The company plans to offer it through utilities starting in the first quarter of next year.
Energy management services could be bundled with other home-automation products or even cable and telecom services. iControl and AlertMe in the U.K. plan to bundle security services with tools to manage heating, cooling, and lighting.
One way that utilities and energy management companies expect to motivate consumers is by comparing one home's usage to neighbors in comparably sized homes. Start-up Grounded Power is using social science techniques already proven with recycling and seat belt programs to encourage consumers to save energy, said Mike Bukhin, the vice president of engineering.
"Our users are taking snapshots of data subsets and comparing their data to others' in the community. 'How does my fridge compare to yours?' They also have the ability to ask resident experts questions about their data. The data in turn is shared with the rest of the community," he said.
Would you be willing to pay for home security services if they could also help cut your electricity bills?
In a nutshell, that's what start-up iControl is pitching to consumers with its energy management software and home automation gear. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is also working with utilities to get its energy management system installed as part of smart-grid trials.
On Tuesday, it said that its home automation equipment can now use the Zigbee wireless protocol to communicate with two-way smart meters.
Will home energy management enter through home automation networks?
(Credit: iControl Networks)It's part of the company's plan to enter the field of home energy efficiency, where there are dozens of companies already vying for business. The path it's taking is either through security service companies, utilities, or broadband suppliers, such as cable companies or phone companies, said CEO Paul Dawes.
iControl's technology is software for managing home area networks for home security. It also makes reference designs for Internet gateways and networked thermostats manufactured by third parties. The system allows a person to set up a network of security cameras which can be controlled by a touch-screen device.
With some additional equipment, the system can also be used to monitor energy usage and help homeowners cut energy usage, said Dawes. He expects these services will be offered for free as part of monthly security services, which cost about $30 to $35 per month. Security company ADT said that it plans to use iControl's software system to include services beyond home security, he added.
iControl's energy management system will also work with smart meters installed by utilities. Using a Zigbee-based gateway box and a networked thermostat, the system can get data via the smart meter which can help cut consumers' electricity bill, Dawes said.
For example, the meter can signal when cheaper rates are in effect or when there is a demand-response program in effect. In those cases, appliances on the iControl network can be scheduled to take advantage of those lower rates.
By buying some additional equipment, a consumer could program lighting and heating and cooling using the system, but the company is mainly working through utilities at this point.
"We don't see consumers willing to pay a recurring fee for energy management. They're willing to spend $50 for some energy management solution. What's going to change is when utilities go to time-of-use metering (where there are different prices at different times). Then, the economic incentive is much higher," Dawes said.
iControl is expecting that telecommunications and cable providers will start offering Internet-based home security services and then home energy management. But at this point, it's not clear how those companies will make money in energy management, Dawes said.
Start-up EcoFactor is looking at home energy management as a big math problem.
The Silicon Valley-based company on Tuesday is formally launching and is announcing that the largest utilty in Texas, Oncor, has signed on with EcoFactor's residential energy-management service for three years.
There are several companies developing Web-based software or displays to show consumers, in more detail than a monthly bill, how much energy they are using.
A conduit for gathering data.
(Credit: Carrier )EcoFactor's software, by contrast, works behind the scenes by gathering data from a two-way thermostat and then analyzing the information to optimize heating and cooling systems, which often account for about half of home electricity use.
Collecting thousands of pieces of information a day helps create a picture of a home's "thermal characteristics" and make heating and cooling systems run 20 percent to 30 percent more efficiently, said Scott Hublou, the company's senior vice president of products and co-founder. Even homeowners who have programmed thermostats can benefit because the analysis is customized for a single home, he said.
"People want to do the right thing but they don't necessarily have all the answers, which depends a lot on the thermal characteristics of the house and the mechances of the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. Sometimes it's the best guess," Hublou said.
EcoFactor combines thermostat settings and information on weather forecasts to run HVAC systems more efficiently. For example, in a trial it found that in two nearly identical homes it was more efficient to turn on the air conditioner one hour before residents came home, rather than to run it at a slightly higher temperature all day long. People can also override settings, which is another piece of data the software uses.
To use the service, consumers need to have a two-way thermostat that can send data over a home broadband connection to EcoFactor's hosted application, which is written on the open-source LAMP stack.
EcoFactor plans to offer the service through business partners, including utilities. There are also a number of service providers, notably telecom operators and cable companies, that are looking to offer home energy-management services to existing customers.
In the deal with Oncor, the software will be used as part of demand-response program in Texas in which customers get a discount to cut electricity use during peak times, typically the middle of a hot day when the air conditioning load on the system is high.
Rather than adjust thermostats higher during peak times, the EcoFactor software will be able to "pre-cool" homes in anticipation of the demand-response event, which should make it more comfortable for people participating in the progam, Hublou explained. Altogether, the software will be used to cut three megawatts of peak power, the equivalent of about 2,000 average-size air conditioner units.
EcoFactor, which was founded three years ago, is funded by angel investors. The company is now in the process of trying to raise a series A round of venture capital.
Google has connected a home electricity-monitoring device to its Web-based PowerMeter application, part of Google's strategy to seed the market for home energy tools.
Google on Monday said that PowerMeter works with TED 5000, a small-screen monitor that provides a real-time read-out of home electricity use. TED, which stands for The Energy Detective, is one of many monitors aimed at giving consumers more detailed information so they can find ways to reduce energy use.
Google's PowerMeter energy monitor working on a smart phone.
(Credit: Google)In combination with PowerMeter, a person can view details, such as real-time electricity use and weekly trends from a Web browser or using a smart phone running iGoogle.
Until now, Google has been working with utilities that are installing smart meters that communicate usage information in regular intervals rather than just once a month. Now, a person can use PowerMeter without having to have a smart meter installed.
Although it's straight forward, installation of the TED 5000 is not for everybody. It requires a technically savvy or an electrician to remove the cover of a home's electrical panel.
Google is looking to expand the number of devices that work with PowerMeter. It also intends to expand beyond simple energy monitoring. Planned features include ways to control home appliances to take advantage of off-peak electricity rates and demand-response programs, Dan Reicher, the director of climate and energy initiatives at Google.org, said in May.
When it comes to saving money on utility bills, good data beats out fancy energy displays any day, say the founders of energy efficiency start-up Opower.
The Arlington, Va.-based company on Thursday officially launched its energy efficiency recommendation service, after months of operating in stealth mode.
Opower, previously called Positive Energy, has signed on with 18 utilities in the U.S. to provide customer usage information and recommendations on how to lower consumption of electricity and heating fuel.
After receiving a monthly bill from the utility, consumers get a utility-branded report which has an analysis of their bills, showing how they compare to people with similar-size homes in their area. Based on a customer profile, home type, and weather information, the reports can suggest steps to trim their bills.
Opower is an energy efficiency company that analyzes customer home energy bills and provides comparisons to other people in the same region to provide recommendations on how to cut energy use.
(Credit: Opower)Opower now offers that information through an online portal where people can see historical data and delve down into specific questions. Customer service representatives can also view that profile data to walk customers through efficiency steps.
The bulk of the recommendations fall into the category of "conservation," or changing behavior, said company CEO Daniel Yates. For example, a report might note that one household's energy use is higher than a neighbor and suggest relatively simple changes, such as turning off computers or adjusting the thermostat.
Many states have regulations that give utilities incentives to lower energy consumption of their customers. But in general, participation in programs, such as rebates for upgrading to an energy efficient refrigerator or hot water heater, is not very high.
With Opower's service, consumers are getting between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent savings in their bills. The company first started with one utility in 2008 and is now used by 2 million customers online, it says.
A single-digit cut in energy use may seem small, but that's much better per capita than typical utility-sponsored energy efficiency programs, said Yates. A 2 percent cut in energy use in half the homes of the U.S. would be the equivalent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as the entire output of solar and wind power right now, he said.
There's growing interest in the country over the smart grid, which is supposed to make the electricity grid more efficient and reliable. In a home, smart-grid technologies will generally mean a meter that can communicate with a utility in regular intervals. More advanced smart-grid programs have wireless thermostats that can control heating and cooling or energy displays that help consumes get more detailed information on their usage.
Opower software engineers have updated their analytical application, which is built on statistical software from the open-source R project, so that it can take information from smart meters. But Yates thinks there is too much attention paid to the gadgetry that's involved in the smart grid, rather than the goal of reducing usage and generally getting consumers more engaged in a home's energy use.
"We have every belief that in the next 20 years there will be smarter appliances and two-way control thermostats so that at some point, you don't have to think about it and your house will switch to sleep mode when you leave," said Yates. "We want to be the nervous system to help the utility and customer control and set those devices."
In its trials, Opower found that consumers have taken actions on home energy because the reports show personalized data and provide consumers a baseline to compare themselves to others.
"Some people think that real-time data (from smart meters) will solve everything but it's not realistic for a consumer to sit in front of a display watching energy use tick up and down," said Michael Sachse, the director of government affairs and general counsel at the company. "They want a regular check-in with tips on how to fix things. Our belief is that in the long run, analysis and insight will trump real-time data."
The company raised $14 million late last year but does not need to raise more money, said Yates.
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.
Is the best way to manage your energy use through a home security system?
Start-up iControl Networks said Wednesday that it has raised $23 million to further develop its home security system that also allows people to control home energy through the Web and mobile devices, including the iPhone.
Investors in the series C round brought corporate investors ADT Security Services, Cisco, Comcast Interactive Capital, and GE Security. Charles River Ventures, Intel Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers--through its iPhone application iFund--are also investors. To date, iControl has raised over $45 million.
Will home energy management enter through home-automation networks?
(Credit: iControl Networks)There are dozens of companies developing home energy monitoring systems, some of which are simply displays while others communicate with smart meters or home-area networks.
iControl's approach is to create a hub, connected to a home broadband connection that has wireless connections to IP cameras and security boards as well as thermostats and lighting. To control energy-related devices, it uses the Z-Wave wireless standard for home automation which can also control doors and locks.
iControl intends to sell its technology through other providers, such as home-security companies and utilities looking to offer networked services to consumers.
"iControl is extending home security and energy management to the broadband Internet and iPhones so consumers can see, protect and manage their homes anytime, anywhere," said John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The famed venture capital firm decided to invest in iControl because it found consumers were willing to pay ongoing fees for security. Energy-efficiency tools are offered as an add-on.
"Consumers will pay hundreds of dollars to put in new technology, they'll pay $30 to $40 a month to secure their peace of mind...we found through this Trojan horse that we can bring in new technology" for energy management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Ellen Pao told Greentech Media in June.
