Google PowerMeter

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Overview

• Google PowerMeter is an energy monitoring tool, which is free.

• Google PowerMeter enables you to view your home's energy consumption from anywhere online.

• By using energy information provided by utility smart meters and energy monitoring devices.

Reviews

• "I wasn't really looking for energy information on my kitchen counter. I needed something that could push the information to me in different ways, like my mobile phone and my computer. Unless it's accessible and actionable, there's not much point to it. I use Google everyday to search so it was important to me to have my energy information at my fingers at any time."

• Benson Hougland (Temecula, CA) • Savings: 26% decrease in energy bills or $1080 saved per year

• "It's great to have Google PowerMeter just sit there as I'm at work and see what's going on. It's quite amazing actually, because occasionally one of us will forget to turn an appliance off, and I can see that little bar is slightly higher than yesterday and ask what we left on. We did simple things to save. You'd expect a laptop with the lights off in the front to be off. Even fiddling around with the power of the computer can make a huge difference without affecting the performance of the computer."

• Rob Walker (Bristol, UK) • Savings: 20% decrease in energy bills or £133 saved per year •

"I like to have some control in my life. To me, getting an energy bill once a month, you can't learn anything from it. I'm not someone who's going to live in a cold house in the winter, but if there are things that I can do to be more aware, more comfortable, and save, then I'll do it."

• Ed Kohler (Minneapolis, MN) • Savings: 40% decrease in energy bills or $240 saved per year

Advantages

• Predicts your energy costs• Shows equipment that are always on and

equipment on stand by• Google PowerMeter is free for users. There

are also no charges or fees to utilities or energy monitoring device makers that use the Google PowerMeter API.

Disadvantages

• You need purchase a smart meter for the software to work

Future outlook

• It is hoped that this tool will raise the home-owner's awareness of how much energy they use and make users more energy efficient

Summary

• Google PowerMeter is an energy monitoring tool, which is free.

• Google PowerMeter enables you to view your home's energy consumption from anywhere online.

• Google PowerMeter is free for users. There are also no charges or fees to utilities or energy monitoring device makers that use the Google PowerMeter API.

Recommendations

• Google PowerMeter is a useful tool to use for monitoring energy usage, as google PowerMeter securely stores energy information, that will not be shared to other users and utilities

Reference List

• http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/about.html

• http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/user-stories.html

• http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/faqs.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_PowerMeter