Comments on: Microsoft opens Hohm to energy monitoring

Can a slick Web application give you decent advice on cutting your home energy use? Based on a first look at Microsoft Hohm, CNET News' Martin LaMonica says yes.

[kuraimauri]

microsoft is making too much independent products, hohm and lots of others like community clips should be added to windows live brand or at least promoted on the windows live homepage.

[Underavenue]

200 questions are a bit much, especially when it's asking me how many BTUs my water heater uses. It took too long for the paltry results.

[mlamonica]

yeah, there are a lot of questions but a lot are skippable. You need to be motivated to actually cut your home energy use.

[mishmash0101]

Useless.

[sanenazok]

What do you mean? It told me to put in CFL's and seal off leaks! Wow thanks! Oh and when I replace the furnace it should be with an efficient model. Thanks so much!

[discern]

Not another silent "h." How do we say it? Ho-hum. (I get that it's a play on home and Ohm). It does hold promise in being a superb waster of time that each visitor will use exactly once (and most won't bother to complete). Way to go Macrohard!

[lennie22]

if u dont want to try and save on the cost owning a home then thats your problem. I bet you don't even know how to change a speedy valve. you probably don't even know what that is. there are people who actually want to save money and not waste it. this might be a waste of time for you because you probably don't own a home.

[walletless]

To be fair, most of the questions seemed optional and relavant. If you really want to conserve energy, these are all fair questions to ask for assesment. Unfortunately, for me, there were a lot of "don't know" because I do not own the house but rent it, and only the owner would know the answers. Still a good effort, and for a change, it does not require you to have windows or office or live installed. I am glad it is not bundled into other live products and encourages individual users like me to try it out without needing any installs or OS dependency.

[4smartgrid]

Looking at some energy saving suggestions from Hohm, they are nice points but wouldn?t they be good to have regardless of the user?s energy consumption? Also does one need to continuously use the service once they learn and change their behavior? is it sustainable biz model, in other words

[jacomo]

Both systems are missing a key ingredients and appear to be focused on the wrong entity.
1. Monitoring and reporting is very limited unless one can manage the consumption of the whole house Energy as well as the individual appliances.
2. the focus appears to be on the Utility being able to gain access to and manage the energy, versus the systems allowing the Home or Business Owner to get access to and be able to manage the various devices that are actually consumming the resource.
What is needed is a series of devices (in this case Internet Communication Modules) assigned to the various systems involved in energy use (ie. Thermostat-Lighting-Water and Electric Meter) that allows both Utility and Owner the ability to remotely access the home and the individual device in order to manage/control the usage.
In addition, the focus remains on the Electric grid while the home also has a need to manage the water consumption, provide access to Video Surveillance systems, Door entry systems as well as Security/Alarms systems.
Take a look at a company called In2Networks and what they offer. They address all of the above capabilities and allow the consumer to monitor and control all of the above mentioned devices.

Jim. A
Service Provider

[open4energy]

At the heart of the issue is our attitude to energy saving.

In our studies we are finding that the majority of saving come from being aware of how energy is being used (reading is a good way to find this out) and then willing to make changes.

Like, buy an energy saving bub, and replace the old one in your home office. Saves 3 times the energy your computer uses. For facts see - http://open4energy.com

Frequent use of the "e-finger" - will save 24% of laptop energy, and that on top of the best power settings.

I have found the "e-bend" works well - unplugging the older vampire power devices when not needed.