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Google Rolls Out Home Energy Software
- pg 17y agoNotice the fine print about how you get the data. You have to have a device installed by the power company. Few power companies do this, and few meters support it. Wattvision does the whole thing, from your existing meter to your iPhone: http://wattvision.com http://wattvision.com
- physcab 17y agoLast year I built an application that aimed to integrate existing utility information. At first I just scrapped the info from a utility-login, but they weren't too happy about it. I eventually met with the IT department of our local utility to strike some kind of agreement. I learned that energy history is extremely hard to come by with lots of federal laws protecting its dissemination. I often wonder about the barriers placed on consumers in having their consumption measured. Even with Google pushing for open access, the utilities (and the government) have steadfastly refused innovation in this space. Right now there seems to be lots of niche solutions, but all of them are work-arounds because of the restrictions in place. When these chains are lifted, you'll see some rapid changes.
- foppr 17y agocool, thanks for the link!
- wmf 17y agoIs Wattvision's gadget going to be free? That's the big advantage of Google.
- robg 17y agoI would pay for a similar product, especially if it's saving me money.
- savrajsingh 17y agoCool. Let us know if you're interested in our private beta at info@wattvision.com
- savrajsingh 17y agoIf you're interested, do contact us at info@wattvision.com and we can get you on our private beta, which is currently free.
- kirubakaran 17y ago[About wattvision.com home page] Can you please change "info [at] wattvision.com" to "info@wattvision.com"? It looks jarring and I don't think it is going to make any difference spam-wise. It would be nice if you cleared "you@email.com" on focus.
- paulhart 17y agoThis is true... today. Lots of utilities are already starting to install smart meters. Unless Wattvision is able to build a large installed base in the next 2-3 years, their technology won't have meters to attach to (or they'll be doing a new device with machine vision to read the digital displays on new meters, or they'll be interfacing with the meter information in a similar way to - or from - Google).
- tptacek 17y agoThe installed base of smart meters is going to dwarf Wattvision deployments, but you can probably safely bet that a YC startup will kick the ass of the consultants the utilities bring in to build "portals" and reporting.
- wmf 17y agoThe whole point of Google PowerMeter seems to be that utilities don't worry about presenting the data; they just send it to Google.
- tptacek 17y agoI just got back from the EPRI/NIST "Smart Grid" workshop in DC, and can report that every meter installed by every power company within the next couple years will support this capability, and the rollout costs are going to be borne by the taxpayer. There is a metric crapton of cash getting plowed into this very specific initiative (AMI meters, most of which can link to "home area networks" via ZigBee, all managing an ANSI standard table definition). For reasons that I hope are somewhat obvious, Matasano has had some limited involvement with actual on-the-ground projects here. The products are there, the PO's are getting cut, meters are getting retrofitted or replaced by the tens of thousands. I think it's hard to say whether this is good news or bad news for the current crop of "smart grid" startups. You worry maybe that this is going to be a walled garden for the utility companies, but then a lot of these meters speak open standards, and there are jurisdictions (like, all of Texas) that mandate that customers own their power data. I also heard more than one utility talking about products that were going to bypass the utility/vendor AMI networks and just do a lot of this stuff over the Internet. One of the more interesting (or at least complex) ideas that I saw getting tossed around was Demand Response / Load Shedding startups; the idea that a startup could contract with a utility to sign customers up for a program that would trigger different power profiles (like, "turn off your air conditioner") when the utility needed it, and in return get a break on their bill.
- smokinn 17y agoDoes anyone know of an appliance where you can just plug it into the wall and plug anything into the appliance? Basically it would act as a pass-through that could keep track of how much the thing plugged into the wall is costing. It would be nice if you could set a price on it and have it display in $/h or something but that's not necessary, just a running total would be fine. I can handle the watt-to-dollars conversion myself.
- tocomment 17y agoI'd be interested in a watt vision beta if you have any.