At this point, I don't feel like I need to burnish my eco-credentials, given that I write for CNET's Green Tech blog every day. But when it came to buying a car, I got the iconic, even cliched, 2010 Toyota Prius.
Having driven almost 2,500 miles on it so far, I like it, although I have not yet been able to get the advertised 50-plus miles per gallon when I go around town, which is the bulk of my driving. But it's early still, I tell myself, so maybe the Prius can show me the way. (See also CNET's review of the 2010 Toyota Prius.)
Buying a hybrid was not at all my plan. My wife and I were generally content with a 10-year-old Corolla that got us from point A to B with good mileage. As you can tell, fuel efficiency and reliability are high on my wish lists, not luxury features. In fact, what I really wanted to do was hold out for a plug-in electric vehicle.
But a few weeks ago, our well-maintained sedan was totaled by a teenager in an SUV (no serious injuries, thankfully). That meant I needed to get a new car--fast. We went from accident to test drive to transaction in about a week since we needed a new car before we left for a long-planned vacation. Nothing like a deadline to focus the mind.
I was surprised to see how few hybrid options there are. Certainly the Honda Insight was tempting and early reviews were positive. But reviews also said that space in the back seat isn't great, which was a priority for us, while the new Prius improves on interior space.
I also thought of the Ford Fusion hybrid, which I drove this spring. One advantage was the tax rebate I would have gotten for buying a fuel-efficient American car. It gets over 40 miles per gallon in city driving and I liked driving it a second time--it had a comfortingly familiar look and feel, both inside and out, even though it's a hybrid. But with the bigger battery, the trunk didn't seem very roomy and you can't push down the back seats for big loads.
Next stop was the Toyota dealership. The base price of the new Prius is a few thousand dollars higher than that of the Insight but less than the listed base of the Fusion. We took the Prius for a spin and were pleased.
There's not exactly a waiting list for the 2010 Prius, but each car is basically spoken for before it arrives, at least in the Boston area. Our sales guy had one coming in. We grabbed it. Did I mention we were in a hurry?
The day after delivery we started our long drive for vacation. Gas mileage for our roughly 2,000 miles of highway travel in total was about 51 miles per gallon. A limited sample of city driving (less than 100 miles) has me getting in the middle to high 40s.
Different state of mind
The biggest change with driving a hybrid is the feedback system. The 2010 Prius has a few different display options. It's interesting to know what's going on under the covers--how the gasoline engine, generator, and battery coordinate to maximize your mileage.
But so far what I've ended up using is the Eco dashboard, which tells you when you're driving just on the battery and when going out of the super-efficient zone. The big lesson here: don't accelerate aggressively. Picking up speed slowly is the key to fuel-efficiency nirvana, the Prius tells me.
What a difference from my old cars. I've always driven a stick shift, which means a direct sense of controlling your car's functions: put it in gear, hit the accelerator, and you're in control.
The Prius is fly by wire. You tell the computer what to do and it controls the car. The 2010 model has a few modes that you can put it in: all EV, which only works up to about 20 miles per hour; the Eco mode; and the Power mode.
I've used the Power mode to jump onto highways and it works fine. The Eco mode makes it harder to push on the accelerator so my preference is to only use that with cruise control on the highway. With my day-to-day driving, I've ended up not picking a specific mode and just eyeing the dashboard for feedback.
Show me the way, oh eco-indicator. The Hybrid System Indicator coaches you on how to sip gas.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)For a far more thorough run-through, I suggest this review by my colleague Wayne Cunningham at CNET Car Tech. If you want to know how the hybrid system works under the covers, check out this video from the CNET Green Show.
Of course, there's the cost of the car. I ended up with a relatively low-end model, which is fine because I don't rely on GPS or need a solar moonroof (the solar panel powers a fan to keep the car from heating up in the sun.)
I don't drive a whole lot of miles per year so I wasn't going to get out a calculator and run an ROI analysis on buying a Prius with 48/50 miles per gallon mileage versus something else.
Hybrid technology just makes sense and it's a feature I wanted, just like getting video on my digital camera. Why should my car be burning gas when it's standing still? And I think it's brilliant that I'm recouping energy for my battery when I'm decelerating or hitting the brake.
Now when I drive around I notice the other Priuses. And I keep wondering, are you getting over 50 miles per gallon? Any tips you can share?
Yet again, the tech industry has a buzzword everyone seems to be using but few really understand.
The smart grid follows the footsteps of the Internet and the interstate highway system--they are giant investments in infrastructure. It's not so much a single thing as it is a goal to give the electricity system a digital makeover to make it more efficient and reliable.
Governments and utilities around the world are devoting billions of dollars to lay new transmission lines and make the electricity network operate more like the computer networks we access every day. Big tech vendors and hundreds of start-ups are jockeying for prominence in the smart grid.
The buzz reflects how important reliable, affordable, and cleaner energy is to our modern lifestyle and economy. But what does it mean for individuals? And what technologies make up the smart grid? To give you a clue on what the smart-grid fuss is all about, we offer this FAQ.
What is the smart grid?
Building the smart grid means adding computer and communications technology to the existing electricity grid. With an overlay of digital technology, the grid promises to operate more efficiently and reliably. It can also accommodate more solar and wind power, which are inconsistent sources of energy that can become more reliable with better controls. Much like computers and routers manage the flow of bits on the Internet, smart-grid technologies use information to optimize the flow of electricity.
What would a smart grid be able to do that today's not-so-smart grid can't?
Right now, if there's a breakdown at your local substation, the utility usually finds out when customers call to complain. Placing a networked sensor inside a transformer or along wires could locate and report a problem, or prevent it from happening in the first place.
Despite living in the age of information, most of us only get a glimpse of our energy consumption when the utility bills come once a month. In people's homes, the smart grid should mean more detailed information through home energy-monitoring tools. These can be small displays or Web-based programs that give a real-time view of how much energy you're using, which appliances consume the most, and how your home compares to others. Just surfacing that information will give people ideas on how to shave energy bills by 5 to 15 percent, utility executives say.
What's needed to start is a smart meter with two-way communications or some other kind of gateway. Once that conduit is put in place, consumers can get more detailed energy data and start taking advantage of efficiency incentives, such as charging your
In theory, networked appliances are smarter and more efficient. GE and start-up display-maker Tendril, for example, will test big appliances--refrigerators, washing machines, and the like--that can get information on fluctuating electricity prices to do its job more efficiently. It could be as simple as making ice or running the dishwasher in the middle of the night. Or, as part of a home-area network, consumers could program lighting and major appliances on a schedule.
The next step toward efficiency is what's called demand response. The goal here is to dial back energy consumption at peak times. This is very important to utilities because it's costly and polluting to bring on auxiliary power plants to meet, say, a spike in demand from the air conditioning load on a hot summer day. Consumers and businesses have financial incentives to participate, such as a discounted rate. "Shedding load" could mean turning the gas heat off of the clothes drier for a few minutes or dimming the lights in a supermarket in the middle of the day.
A smarter grid also makes distributed energy, such as home solar systems, more viable and user-friendly. With a smart meter and monitoring software, a homeowner can see how much solar panels are producing and their carbon footprint is being reduced. A utility, too, is keenly interested in how much distributed energy is available so it can calibrate its own daily power generation.
What are some examples?
Xcel Energy has dubbed Boulder, Colo., "Smart Grid City" and is installing the equipment on power lines and people's homes. Consumers get access to a free Web-based program that gives them a real-time read-out of use, which helps them lower their usage. It also lets them know when they are buying electricity made from clean sources.
When you go deeper into the smart grid, though, you realize it isn't just about a more detailed utility bill. It can also diversify our energy sources, potentially avoiding the need to build new power plants to meet growing demand.
Consider Duke Energy's smart-grid trial in Charlotte, N.C. A substation--the point that distributes electricity from long-haul transmission lines to a neighborhood--is equipped with 213 solar panels and a large battery. About 100 households have smart meters and in-home energy management tools.
When the sun is shining, the 50-kilowatt solar array makes electricity for the homes in the neighborhood. It also feeds the battery, giving the area a few hours of backup power in the case of an outage and a buffer to draw from during peak times. Consumers can take part in demand-response programs, too, to get a reduction on their electricity bill.
One of the more aggressive utilities in this area, Duke plans to have millions of smart meters installed in homes over the next two years. In addition, it envisions putting sensors along power lines, and networking gear, such as routers, in substations and transformers. In people's homes, individual appliances like water heaters could eventually be networked as well.
The project reflects how the utility industry seems to be following the path of the computing industry, which went from centralized processing with mainframes to a much more distributed and varied architecture.
Who are the companies participating in the smart grid?
The smart grid is shaping up to be a giant mash-up of the electricity utility, computing, and communications industries.
Heavyweight tech companies--Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and Google--all have serious initiatives in this area and loom large among utility executives working on smart-grid programs.
IBM, which sees big dollar signs when it gets involved in large infrastructure projects, is building the technology backbone for many grid modernization programs. That includes installing communications equipment along the grid as well as the software and servers to process the mountains of data that need to be processed.
Cisco, too, is jumping in with both feet with a broad initiative to supply networking equipment for utilities as well as in-home energy management tools. Verizon is looking at this as well, seeing the home network as a point to gather data on home energy use and, potentially, control lighting and appliances for better efficiency.
Microsoft and Google are going after consumers as well while trying to sign on utility partners.
The other key players are the host of start-ups in the area, many of which focus on energy displays. A handful of stronger network-oriented companies are emerging, notably Silver Spring Networks, which offers a wireless card that goes into smart meters.
Finally, there's the electrical infrastructure itself: meters, transformers, transmission equipment, and other hardware that makes the grid tick. In addition to a number of smart meter makers, there are the global infrastructure companies like GE, Siemens, and ABB that are introducing modern control systems to manage the flow of electricity.
OK, so the smart grid is supposed to reduce wasted energy, give consumers better information, and allow the grid to use more solar and wind power. What's the hold-up?
Where to start?
Utilities aren't known as the most fleet-of-foot businesses and the energy industry invests a lower percentage of revenue in technology than most industries. This helps explain why we've been hearing about the grid for 10 years but very few of us actually have it.
But lack of investment is only part of the picture. The whole point of a smarter grid is to use electricity more efficiently, but in many states in the U.S. utilities operate without strong incentives for efficiency, say industry executives. They invest big dollars--think multibillion-dollar power plants--based on their ability to sell more kilowatt-hours, not less. The more progressive utilities have found ways to justify their investments in the smart grid based on savings from energy reductions, but many utilities aren't nearly as enthusiastic because of how they are regulated.
A key regulatory piece of the smart grid is time-of-day pricing, which is supposed to reflect the fluctuating cost of energy delivery in a day. Some sort of tiered pricing would allow a consumer to take advantage of off-peak rates, but it isn't the norm in many states.
Then there's the lack of standards for a dizzying number of tasks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is responsible for establishing an interoperability framework for smart-grid standards, recently released a road map but everyone agrees there's much work to be done.
The basic idea: be more efficient, resilient, and able to use more renewable energy.
(Credit: Department of Energy)Amid all the technical and business challenges, there's the question of consumer acceptance. Consumers, in general, are likely to welcome more detailed information on how much electricity, natural gas, and water they use. But even though there's the promise of energy savings, it's not clear that people are willing to pay much money for home energy-management tools.
Some people and businesses are willing to allow a utility to communicate through a smart meter to remotely control the thermostat on the air conditioner in exchange for cheaper rates. But these demand-response programs are clearly not for everyone. The trick for successful demand response programs is to entice consumers with lower electricity bills without being intrusive or forcing a dramatic change, say industry executives.
Finally, these technology businesses need to be profitable, but many of the technologies and business models need to be ironed out. There's even some concern that a mini-investment bubble is building around smart grids.
Is the smart grid more secure?
Given the smart grid's fledgling status, it's hard to provide a definitive report card. But the rush to modernize the grid has gotten some security experts raising the alarm and calling for more scrutiny.
The increased use of the Internet instead of private networks for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) control systems and the bleeding together of existing corporate networks with energy providers' control networks opens up more potential cyber-vulnerabilities, they say. Security experts are calling for security to be better baked into the standards for the smart grid and for industry professionals to use better security practices to avoid dangerous hacks.
So when will I have my smart grid?
Like the highways and the Internet, the smart grid will take years to build, probably decades.
The first signs will be better energy-saving tools for consumers, much like the Web brought consumers better tools for managing personal finances. Some enthusiasts will want to closely monitor energy use and ratchet down consumption for environmental and financial reasons. Others may just set up "auto pilot" programs to take advantage of off-peak rates, much like you might use a programmable thermostat.
That said, it's early on and there may be a killer application that will emerge from the smart grid platform.
Lithium-ion battery packs are the current favorite for electric cars.
(Credit: NASA)Battery technology presents the the biggest hurdle in going to electric vehicles. Current batteries don't provide the range of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. Worse, batteries take a lot longer to recharge than the time it takes to fill a 16-gallon tank with gasoline. But this isn't the end of the story, as battery technology is still being developed. For 100 years we got along with lead-acid batteries, but research has gone into high gear to look at new battery compounds that might prove to be the breakthrough that lets electric vehicle performance equal or surpass that of gasoline-powered cars. Lithium ion is the current favored chemistry, but other, more exotic compounds are being researched, such as zinc-air and lithium-polymer. Electric car enthusiast Mike Thompson has compiled a chart of current battery and electricity storage technologies, along with various specifications. The most useful number in the chart is watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), which shows the energy density of the power source. The more electricity you can pack into a battery, the better range you will get for an electric car.
Click through for the full chart
According to the chart, research on lithium-polymer batteries shows that they could hit 400 Wh/kg, the highest of any other technology. Zinc-air is second at 200 Wh/kg, while nickel-metal-hydride, used in hybrid vehicles, is at 80 Wh/kg.
It's been criticized for contributing to the obesity epidemic and condemned by PETA, but now a Burger King franchise in the New York metro area has announced that it wants in on the green movement. The high-traffic restaurant in Hillside, N.J., will install a speed bump designed to harness the kinetic energy produced by the hundreds of cars that pass through the drive-thru daily.
As they wait for their Double Whopper, customers will roll through a section of the drive-thru lane lined with metal plates that move down and up as cars head to the next window. The MotionPower technology developed by Burtonsville, Md.-based New Energy Technologies, could harness and capture the energy twice daily, the company reports.
"More than 150,000 cars drive through our Hillside store alone each year, and I think it would be great to capture the wasted kinetic energy of these hundreds of thousands of cars to generate clean electricity," said Andrew Paterno, co-owner of 12 N.Y. metro-area Burger Kings. In its report, New Energy Technologies said it is partnering with BK for "durability testing," so it may be awhile before energy is actually captured and put to use. Once active, it's possible that the energy would be routed directly to the power grid.
So how is Burger King benefiting from this? It's unlikely one "green" speed bump will attract more customers (unless it relieves the guilt of an unhealthy meal). Instead of offsetting the restaurant's already wasted energy, BK should focus on the many ways it can reduce its energy usage in the first place. For example, recycling used vegetable oil, installing solar panels on the roof and windows, or transporting their proteins on low-impact trucks, such as this one.
Will an energy-producing speed bump eclipse Burger King's bad rep with environmentalists? Probably not. But I'll give them credit for playing guinea pig. New Energy Technologies, which develops other renewable energy, has a larger plan to install speed bumps in toll booths, streets, border crossings, and other high-traffic areas.
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.
Imagine a refrigerator smart enough to cut your electricity bills.
Smart-grid start-up Tendril and General Electric later this year will test a smart-grid system that will allow GE's networked home appliances to take advantage of cheaper electricity rates, the companies announced Wednesday.
The joint development deal calls for GE to speak to Tendril's smart-grid software in a range of GE appliances--dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators, and water heaters--over Zigbee wireless networks.
From GE's labs: a fridge that talks to smart meters to save energy.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)The integration will allow consumers to control their appliances from different points, such a Web browser, iPhone, or in-home display.
GE's support for Tendril's software for utilities will also allow consumers to take advantage of efficiency incentives offered by utilities, explained Adrian Tuck, the CEO of Tendril. The companies plan to test the system in the fourth quarter this year to measure the amount of energy savings possible, he said.
Tuck projected that reductions on the order of 30 percent for an individual appliance are possible if a utility offers demand-response programs to cut energy use during peak times. For a consumer, that would mean that a clothes drier will turn off the gas heat for a few minutes. In exchange, a consumer can get some sort of discount.
"People ask me all the time whether this is disruptive technology and I say that for most people it shouldn't be," Tuck said. "The vast majority of people just want to consume less electricity and they don't want to do it in ways that disrupt their lives."
To make this type of demand-response application possible, Tendril's software needs to communicate information on changing electricity prices from the utilities to GE's appliances through a smart meter or broadband connection. Based on that information, a refrigerator, for example, can decide to make ice at off-peak times.
Beyond the technical barriers, there need to be regulations that give incentives for utilities to promote efficiency and offer variable time-of-day pricing, Tuck added. "A lot of utilities don't like the idea of having customers consume less of what they sell," he said.
Also, how much consumers are willing to pay for in-home energy displays and grid-connected appliances in exchange for energy savings is still unclear. Tuck thinks consumers should not have to pay more than $100 to start out and not have ongoing fees.
Italy's Piaggio wants to clean up the image of scooters.
The company, which makes several lines of scooters, on Tuesday introduced a hybrid version of its three-wheeled MP3 scooter, which it claims is the first hybrid scooter.
Sign of more to come? Piaggio's MP3 hybrid scooter.
(Credit: Piaggio)The MP3 Hybrid improves mileage and reduces carbon emissions by 50 percent, according to the company. It should also reduce other air pollutants, which has led some European cities to keep scooters and other vehicles out of certain areas.
The company, which sells the iconic Vespa brand, plans to make the hybrid available in Europe by August for about $12,500 and in the U.S. by 2010, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
The MP3 Hybrid costs more than the gasoline MP3 scooters, which range from about $7,100 to $9,000 in the U.S. But the company is investing in the hybrid power train with an eye toward using the technology in other models, as Toyota has done with the power train in the Prius.
The hybrid MP3 operates as a typical hybrid car, optimizing fuel efficiency by using the gasoline engine and stored energy in its lithium ion batteries. When the vehicle decelerates and brakes, it charges the battery.
A driver can choose an all-electric mode for short trips and can view both the gas tank reserves and the amount of battery charge remaining from the dash.
In the U.S., purchases of hybrid and all-electric scooters, such as the Vectrix, qualify for a 10 percent tax rebate.
T. Boone Pickens' massive wind farm, planned for Texas, is looking for a new home.
The energy tycoon and wind advocate told the Dallas Morning News that a project to install hundreds of wind turbines in the Texas panhandle will not work because of a lack of transmission lines. Instead, Pickens' wind company is looking for other locations in the Midwest and possibly Texas.
"I don't think the first place we build, though, is where we thought we would because we don't have the transmission," Pickens said in an interview done last week.
T. Boone Pickens speaks at the Clean-Tech Investor Summit in Palm Springs, California in January.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)Pickens added that falling price of natural gas--now about $4 per million BTUs--is making it harder for his wind company, Mesa Power, to get the funds to build a wind farm. In 2008, Mesa Power announced it would purchase General Electric wind turbines capable of generating 1,000 megawatts worth of electricity.
"You had them standing in line to finance you when natural gas was $9 (per million BTUs)...Natural gas at $4 doesn't have many people trying to finance you," he told the Dallas newspaper (video). "I'm going to start receiving those turbines in the first quarter of '11 and I don't have that big of a garage to put them in there so I got to start getting ready to use them."
Pickens on Tuesday started a round of media interviews to commemorate the launch one year ago of the Pickens Plan, his proposal to invest massively in wind and natural gas vehicles to cut imports of oil. The campaign, financed by $58 million of Pickens' money, has attracted millions of followers, and Pickens himself has spoken to lawmakers about energy policy.
On CNBC's Squawk Box show Tuesday, he predicted that the price of oil will go from over $60 now to $75 by the end of the year.
He called natural gas a "bridge" to renewable energy and electric vehicles because it's available now and is 50 percent cleaner in terms of carbon emissions than gasoline and diesel.
"You can't move an 18-wheeler on a battery. It won't move. We have six and a half million trucks in America. I want to (convert) 100,000 a year on natural gas," he said. In addition to wind, Pickens has invested in natural gas vehicle companies.
He also said that a significant change in the last year is that U.S. politicians are now starting to take action on policies to reduce imports of oil.
Microsoft opened up its Hohm Web application on Monday to U.S. users, a site that gives people a starting point for cutting home energy use.
The launch of Hohm, still in beta, was marred at least for some people, including me, by a DNS problem on Microsoft's side, according to the Hohm product development team. An hour or two after the launch, a few other consumers on Twitter complained of sign-in problems that lasted a few hours.
Once that glitch was cleared up, I was able to finish creating a profile in Hohm for my old New England house. Overall, I'd say it's a useful service that meets its goal of being easy to use.
The "brains" behind Hohm's energy-efficiency recommendations is an existing database that Microsoft licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. That means much of the basic information on how to save money on energy bills has been available for some time from the Energy Department and other sources, if in a disjointed and less attractive form.
(Credit: Screen capture by Martin LaMonica/CNET)I was able to create a nearly complete profile because I've been chipping away at my home energy use for years. (How many of you know what your home's air leakage rate is?) I also did some on-the-spot estimating, which I would expect most people would need to do.
In fact, some of the questions are incredibly detailed, such as what's the capacity of your refrigerator expressed in cubic feet? Rather than pretend that I'd be able to find the manual, I went online and got an idea of what a fridge like mine typically holds.
There are also some places where inevitably there will be gaps and guesses. For instance, I have radiators so I couldn't say where my ducts are located (in conditioned space or not) and being very precise about say, programmable thermostat settings, can be tricky. Also, there are a lot of questions which will no doubt scare some people away.
That said, it's a worthwhile exercise to run through the roughly 200 questions, even if you can't answer them. Why? It offers strong clues as to what matters most when it comes to cutting your energy bills. Whether your PC and monitor uses power-management features is significant enough for Hohm to care.
Man versus machine
But on your first visit, it's really the energy report that you're after. Although Hohm's recommendations perplexed me a few times, on balance it provided solid information.
Put another way, I'd say Hohm echoed the advice of the three energy auditors who have traipsed through my house over the past few years. It also features a "library" with generic recommendations to help people get ready for the summer and there are tips sprinkled on the News section.
Not surprisingly, the recommendations are extremely unglamorous: replace (more) incandescent bulbs, insulate boiler pipes, lower the temperature on the water heater, and so on.
A few things threw me off. Get a high-efficiency boiler for $1,000? Not where I live. But when I clicked on that recommendation, Hohm notes that's the do-it-yourself price and offers a ballpark cost ($8,000) for a professional job.
Hohm doesn't quite measure up to a knowledgeable human being. I paid for an energy audit, complete with a blower door test, this past winter and the recommendations were specific to my situation and very detailed.
But that's OK. Most people just want some good ideas on greening their home and Hohm does that. What I like most is that it creates a list, from which you can develop a plan. Because let's face it, nobody's going to weatherize their home in one weekend.
Where to start? Hohm gives you a starting point for making a home energy-efficiency plan.
(Credit: Screen capture by Martin LaMonica/CNET)How does this compare to Google's PowerMeter or other home energy-monitoring tools?
Monitoring products tend to focus on providing a real-time read-out of energy use. In its first beta version, Google's PowerMeter, for example, surfaces information on how much electricity individual appliances consume and provides daily charts.
Down the road, both Microsoft and Google are interested in expanding their products so consumers can participate in demand-response programs, where a utility can remotely adjust appliances to save energy during peak times. In the meantime, though, many smart-grid products are just trying to give consumers more detailed information than a monthly bill.
Because my utilities aren't providing a data feed to Microsoft, I wasn't able to view my electric and natural gas use without manually entering the data. If a feed were available, I think I would use it to get a better feel for seasonal changes and improvements I've made.
Actual consumption data would also create a far more accurate profile for my home, particularly when comparing to others. For example, I had solar panels installed on my house last year, which has slashed my overall consumption but that's not reflected in the model Hohm creates.
If there were a feature that I'd like to have, on first blush I'd say it's the ability to add my own items to the recommendations so I could treat Hohm like my to-do list.
The community site is bare bones at this point though I could see that being useful and fun. But in the meantime, it's nice to see that, according to my profile, I'm no slacker on cutting energy compared to my neighbors
Toyota Motor plans to start mass-producing plug-in hybrid cars in 2012, according a report.
The Japanese business newspaper Nikkei said on Saturday that the first year's production is expected to be about 20,000 to 30,000 cars.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)Toyota earlier last year said that it plans to start testing 500 plug-in hybrid Priuses in 2010 for fleet owners.
Current Priuses use nickel metal hydride batteries, but for its plug-in vehicles Toyota plans to use lithium ion batteries developed and made through a joint venture with Panasonic.
The plug-in hybrid cars from Toyota will be able to go between 12 and 18 miles on a battery charge alone, according to the paper, which Reuters cited.
There will be a wave of plug-in electric sedans coming to market over the next two years. In addition to a plug-in Prius, Toyota is making an all-electric city car called the FT-EV, which is expected in 2012.
The highly anticipated 2011 Chevy Volt is scheduled to go into production in late 2010. Unlike a traditional hybrid, the Volt will run entirely off its batteries and use the internal combustion engine to charge the battery for rides longer than 40 miles.
