Comments on: Feedback Wanted: Microsoft's Energy Tool Hohm Goes Live

By: Sage Research

Sage Research — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:59:48 +0000

SEEKING PEOPLE THAT MONITOR THEIR HOME’S ENERGY CONSUMPTION TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH STUDY

Do you monitor the amount of energy used in your home on a regular basis?
Do you have any devices, products or web applications that help you track your consumption?

If so, you may be eligible to participate in a phone research study and earn $75!

By: How One Startup’s Energy Tool Can Outsmart Google, Microsoft

How One Startup’s Energy Tool Can Outsmart Google, Microsoft — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:55:34 +0000

[...] features. Microsoft’s Hohm provides a list of recommendations, but they aren’t particularly targeted or dynamically presented. Given this is a relatively young space, four years can be a significant head start. Even so, [...]

By: elemenager

elemenager — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:27:19 +0000

We're definitely looking for feedback! Let us know your thoughts on what you like and areas that you think that we can improve on @microsofthohm. Also, reachout to us on the community page within the website. Keep us posted if you think there are better ways we should engage the community. Thanks for all of your thoughts and comments so far.

Elliott

By: Sustainable Industries » Sustainable Industries Daily Update

Sustainable Industries » Sustainable Industries Daily Update — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:38:37 +0000

[...] launched Hohm, a home-energy usage tracker today. It’s in beta and they want your feedback so get to it. Only 180 questions to answer (I [...]

By: links for 2009-07-06 « open.minded.tech

links for 2009-07-06 « open.minded.tech — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:34:08 +0000

[...] Feedback Wanted: Microsoft’s Energy Tool Hohm Goes Live Are you ready to give Microsoft’s energy management tool Hohm a spin? On Monday morning at 6 a.m. (pacific time) Microsoft is opening up the doors on Hohm to the general public, about two weeks after the software giant revealed the idea behind its energy management tool. Hohm, which will enable home owners to track their energy consumption and potentially modify their energy behavior in a variety of ways, is in beta mode, and Microsoft told us it will be tweaking the software — making it smarter — according to user feedback. So here’s your first chance to give it a whirl and tell ‘em what you really think. (tags: energy) [...]

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:46:39 +0000

@Peter Troast, interesting stuff. @Mikeymo, you got farther than me. Anyone out there that lives in one of the utility partner footprints, feel free to weigh in!

By: mikeymo

mikeymo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:55:34 +0000

The site is really slick. It took me about 30 minutes or so to answer all the questions (I got 91% complete) and manually enter in my historical consumption data. I entered a lot of data, so the suggestions were very relevant and neat to read up on.

However it looks like they are still trying to work out the bugs... on the main page it shows "How Do You Compare" where it compares your annual energy costs. It currently shows my home is $2,012 annual with the average home listed at $76,585,800,000 per year. And I thought my energy bill was bad! :-)

By: 4smartgrid

4smartgrid — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:35:20 +0000

Looking at some suggestions from Hohm from Peter's snapshots, they are nice points but wouldn't they be good to have regardless of the user's energy consumption? Also does one need to continuously use the service once they learn and change their behavior? is it sustainable biz model, in other words.

By: Peter Troast

Peter Troast — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:03:50 +0000

Katie–

It’s not surprising that you got only 30% through it. The Home Energy Saver tool created by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley Labs, that Hohm is based on, has been evaluated for accuracy against real world energy use, and the weight of 185 data entry fields, with so much opportunity for mistakes or abandonment, renders the results somewhat inaccurate against actual use.

There’s more on this research on my post on Energy Circle here:

http://www.energycircle.com/blog/2009/07/06/first-look-at-microsoft-hohm-is-it-more-than-home-energy-saver-dressed-up/

By: Steve Hindman

Steve Hindman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:58:25 +0000

Both the DOE and Hohm sites are missing tankless water heaters in their profile questionaire. Hohm is also missing the ability to enter daily meter reads into the historical data.

By: Microsoft Hohm, More than Home Energy Saver Dressed Up? | Energy Circle

Microsoft Hohm, More than Home Energy Saver Dressed Up? | Energy Circle — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:37:18 +0000

[...] your programmable thermostat? (Katie Fehrenbacher of Earth2Tech got a preview over the weekend and reports a 30% completion level.) That said, Hohm’s is a friendly interface. The graphics and messages are clear and [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:57:15 +0000

The site is already down. After entering house profile and usage data for roughly 16 months, the site went dead. If you try to go to the home page, it takes you to Bing (wow, what an idea to generate traffic for your search engine). Yes, it's a beta version. But, you don't expect a product where you spend hours customizing to vanish on the very first day.

By: Feedback Wanted: Microsoft’s Energy Tool Hohm Goes Live « SmartGrid Current

Feedback Wanted: Microsoft’s Energy Tool Hohm Goes Live « SmartGrid Current — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:34:59 +0000

[...] Feedback Wanted: Microsoft’s Energy Tool Hohm Goes Live Posted July 6, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | http://earth2tech.com/2009/07/06/feedback-wanted-microsofts-energy-tool-hohm-goes-live/ [...]

By: What to read on the GigaOM network

What to read on the GigaOM network — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:34:31 +0000

[...] followers’ Twitter stream (WebWorkerDaily) Former Joost CEO gets new gig as VC (NewTeeVee) Microsoft seeks user feedback for Hohm (Earth2Tech) Get your iPhone screen repaired at an Apple store while you wait (TheAppleBlog) [...]