Comments on: 5 Startups Putting Wireless To Work for Energy http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/ Trusted Insights and Conversations on the Next Wave of Technology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:23:00 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Bill http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-923383 Bill Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:50:11 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-923383 <p>Another Player www.Ambientcorp.com</p> Another Player http://www.Ambientcorp.com

]]> By: Katie Fehrenbacher http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-901698 Katie Fehrenbacher Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:14:49 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-901698 <p>Robert, Thanks, sorry about that I had a repeat of Eka's investors in there. My mistake.</p> Robert, Thanks, sorry about that I had a repeat of Eka’s investors in there. My mistake.

]]> By: Robert Poor http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-901670 Robert Poor Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:45:22 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-901670 <p>Katie:</p> <p>Great article, but there seems to be a cut-and-paste error in the last sentence of the paragraph on Ember.</p> <p>To set the record straight: Ember is located in Boston, MA and has raised $81M in venture funding from Polaris, DFJ New England, GrandBanks, RRE, Vulcan Capital, Chevron Texaco Technology Ventures, Hitachi Ltd. and WestAM and others.</p> <ul> <li>rdp</li> </ul> Katie:

Great article, but there seems to be a cut-and-paste error in the last sentence of the paragraph on Ember.

To set the record straight: Ember is located in Boston, MA and has raised $81M in venture funding from Polaris, DFJ New England, GrandBanks, RRE, Vulcan Capital, Chevron Texaco Technology Ventures, Hitachi Ltd. and WestAM and others.

  • rdp
]]> By: Robert http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-901641 Robert Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:12:59 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-901641 <p>It's OK to put GPRS/3G modems in meters but it would be expensive for a thermostat. And a lot of thermostats don't have mains wiring. So wireless is the option for demand response.</p> It’s OK to put GPRS/3G modems in meters but it would be expensive for a thermostat. And a lot of thermostats don’t have mains wiring. So wireless is the option for demand response.

]]> By: Duncan http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-901592 Duncan Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:11:51 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-901592 <p>My employer in the UK happens to be doing a variant of what Eric (commenter #1) suggests. All of our deployed electric meters (and soon the gas ones) have GSM/GPRS devices installed, and communicate directly with the central servers to report meter data. Readings are saved every 30 minutes, uploaded once a day. Customers get a load profile that shows this half-hour usage, so they can adapt their usage into the cheaper-rate tariff. For places like apartment blocks, the meters talk over power-line carrier to a concentrator, which then chats to us. No humans need to check the meter unless there's a problem with it.</p> <p>Slow isn't an issue either, meter readings can be compressed, and an entire day's worth of data is (afaik) less than 100 bytes.</p> <p>We're also, again afaik, the first electricity supplier in the UK offering this kind of metering to the general public.</p> My employer in the UK happens to be doing a variant of what Eric (commenter #1) suggests. All of our deployed electric meters (and soon the gas ones) have GSM/GPRS devices installed, and communicate directly with the central servers to report meter data. Readings are saved every 30 minutes, uploaded once a day. Customers get a load profile that shows this half-hour usage, so they can adapt their usage into the cheaper-rate tariff. For places like apartment blocks, the meters talk over power-line carrier to a concentrator, which then chats to us. No humans need to check the meter unless there’s a problem with it.

Slow isn’t an issue either, meter readings can be compressed, and an entire day’s worth of data is (afaik) less than 100 bytes.

We’re also, again afaik, the first electricity supplier in the UK offering this kind of metering to the general public.

]]> By: Hank http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-901570 Hank Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:10:04 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-901570 <p>Lots of reasons not to use 'broadband over power lines' but here are the two most significant: - it costs a lot of money to put the equipment throughout the electric grid to propagate the signal, and it is much cheaper to use other network infrastructure - if the power line goes down, the communications goes down - a single point of complete failure for both tasks is not a good thing Those two reasons and many more are why BPL companies like Ambient and Current have been unable to get any traction in that market.</p> Lots of reasons not to use ‘broadband over power lines’ but here are the two most significant: - it costs a lot of money to put the equipment throughout the electric grid to propagate the signal, and it is much cheaper to use other network infrastructure - if the power line goes down, the communications goes down – a single point of complete failure for both tasks is not a good thing Those two reasons and many more are why BPL companies like Ambient and Current have been unable to get any traction in that market.

]]> By: Eric http://gigaom.com/2008/09/25/5-startups-putting-wireless-to-work-for-energy/#comment-901532 Eric Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:13:49 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=22488#comment-901532 <p>why not just use ip over power.... granted the throughput is slow, but there have been great improvements in the last few years. Ive wondered for years why electric companies haven't installed power meters that report back to the company instead of hiring people to walk the beat. They could also devices at switching stations/hubs to better control fluctuation in power requirements as well as reroute power if necessary REMOTELY AND INSTANTANEOUSLY. Why go wireless when the wires are already there.</p> why not just use ip over power…. granted the throughput is slow, but there have been great improvements in the last few years. Ive wondered for years why electric companies haven’t installed power meters that report back to the company instead of hiring people to walk the beat. They could also devices at switching stations/hubs to better control fluctuation in power requirements as well as reroute power if necessary REMOTELY AND INSTANTANEOUSLY. Why go wireless when the wires are already there.

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