What’s your awareness of “Smart Grids” and “Smart Meters”? Would you be open to modifying your home’s energy usage so that electrical appliances run in “energy off times” of the day, where energy is more efficient to use?
In his article “Study Finds Consumers Open to Smart Grid, Energy Management Programs”, Mr Castle finds that consumers indeed are open to “Smart Grids” and programs which help you to better manage your home energy usage. However, the study did find that Smart Grid awareness remains low.
The study also found that of the options available for monitoring your home’s energy usage, an in-home device was preferred instead of a free website – as long as the in-home device was free. If the in-home monitoring device has an initial cost to the consumer, then the free website was preferred.
What we think at NextGen Digital Home:
Smart Grid technology is long overdue. The in-home monitoring device would be preferred as it would then be possible to integrate more tightly with your home network, assuming that the utility companies provide this capability in their devices (not a sure thing as we’ve seen from the cable television industry). It should also be possible to integrate your home network using web services from an external website for monitoring purposes.
