Google PowerMeter

I recently saw a snippet in the New York Times technology blog ("Googling Your Home Electricity Usage")--it's a web application that ties into a "smart power meter" (presumably already installed at your house by your utility company), that lets you track your electrical usage real time. Cool! There have been studies on using these "energy feedback devices" to reduce occupant energy use (overall savings in that study of 10-15%).


As the Google PowerMeter page put it:

Studies show that being able to see your energy usage makes it easier to reduce it. We want people to be able to do so throughout the day, but this sort of near real-time feedback requires an advanced electricity meter known as a "smart meter." Over 40 million U.S. homes are scheduled to get these upgraded meters over the next three years with support from the Obama Administration's proposed stimulus package.

Unfortunately, many of today's smart meters don't display information to the consumer. We consider this unacceptable. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you, and should be available in a standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see it, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit from it.

I have already blogged about power monitoring--see "Electrical Use Geekery", where I talk about the TED ("The Energy Detective") that I have installed at my apartment. I've found it really useful to figure out what in my house draws how much power, and I've been doing work on reducing phantom loads (material for a future post). And it was cool--the Google folks even used the same Lord Kelvin quote that I did in my post ("If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.")

I'm really psyched about Google PowerMeter for several reasons. First, Google is really great at doing things in a Not Dumb Way that ends up taking over the market--Google searches, Google Maps (um, who uses MSN maps now?), Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Desktop--all of them were not new concepts (i.e., they are "Why hasn't somebody already..." items), but they're just executed so well that everyone gravitates towards them. Second, instead of developing some type of display/interface "box," they realize, "Duh, everyone knows how to use a web browser," and uses that as the interface. So Not Dumb! Third, they're bypassing the entire hardware angle--I'm perfectly comfortable mucking around inside an electrical panel, but I'm probably in the minority in this country. By just springboarding off of smart power meters, they can greatly increase the number of households who will be able to look at their real time power use.

So if anyone has the chance to get this system installed, please try it out and let everyone know how it works! I'm really curious.