metered

BlazeMeter, a new cloud-based service for load and performance testing of Web apps, today announced $1.2 million in venture funding.

BlazeMeter--based on the Apache JMeter open-source project is a load-testing application designed to measure the response of putting demand on a system or device.

Load testing typically simulates heavy usage (among other things) to stress the Web application to see how it responds. The aim, of course, is to release into productions Web applications that don't break or degrade--two things that drive away users quickly.

BlazeMeter's founder and CEO Alon Grimonsky told CNET that he built … Read more

Energy heavyweight Siemens is buying some Silicon Valley software savvy to make sense of the smart grid.

Siemens Energy today announced that it has acquired San Mateo, Calif.-based eMeter and that its meter data software will be integrated into Siemens product line. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close later this month.

eMeter's software is designed to collect data from two-way meters and feed it into utilities' back-end business systems. The venture capital-backed company is headed by former Oracle executive and Veritas CEO Gary Bloom.

By collecting data such as customer power consumption … Read more

As much as 10 percent of your electricity bill is simply being sucked away for no useful purpose. Blame standby, or vampire, power.

Belkin this month released perhaps the simplest way to cut that standby power with its Conserve Power Switch. The small gadget is just a switch in a handy format that cuts the flow of power to anything that plugs into it.

There's not much to this device, but that's its appeal. The Power Switch, which costs $6.99, plugs into a regular outlet and you plug a device into that. When you want to use … Read more

About 250 consumers in Maine have reported that smart meters cause interference with Internet routers and other electronics.

The Office of the Public Advocate, a state-authorized advocacy group for utility customers in Maine, reported last week that Central Maine Power customers have contacted the group about interference within their homes from smart meters. The utility has installed about 440,000 two-way meters that automatically report power outages and allow the utility to read meters remotely.

The smart meters use the unlicensed 2.4GHz frequency band. So if a Wi-Fi router or other device, such as a garage door opener, overlaps … Read more

One the U.K.'s top 10 energy consumers says it's found a simple and straightforward way to save money.

Phone and broadband giant BT (previously known as British Telecom) announced yesterday that it's on track to save at least 13 million pounds (about $20.6 million) in annual energy bills after switching to smart meters and energy management systems in its office buildings, data centers, and telephone exchanges.

The switch has reduced BT's carbon footprint by 5 percent, or the equivalent of powering 23,000 homes annually, the company said.

Of course, the initial layout was … Read more

Labor Day is coming up. That's traditionally the last hurrah for a big summer backyard grilling party, which also means you'll probably be pawing through the watermelons at the local grocery store.

I've thumped and thunked my fair share of watermelons. I lean in for a good listen and pretend I know what I'm supposed to hear. Now I can carry a watermelon ripeness expert along with me in the form of Melon Meter, a new app for iPhone and iPad.

Melon Meter has one purpose in life--to steer you to a ripe watermelon.

Fire up the app, place the microphone side of your device on the melon, press the red button, and knock on the melon until the app tells you to stop. It lets you know if your chosen melon is ready to eat or not.

The app uses a software algorithm that analyzes the decay rate of the sound produced by thumping on a melon. It looks for a particular decay signature associated with ripe watermelons. The app's makers note that a ready melon doesn't necessarily equate to a sweet melon.

You can pick up Melon Meter for $1.99. The app only supports medium and large melons at this time. You may get some strange stares at the grocery store, but it's better than wasting your hard-earned money on an unworthy watermelon.

I got to wondering if the app could be used to determine the ripeness of other items. As it turns out, my kitchen table isn't ready to eat, but my desk chair is ripe. Yum.… Read more

Illinois utilty ComEd today released a study that found smart meters yielded larger-than-expected financial benefits on operating efficiency alone.

The report, prepared by energy engineering and consulting company Black & Veatch, said smart meters eliminated the need for manual meter reading. The two-way communications of smart meters also cut down on energy theft and unpaid bills, costs which are now passed on to customers.

Projecting from the utility pilot's program, the report estimates that a full-scale smart-meter program would save between $2.8 billion and $3 billion over the 20-year life of the meters.

The meters can alert the … Read more

A simple display connected to a smart meter has effectively helped consumers trim energy use, a smart-grid pilot showed.

Electric utility CenterPoint Energy and the Department of Energy yesterday announced the results of a pilot program with 500 residential electricity customers in the Houston area. Overall, it found that the regular feedback on energy use prompted people to lower consumption.

The in-home display is a battery-powered device which can be placed on a table top or attached to the refrigerator. Getting information from a smart meter, it displays real-time power use, a forecast of the monthly bill, and changes to … Read more

In the wake of Google's decision to retire its PowerMeter application, industry insiders showed little surprise. But the episode illustrates how the bar has been raised in the nascent home energy management area.

Google on Friday said that it decided to retire PowerMeter, a Web application that displays how much electricity a home is using. Company executives had hopes of expanding the product into a broad set of features, but customer uptake was not as strong as hoped, Google said in a company blog.

For the many smart-grid companies actively working in home energy management, Google's departure reflects how difficult it is to make money in the field of energy efficiency and control. From a product standpoint, the move is a reminder that simply surfacing energy data is not enough to get consumers en masse to care about energy.

"[PowerMeter] really suffered from a fundamental flaw in its operating assumption that people are interested in monitoring their energy usage at a 15-minute level of granularity, or in real time. They are not. People lead extremely busy lives and studying a line chart showing their hourly energy consumption is simply not going to make anyone's priority list," said Ogi Kavazovic, the vice president of marketing and strategy at Opower, a home energy efficiency company.

Dozens of companies have built applications or gadgets called in-home dashboards that show detailed electricity usage with the idea that more information will provide clues on how to conserve energy. For example, showing people that a pool pump is a big energy consumer could lead them to run it on a schedule rather than all the time.

What's more challenging, though, is motivating consumers to stick with energy-saving efforts, according to energy efficiency professionals. To reach a large number of users, information should be presented in a variety of channels--whether it's a Web portal, handheld device, e-mail, or paper--and focus on consumer behavior as much as the technology, they said.

Opower, now a well-recognized company in the field, made its mark with paper reports that show customers how efficient one home is compared to people in similar homes and communities. It focuses on simple presentation of information online and offline and the social psychology around efficiency. For example, its reports have a smiley face to indicate how well people are doing compared to peers on efficiency. … Read more