The Home Energy Management Market Heats Up
Source: Fastcompany.com
From startups to heavyweights, companies are betting that energy management will be the next big thing–a market worth $171 billion by 2014.
Talk to people about using less energy–and saving money–and nearly everyone thinks it’s a great idea. So it stands to reason that home-energy management systems will be a hot item for 2010. It’s an appealing prospect: Wireless networks, working with smart meters and smart appliances, shift energy use away from peak times, when it can cost 10 times the off-peak price. Instead of turning on the air-conditioning at 5 p.m. with the rest of the neighborhood, for example, the system could automatically precool the house when there’s less demand for energy, making it cheaper. Sounds great, right?
The potential of the energy-management market is huge. By 2014, the global smart-grid market is expected to be worth $171 billion, according to Zpryme Research & Consulting; if the U.S. fully utilized a smart grid, we could cut our carbon emissions 12% by 2030, the equal of eliminating 66 power plants, according to the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Already, upward of 30 companies, including GE, Google, Microsoft, and a host of eager startups, are rushing to get a foothold in the increasingly crowded space.
There are just a few snags: Smart appliances won’t be widely available until 2014, according to Kevin Nolan, VP for technology at GE Appliances & Lighting. And smart meters? Thanks to the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 40 million American homes will have them by 2015, but that’s not even half of U.S. households. For now, the real work of managing electricity consumption still falls to the consumer. However attractive the idea of cutting back, doing it on a sustained basis, says Nolan, “is like New Year’s, when you decide to go on a diet. Your natural lifestyle creeps back in when the novelty goes away.”
The trick is how to engage with customers today, when energy managers can supply information but can’t really manage anything. Some companies plan to attract people with sleek and sexy devices that offer energy management as a bonus. OpenPeak’s Home Energy Manager, which is expected to cost about $100, has an Apple-like interface with apps for energy advice and management (if you have smart devices), news, and weather, and an app store with free downloads of Facebook as well as apps for sale. “If we can put the actual energy in the background and integrate it into an existing lifestyle, we’ve got a chance of this working,” says David Dollihite, VP of product and technology development at Direct Energy, which, along with Whirlpool, Lennox International, and Best Buy, is doing a pilot project with OpenPeak.
Some players are tacking energy management onto broader services. Home-automation company Control4, for example, is known for linking up home-entertainment and security systems. But its technology also allows smart plugs (around $120 apiece) and thermostats (around $250) to communicate to its platform through a wireless Internet connection or ZigBee network (the industry standard for low-power wireless connectivity). That way, consumers can program networked appliances to run when power is more affordable. “Early adopters–maybe 15% of people–will purchase smart plugs, and that’s an interim step,” says Clint Wheelock, managing director of clean-technology company Pike Research, “but it’s going to take time to get this infrastructure in place.”
Price is an issue, points out Zarko Sumic, an analyst with Gartner Research: “The break-even point for buying a device is far away.” Several software companies are sidestepping that problem by working through utilities that will subsidize the platforms so their customers get them free or at a discount. EcoFactor, one software-as-a-service firm, focuses on heating and cooling, which account for half of all home-energy use. The program monitors user input, collects weather data, and connects with relatively inexpensive Internet-connected thermostats to manage the home’s temperature. EcoFactor has partnered with Texas-based Oncor, which subsidizes the service for customers who sign up.
Microsoft’s free Web-based platform, called Hohm, uses analytics licensed from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and data from utilities–Seattle City Light, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Xcel Energy have signed on–to provide targeted information and advice to users who don’t have smart equipment. “People like to throw technology at the problem, but realistically, will consumers invest thousands in connected devices to save a few hundred on an energy bill? No,” says Troy Batterberry, product unit manager for the Hohm project, which is now in beta testing. (Google’s PowerMeter is also free to consumers, though it requires that users have a smart meter or monitor.)
Programs like Hohm will likely attract middle-of-the-road consumers who want to conserve energy but don’t want to spend money to do it. But to attract the consumer who has never uttered the words “smart grid,” companies may have to depend on the good old American desire to keep up with the Joneses, which studies have repeatedly found to be a huge motivator.
That is Opower’s approach. The company prepares monthly reports comparing a household’s energy use with that of similar surrounding households. Its utility partners send the reports free to customers. It’s low-tech, but it gets results: 80% of targeted recipients reduced energy use; the total energy saving, averaged across all customers, was 3%. “This is truly a paradigm shift of industry,” says Ogi Kavazovic, director of strategy for Opower, who notes the participation rate in utility-run programs is typically less than 5%.
How Home Automation can Make Life Easier
Source:Bestbrandtobuy.com
Think of your daily routine. Wouldn’t it be easy if the coffee was ready and the house was at a comfortable temperature when you woke up in the morning? Or if the garage door opened up for you before you even had to leave the house? How about if the refrigerator alerted you when you had run out of an important item and then sent it in a grocery list to your cell phone? Sound too futuristic for you?
Well, it is not. You can have all that and more with a home automation controller. Home automation is an up and coming technology that will help residential homes, apartments and even commercial businesses all get up to speed with 21st century technology. Owning a home automation controller will allow you to program many aspects of your home – from the temperature and the fridge to the garage door and even the bath – using modern technology.
Home automation controllers are the result of a rapidly growing technology. Home automation is not new. Home automation controllers have been in use for a long while when it comes to household safety and climate. For instance, home automation controllers are already in common use to control household lights and the interior climate, to control doors and windows, and to control surveillance and security systems. Think of those automatic lights that come on when someone stands too near your front door. Those are a rudimentary example of home automation.
But automatic lights operate on a sensor, not a home automation controller, and they use fairly simple technology compared to the oodles of wonderful and advance technology we have at our finger tips these days. Home automation experts can do much more for your home with a home automation controller than just turn on outside lights. Here are a few examples:
Automatic houseplant watering – never lose a houseplant again. Instead, program your home automation controller to water your houseplant at regular intervals.
Control your Multimedia Entertainment system – choose when your home entertainment system can be used. Use a home automation controller to simply keep the kids from breaking your television and video game rules or to “go green” by shutting the power to these energy wasters off completely when no one is using them
Do housework – We’ve all seen that vacuum cleaning robot, but with home automation, domestic robots will be able to perform even more household chores. Imagine a domestic robot to do your dusting?
Feed pets – In a busy household, it’s easy to either forget to feed the pets or get off the pets required feeding schedule. This is unhealthy for pets, especially those that are old and overweight. With a home automation controller, you will be able to set feeding times for your pets and stick to them. No longer will man’s best friend suffer due to your family’s busy schedule.
It is much easier to install home automation controllers in a house that is under construction it is to install home automation controllers in a house that is already standing, but both options are available. If you already own your dream home and are interested in installing a home automation controller, your best bet is to hire a company that will use wireless internet to interface all of your different home automation controls.
With a home automation controller in your home, you will find that you worry less about the little things in life, such as watering plants or vacuuming little used rooms, and have more time for the important things in life, such as spending quality time with family or practicing fulfilling hobbies. Why not look into home automation today?
