Comments on: Are Consumers Ready for Home Energy Management in 2011?

By: NEWSLETTER 20, February 10th 2011 | The Science Office at the French Consulate in San Francisco

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:53:04 +0000

[...] web pour monitorer la consommation énergétique des ménages lève $4 millions. Mais les ménages répondront-ils présents en 2011? Selon GigaOM c’est en tout cas la fin des “energy dashboards”. Et pour [...]

By: Home Energy Player Control4 Raises $15M : Cleantech News and Analysis «

Home Energy Player Control4 Raises $15M : Cleantech News and Analysis « — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:05:28 +0000

[...] sells wireless devices and services to utilities for home energy management. For example, last week at the smart grid-focused Distributech show, Control4 announced a new deal to provide at least 20,000 of Control4′s home energy devices and [...]

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:15:43 +0000

Consumers are ready. The problem is, utilities are not. Here in NYC, conEd has been running a smart grid pilot program in which I have participated for the last year. I received a very sleek, iPad-like device that operates wirelessly and looks great in any room of the house. I was eager to use it, but it helps me to reduce neither energy consumption nor cost: Since there is no information about which home appliance consumes how much power, I don’t know which appliance usage to lower. Since ConEd charges the same rate for electricity regardless of time of day or day of week, scheduling appliance for dish washers, washing machines, etc. has no benefit to the consumer.

Without actionable information and real-time consumer incentives to take action, “smart grid” implementations just pay lip service to a greener future.

By: Ric Johnson

Ric Johnson — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:07:06 +0000

Katie another company in this space is Home Automation Inc. (HAI) [www.homeauto.com]. HAI has a Smart Grid program and they announced this week a program similar to Control4′s in New Orleans.

In answer to your question, no consumers are not ready. Yes, they have changed out good easy on the eyes incandescent lamps for poor quality, cheap CFL’s obtained from the local utility for free or from Walmart for two bucks. However, they are not ready for a $300.00+ cost to allow load shedding interfaces for the high draw appliances and HVAC equipment. Until the price points come down or utilities begin tiered pricing based on time of use, most consumers will install funny looking lamps and pray for lower costs.

By: Ric Johnson

Ric Johnson — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:55:34 +0000

Katie:
Another company that is working closely in this space is Home Automation Inc. (HAI) [www.homeauto.com]. They announced yesterday (February 1st) a program in New Orleans similar to the Control4 program in Las Vegas. Here in West Central Ohio, I have customers installing energy monitors that they are purchasing on the internet and American Electric Power (A.E.P.) has announced another Control4 pilot program in north central Ohio. Most current consumers are looking for ways to reduce costs, i.e. electric and gas bills. They have embraced poor lighting by installing the cheap CFL’s from Walmart or the give-a-ways from the power company, but still are not interested in spending $300+ per large energy hogs to install auto load shedding controls to shut down electric dryers, water heaters, and set back a/c units during peak periods. Verizon and A T & T entering this market will help drive more interest, but only in areas that they serve. Control4 and HAI both have excellent products today that work independently from the Grid and in the future will connect via HAN by zigbee protocol. However, until the price points drop or utilities begin tiered pricing, most consumers will continue to just change light bulbs and hope their bills go down.

By: Power to the People « World Energy

Power to the People « World Energy — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:13:21 +0000

[...] The energy management gold rush is on. And not just in the B-to-B space. Residential consumers in no time will have a dizzying array of gadgets and devices to manage their home energy consumption. Reporting from this week’s DitribuTECH smartgrid show in San Diego, GigaOm’s Katie Fehrenbacher discusses how this emerging landscape is shaping up. [...]

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:43:42 +0000

@Fred. I confirmed with Tendril that the Vision is no longer part of Tendril’s vision. Thanks for the tip. Heart my readers. I also elaborated on this in a post: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/fail-the-high-end-home-energy-device-is-toast/

By: FAIL: The High-End Home Energy Device Is Toast: Cleantech News and Analysis «

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:39:35 +0000

[...] the same time that energy management startup Tendril announced a partnership and a web-based energy service this week, the company also quietly confirmed with me that it [...]

By: 10 Smart Grid Trends from Distributech: Cleantech News and Analysis «

10 Smart Grid Trends from Distributech: Cleantech News and Analysis « — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:42:18 +0000

[...] — as expected — unleashed a whole series of news from smart grid-focused firms. From new home energy management products, to plug-in car software, to distribution automation gear, this is a list of trends and news from [...]

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:41:53 +0000

@Fred, Huh, interesting. Thanks.