Conservation requires real-time feedback
Next week a St. John’s, Newfoundland-based company called Blue Line Innovations will be installing one of their PowerCost Monitors in my house. The product is actually two devices: one attaches to the electromechanical utility meter on the outside of my house, and the other is a display unit I can mount in my kitchen. The first device reads the information on my outside meter and wirelessly transmits it to the kitchen display, which can show me in real time how much electricity I’m using and what that translates into in dollars and cents. Both units can be self-installed with little effort, the company says. I’m apparently going to be the first person outside of Blue Line and in Ontario to test out the company’s next-generation unit.
Studies suggest when people have this real-time information they are more aware of their energy usage patterns and are more likely to engage in conservation efforts. It’s kind of like how some hybrid vehicles let you know how efficiently you’re driving so that you can constantly try to improve your car’s mileage. Estimates of savings range from 10 to 20 per cent. I’m very curious to see how the Blue Line unit will change energy use habits in my household. I’ll report back in a month or two and let everybody know, and I’ll provide more information on how these simple displays can go a long way toward conservation without the need for fancy smart meters.
Stay tuned.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
October 19th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
Canadian Tire sells an Electronic Energy Meter that you can put between any 120VAC device and the wall outlet and it tells you everything about the power consumption of that device. This is real real-time and for $25, the UPM EM100 is very revealing.
Surprising where the electron are going.