PowerMonitoring
Latest
Google PowerMeter comes to Blue Line Innovations' PowerCost Monitor
Energy conservation isn't just good for the environment, it's also good for the family budget. Being aware of your energy consumption can help you cut costs by as much as 5 to 15 percent, according to some estimates. One product that can help with real time power monitoring of your consumption habits is the Power Cost Monitor, a device we got to spend some quality time with over the summer after Blue Line Innovation kicked off a partnership with Microsoft HOHM. The partnerships are expected to widen today when BLI announces support for Google's competing PowerMeter web monitoring solution. As such, owners of the $249ish PowerCost Monitor WiFi Edition kit will have yet another method for measuring their carbon footprint from a PC or smartphone -- and that's a good thing. Update: We have the official PR after the break.
Ambient Orb power-usage hack reduces energy consumption by 40%
We've seen some interesting uses for Ambient Devices' various "thin data" products, but Mark Martinez, a Southern California Edison power station manager, has probably hit upon the most interesting application we've seen: by reprogramming the device to reflect energy usage and costs, customers in his 120-person test program managed to reduce their energy consumption by 40 percent. Martinez chalks the results up to the "sentinel effect," saying that ""It's nonintrusive. It has a relatively benign effect. But when you suddenly see your ball flashing red, you notice." Ambient Devices actually sells a similar product called the EnergyJoule, and we've seen some other monitoring attempts before, but we think we like Martinez's hack better -- it brings a little mod flair to living green. Hopefully he'll let us know how he did it soon.[Via Inhabitat]
DIY Kyoto's Wattson
If you haven't been conserving energy like any good citizen of the world -- carpooling, turning lights off when you leave the room, keeping your defibrillator unplugged -- perhaps it's about time you took your energy output into your own hands. We've seen juice-monitoring solutions before, but the Wattson definitely takes the cake for style and simplicity, showing a running total of wattage output represented in a digital readout or ambient light -- it can also connect to your PC and record usage patterns. Unfortunately you're going to have to spend £350 ($600 US) to get one, and that's if you're lucky enough to snag one of the limited run of 250 they manufactured. Elementary, my dear... ahem.[Via Inhabitat]
