Tag Archives: Energy Monitors

Cambridge Thermal Imaging Project

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This winter photo shows brightness where the most heat is escaping this home.

Cambridge! It’s finally here: a chance to vividly see the cool or warm air leaving your drafty home, without having to pay hefty fees to a thermal photographer. Thanks to the Thermal Imaging Project on which HEET has partnered with Sagewell Inc., Cambridge homeowners can request thermal (infrared) images of the outsides of their homes.

The images are taken with car-mounted cameras similar to those used for Google Maps street view, and taken on a “first come, first served” basis – with highest priority given to locations with highest demand.  With the slight air of a Groupon deal, Sagewell has asked for 400 requests from Cambridge before they will release our thermal images for free.

Because of fossil fuel prices skyrocketing and scientists projecting Cambridge’s summer temperatures will soon start looking more like Atlanta, GA temps, everyone’s heating AND cooling bills are only on their way up. High efficiency in your home is valid for every season.

Even better, the easiest time to work on your home’s energy efficiency is spring and summer, when the wait for weatherization services is short!

Request yours on Sagewell.com now.
It should take about a minute to do so;  just enter your address at the bottom of the home page, hit enter, and then enter your information on the next page that shows up by clicking the green “HERE” (see following photo).

This page appears after you enter your address at the bottom of Sagewell.com's home page.

There have already been over 100 requests for thermal images, so if 300 are generated in the next month, everyone will get to have this great service free of cost.  Tell your neighbors! We all want to save money and live a little lighter on the planet, don’t we?

The Extra Goods
You and other homeowners, condo owners, and landlords can access their images and an individualized report free of charge online via a password-protected account when the images are available (Sagewell will email you a link).  The individualized report shows what to work on, how much it will save you, and connects you with the needed free and rebated services. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.

Not all buildings can be analyzed (due to blocked views from trees, etc. or private way constraints), but Sagewell has agreed to image around 22,000 buildings in Cambridge!

The Thermal Imaging Project will enable residential and commercial building owners to lower costs while supporting our city’s climate and emission reduction goals. One more great tool to wield for average citizens and environmental warriors alike. Get to http://www.Sagewell.com now!

If you have any remaining questions, please contact Sagewell at info@Sagewell.com or HEET at heet.cambridge@gmail.com.

Fun with a Kill-A-Watt

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We finally got that Kill-A-Watt we’ve been thinking about, and we spent a good part of last weekend running around the house measuring the energy use of every single piece of electronic equipment we own. It was surprisingly fun. It was also a lot of numbers. (See below.) But we could draw a few conclusions from all of them: Continue reading →

Cross-posted on pragmaticenvironmentalism.com

Google PowerMeter

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How can we measure what we can’t see? Electricity provides a particular challenge in this regard. Even though we’re told turning off lights saves energy and money, many people continue to leave lights on, unaware of how much power they’re actually consuming.  What’s more, many devices we use today maintain a low-level of power usage, often referred to as “vampire power” or standby power, even when we think the device is off.   Electronics such as computers, stereos and televisions are highly to blame in this regard.  There is however light at the end of the tunnel.  Google has recently released a new application called PowerMeter that will allow individuals to connect to their utility and view their up-to-date energy usage via iGoogle.   While testing is still in progress and the complete version is planned for roll-out later this year, the idea is a brilliant one, and one that may change the way we look at and use electricty moving forward.

Are Smart Meters a Smart Idea?

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410px-intelligenter_zaehler-_smart_meterThe debate on the value (and costs) of wide spread deployment and installation of ‘Smart Meters‘ for monitoring energy usage rages on-most notably in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

A succession of articles and editorials has been published recently, with each author taking a particular side of the argument. As is the case with many issues batted about by the press these days, the reader is left none the wiser.

There are obviously large capital costs involved in both preparing each property for energy use metering and providing a display device for each customer to examine their energy costs–then make intelligent decisions about saving energy and reducing the costs of powering their house.

After seeing how this debate is starting to be defined in the public arena, Warm Home Cool Planet would like to share a couple of observations:

Given the fact most houses have internet access, there should be some cost savings in allowing customers to use their current computers or mobile devices to view real-time energy use information through a web browser. All you need is a simple web connection for each energy device that reports through a customer’s current web connection to a central database. This would also allow the utility to see energy consumption patterns in real-time, including the ability to respond to service outages before the customer even notices.

Secondly, the ‘unique’ editorial policies of papers owned by Rupert Murdoch allow editors to add their own opinions to articles which are meant to serve as informational tools for readers to make their own decisions. For instance, last week’s article was titled “Smart Meter. Dumb Idea?“. What would the casual reader make of this?

Editorials published in response “Smart Meters are, well, Smart” are revealed to be written by leaders of trade associations who are hardly neutral observers on this subject. In the end, WSJ readers are likely to walk away with a sense of confused paralysis on the whole issue.

No matter which side of this argument you’re on, that is not the outcome we need.

NEC Turns Your Energy Consumption into an Online Game

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Carbon Ball

If the idea of tracking and analyzing your power consumption via a chart does not excite you, consider NEC’s online energy games. The electronics company’s program, currently undergoing a three-month trial in employees’ homes, uses a WiFi-enabled device attached to your circuit breaker to keep track of power consumption. Information is transmitted to your computer via Zigbee wireless technology, where it can be used to play games like “Carbon Diet” and “Carbon Ball”.

Carbon Diet lets you compete against other households to see who uses the least amount of power. The households with the most eco-points can buy virtual soil, water, flowers, and grass.  Carbon Ball  features dung beetles competing to travel the farthest, with distance determined by power consumption.

Carbon Diet and Carbon Ball probably won’t fly off the shelves anytime soon (although NEC thinks it will sell $20 million worth of the games over a three year period), but they are part of a trend of power consumption games–a trend which is likely to grow once smart meters become more common. Other potential competitors in the energy game arena include Lost Joules and Stanford University Professor Bryan Reeve’s Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). Whether adults want to pass the hours away racing dung beetles remains to be seen, but online games might be the best way to teach kids about energy use.
[Via Pink Tentacle]

Smart Meters to be Part of Stimulus Package

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A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about a test program of ‘smart’ meters installed to monitor electricity use in Michigan homes. Now, as details of last week’s  stimulus package are unveiled, it seems that smart meter usage within America’s homes will soon go way beyond the prototype stage.

This will provide consumers with immediate feedback on their energy use, and show the effect of turning off lights when they leave the room, or using cold water to wash their clothes.

Making energy costs visible

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DW_ConsumersAMI6

The Citizen Patriot newspaper in Jackson, Michigan ran a story yesterday about the new ‘smart’ meters Consumers Energy customers will start seeing in their homes. It’s actually a visual display panel that will allow their customers to see-and control–energy usage in their homes.

When prices peak, special thermostats could automatically dial down or shut off air conditioning. Lights, appliances and electronics could also be controlled through display panels or connections to home computers that show energy usage or notify customers of high energy costs.

Consumers Energy will be installing units in 6,000 homes over the next year. Sounds like a great program, and judging by the comments this article has attracted, Consumers Energy needs all the good PR they can get. Warm Home Cool Planet is happy to help!