

Google PowerMeter Measures Your Electricity Usage - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.google.org/powermeter/howitworks.html

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physcab
I have direct experience in this space and I'll share my reflections as they
seem pertinent here.

Last year I started development on a very similar idea. I wanted to create a
social network of people's energy consumption. The object was to give people
near real time feedback of their consumption, and tailor specific products to
them based on some surveys (i.e how old is your dryer or home?). If people are
cognizant of their neighbor's consumption, the research has shown that their
consumption will decrease as well.

I also joined our local energy advisory committee and worked with the local
utility on energy policy issues.

Here are some of the lesser known hurdles in this space:

\- First, energy consumption data is VERY hard to get. Florida is the only
state that I know of that does not have a privacy law. For example, if you
call up your local utility and ask for your neighbor's consumption, they will
tell you to get lost. In Florida, this is not necessarily true with
municipalities. If Google can get access to this data, they will have a
powerful and unfair competitive advantage.

\- Demand-side management is a big priority for utilities. They spend tens of
millions a year and get pitched by companies with better energy management
software all the time. There is always room for improvement. Utilities want
peak power reduced, as it raises costs for their customers. This is the idea
behind smart-grid, and if utilities can get access to a software that evolves
with the smart meters, they will invest heavily in that architecture.

Google will essentially solve the power management debate. They have the
infrastructure and the incentive, as consumption information will be a prized
commodity, which only they will be able to get access.

~~~
wmf
_For example, if you call up your local utility and ask for your neighbor's
consumption, they will tell you to get lost._

Duh. Some kind of opt-in is going to be required for other people's data. The
bigger problem is that if you call up the utility and ask for _your own_ power
data from your smart meter they will tell you to get lost, because even though
they have the data they have no software that can send it to you.

 _[Google] have the infrastructure and the incentive, as consumption
information will be a prized commodity, which only they will be able to get
access._

Unfortunately, this is probably right, although Google says they're going to
make it open: "We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use
belongs to you, and should be available in an open standard, non-proprietary
format. You should control who gets to see your data, and you should be free
to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit
from it."

(Note: I'm assuming that smart meters are a solved problem. I already have
one.)

~~~
physcab
I am not sure why consumption information is kept private. In Florida you can
get this pretty freely for public utilities and I have not heard of any issues
because of it.

Smart meters do not come without some controversy. They are expensive and it
has not been shown the cost can be offset by the variable rates. This is why
my utility has them implemented on a voluntary basis

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jacquesm
This is a great initiative _but_ :

There are a lot of services being created right now that somehow graft on a
centralized component where none is needed, just to get information about the
users.

Anything this project does could be done just as easily - if not easier - by
doing it locally, that is, at the location where the person who should have
access to the data is living right now.

No central service component needs to be added on to this to make it work.

I've lived off grid for several years and it was one of the biggest eye
openers in terms of where your utility power is really going, and you'd be
surprised with how little power you really can get through the day.

Start with switching off that AC unit (unless you're in a datacenter, in which
case it is probably a career limiting move).

~~~
physcab
You are forgetting that most consumers don't know how to get the information
themselves. Actually it's a challenge just to get them to _care_. but for
those who do, it's surprising that telling them to get cfls or led lights or
even a programmable thermostat is a surprise. New homes _need_ a central
stupid-easy component to help remind consumers. The real target market for all
these businesses is not necessairly the end consumer...it's the homebuilder
and the utility company

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kqr2
If you are interested in monitoring just a few key appliances in your house,
there is a nice DIY project for a wireless home power monitoring system:

<http://www.ladyada.net/make/wattcher/index.html>

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bendtheblock
This is brilliant. Great for improving home efficiency and will probably have
a knock-on effect in the home white-goods/electronics market, as people are
able to review products based on their energy consumption in the home, as
opposed to manufacturers claims. I can see the mash up already: product
reviews with average reported consumption, facebook app "check out my daily
energy consumption!" etc....

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jonasvp
Funny, I just put a somewhat similar site online. It depends on people putting
in their current meter count regularly by hand and obviously can't be as
precise. Still, for most people who don't have a smart meter (in Germany
that's everyone), it can work well, and provide at least a monthly usage
chart.

I developed it to scratch my own itch: we share a flat and had to pay a lot
for electricity at the end of one year because the the advance payments we pay
monthly didn't cover our usage. Since then I noted the meter count monthly so
we could split the extra charges every month.

It's only in German for now, ugly, and probably still buggy. Feedback is
greatly appreciated, though: <http://www.stromio.de>

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wallflower
The chart seems to be missing one of the biggest energy consumers in the
house: The hot water heater (at least in the US, where there is not an on-
demand hot water heater).

5 minute shower * (5 gal/min) * (440 BTU [to heat water 85 degrees]/gal ) =
11000 BTU or 3.223kWh or ~16 hours of 200-watt HDTV

1 gallon of gasoline = 115000 BTU or 33.7kWh or 10 5-minute hot showers

<http://withouthotair.com>

~~~
anamax
(1) The savings for "on demand" isn't in the water for the shower, but the
water that cooled sitting in the tank and was then reheated. (2) Many water
heaters in the US are natural gas (or propane), not electric. It's far more
efficient to burn NG to heat water than it is to burn it to make electricity
and then use the electricity to heat water. Given adequate insulation (so
water isn't reheated), a stored-NG system can easily use less energy than an
electric on-demand system (3) "on demand" water heaters can increase peak use.
Stored hot water can be heated off-peak.

I don't know if there are on-demand water heaters that use NG.

~~~
pbrown
There are and they are quite popular here in Alaska, where the "cooling off"
of heated water is obviously quite a challenge. Problem is they are not widely
adopted because of the very high initial cost of purchase. They do eventually
pay for themselves, but it's a save now vs. save later problem.

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erwinvw
The idea is great and will certainly work. But what I do not like is that
Google knows everyting about you at the end. What do you search, read, where
do you live, your work, where you go on vacation, who do you call, send mail,
and now also where you are at the present time. There are plenty of options
for viewing and mapping your energy. Without the intervention of your energy
supplier our Google. Why not improve your entire view of consumption such as
gas, water and electricity. Without the interference of Google and energy
companies using the information for their own purpose. Soon, Google becomes
the energy supplier?

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brandonkm
The benefits of this project cannot be understated. This is a pretty forward
thinking initiative and looks like it could pay dividends for everyone. Having
google-analytics-like insight into energy consumption in your home would
really bring new perspectives to people who would have never been able to
access these kinds of insights. I'm really excited about this one.

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aneesh
Measuring energy consumption with this level of granularity could be one of
the most effective ways of reducing it. My only complaint is that its coming
from Google, who already has enough of my personal data!

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danw
Anyone interested in this or similar projects and based in the UK should come
along to the next HomeCamp (<http://homecamp.pbwiki.com/FrontPage>).

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donaq
I wonder if Google has managed to circumvent the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle or will the act of measuring energy usage actually increase it? :)

~~~
jacquesm
I know your comment is in jest, but where to start with how little sense it
makes even when you interpret it as humor.

~~~
donaq
Well, I know that Heisenberg does not apply, except insofar as - no wait,
you're right, it does not apply at all. Anyway, my point in a nutshell was
that making energy analytics available to all might not help that much. After
all, having information about how much energy we're using is not the same as
being arsed enough to change our usage patterns, but the effort of gathering
the additional information will definitely consume more energy. It may be a
negligible amount for one person or even a household, but multiply that by all
the people on the energy grid and I bet you'll have a significant number, no
matter how sophisticated the technology.

I guess the question of whether such a project is ultimately worth the trouble
comes down to the amount of energy that will be saved by the people (which my
cynical nature inclines me to think will be a small minority of the total
population) who care enough to actually alter their usage patterns for it
versus the amount of total energy consumed by the project. Then again, the
people who care, like yourself, are probably already careful about the amount
of energy they consume, so my guess, though I hope I'm wrong, is that the nett
effect of the project will be to increase overall power consumption.

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ggruschow
Is that graph for real? They have a program that takes a power consumption
time series, and generates a chart with those sweet explanatory annotations
automatically?

Please - can I just have that program? That'd be really helpful to me in lots
of my work, and to others too. Making it easier to visualize and understand
data rules.

Giving us that program will save power too by increasing productivity.

