Power Monitoring -- Engadget

power monitoring posts

Ambient Orb power-usage hack reduces energy consumption by 40%

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 27th 2007 at 11:03PM

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

by Ryan Block, posted Apr 3rd 2006 at 9:04AM

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]