PowerMeter

Google has signed a deal to connect its PowerMeter home energy software to monitoring devices from Current Costs in the U.K.

Current Costs' energy monitors, designed to sit on kitchen tables or to hang on a wall, give people a view into their electricity consumption by displaying real-time usage and projections for monthly usage and costs.

By showing where electricity is consumed, people can take steps to conserve. For example, a person can see that current use is higher than normal and turn an appliance off, or switch to more efficient lighting and see the money savings. To "… Read more

Google on Wednesday released the API for its PowerMeter energy-monitoring Web application, a move that could let people get detailed home energy data without the need for a smart meter.

The Web application gives people a real-time graph of electricity usage and historical data with the goal of providing clues on how to ratchet down power use.

So far, Google has partnered with a few utilities which are offering PowerMeter to consumers as part of smart-meter rollouts. One device maker, which makes The Energy Detective (TED) monitor, has an option to display electricity data on PowerMeter.

By making the PowerMeter … Read more

U.K. residents will now be able to monitor and regulate their home energy usage from any Web-enabled phone or computer regardless of whether their energy provider uses smart meters.

Google announced two U.K. partnerships this week concerning its PowerMeter software, one of which completely bypasses the need for cooperation from an energy provider.

Since the U.K. electricity and gas supplier First Utility began offering customers free smart meters in September 2008, it has had 30,000 customers take them up on the offer. Now, as a result of a Google partnership announced Tuesday, First Utility smart meter … Read more

Google has connected a home electricity-monitoring device to its Web-based PowerMeter application, part of Google's strategy to seed the market for home energy tools.

Google on Monday said that PowerMeter works with TED 5000, a small-screen monitor that provides a real-time read-out of home electricity use. TED, which stands for The Energy Detective, is one of many monitors aimed at giving consumers more detailed information so they can find ways to reduce energy use.

In combination with PowerMeter, a person can view details, such as real-time electricity use and weekly trends from a Web browser or using a smart … Read more

Updated at 9:25 a.m. PT with comments from San Diego Gas & Electric.

Google has signed on smart-meter manufacturer Itron and eight utilities to offer Google's PowerMeter Web service for monitoring home energy use.

PowerMeter reads a home's electricity meter and gives the consumer a detailed readout of usage. The idea is that a better understanding of electricity usage--presented via daily trends and data on individual appliances--will help people figure out how to cut consumption.

Google's home energy-monitoring software relies on meters, or add-on devices, that can communicate usage information back to utilties. In a … Read more

Google now wants to organize your home's energy information.

The search giant on Tuesday muscled into the burgeoning smart-grid software business, showing off a prototype Web application that displays home energy consumption broken down by appliance. The software uses so-called smart meters, which can communicate home energy consumption back to utilities every few minutes.

The driving idea behind the Google PowerMeter iGoogle gadget--and nearly all smart-grid companies--is that giving consumers access to more detailed home energy data will lead to lower usage. There are dozens of smart-grid trial programs now going on, offered through utilities.

Engineer Russ Mirov, one … Read more