Most householders only have a vague idea of how much energy they are using for different purposes, for energy saving purpose, it is important to make energy flows more visible and controllable. A review conducted by Dr Darby in 2006 showed that saving from direct feedback on electricity consumption (immediate, from the meter or an associated display monitor) to range from 5-15%M and high energy users may respond more than low users to direct feedback. In addition, indirect feedback (normally via billing) savings have ranged from 0-10%, and historic feedback appears to be more effective than comparative or normative (comparing with other households, or with a target figure) [1].
This review implied if people have a detailed understanding of their home energy use, they may find ways to save energy and lower electricity bills. Organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful is Google's mission and they believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their home electricity use. Google announced a software tool called PowerMeter which shows consumers their home energy information almost in real time right on their computer in May 2009 [2].
Meanwhile, A company residents in the Houston area called CenterPoint Energy launched a pilot project on home energy use in fall of 2010 [3], and announced the results of this project on July 25, 2011. Currently, CenterPoint Energy has installed nearly 1.5 million smart meters in its 2.2 million meter system. The company is scheduled to complete deployment in mid 2012 [3]. This project is called In-Home Display pilot to evaluate in-house display (IHD) among 300 customers. A IHD is a small human-machine interface with a LCD display, it communicates wirelessly with smart meters and shows customers their electricity use in near real-time. In addition, it can show consumers a forecast of their monthly usage and bill. The result of this pilot showed that most participants have taken steps to adjust their energy usage. The most common steps they took to adjust energy usage are turning off lights and adjusting thermostat, and they plan to purchase energy star appliances and sealing air leaks in future [4].
After two years endeavor, Google announced PowerMeter was retired on September 16, 2011 [5]. The main reason is the White House announced a goal of giving all consumers access to their energy usage in computer-friendly formats as part of a national plan for modernizing the electricity grid in June 2011 [6].
References
[1] Darby S. The effectiveness of feedback on energy consumption, Environmental Change Institute, 4/2006, access dated 1/20/2012 from http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/smart-metering-report.pdf
[2] Lu, E. Power to people, The Official Google blog, 2/9/2009, access dated 1/20/2012 from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/power-to-people.html
[3] EERE news. Centerpoint Energy and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman Announce Results of Pilot Project on Home Energy Use, US Department of Energy, 7/25/2011, access dated 1/20/2012 from http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=580
[4] Central Point Energy. In-Home Display pilot, 7/26/2011 access dated 1/20/2012 from http://www.centerpointenergy.com/staticfiles/CNP/Common/SiteAssets/doc/ in_Home_Display_Survey_Results.pdf
[5] Brown A. An update on Google Health and Google PowerMeter, The Official Google blog, 6/24/2011, access dated 1/20/2012 from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-on-google-health-and-google.html
[6] Chopra A., Kundra V., and Weiser P., A policy framework for the 21st century Grid: Enabling Our Secure Energy Future, Executive Office of the president, national science and technology council, 6/2011, access dated 1/20/2012 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/
nstc-smart-grid-june2011.pdf
