I was a little disappointed to see that Google has shut PowerMeter, the tool it developed to monitor our energy usage.
The Official Google Blog reports that they decided to stop developing the tool as they failed to gain the expected interest in it.
Google PowerMeter launched in the UK back in October 2009, but you needed a £69 piece of kit plus a monthly fee of £2.99, or you needed to sign up to a particular energy provider.
GigaOM has suggested a few reasons why PowerMeter failed.
The reason I’m disappointed is that this sort of monitoring will probably be standard in a few years time as the use of smart metering increases. Once we have access to the data, it will be simpler to visualise when and where we’re using up all our energy, but more importantly it will be easier to get suggestions on how to cut down on that energy use; only then will we seriously start to change our energy usage habits, in my opinion. With the recent rises in electricity prices, it’s never been as important to try to keep bills low, that’s before worrying about the environmental benefits.
As I say, this sort of functionality is likely to be pretty standard in a few years, yet it might be the energy companies themselves that have to push the technology.
Users have access to the tool until September 16th 2011, and they can also download their data in a .csv file if they wish.
I like this type of tech too and and also agree that it will probably be the standard in a few years. Microsoft also shut their own version down recently as well. I think they came un der fire a bit because they basically were selling it as a energy efficiency device where as experts say all it is doing is giving consumers a pretty screen to look and is not actually a device which is going to improve energy efficiency. I didn’t use them personally so I’m not sure if this is true. However I do see that the real energy efficiency will either be improved by appliances themselves,home generated renewable energy, energy suppliers and smart grid technology.
I definitely see a lot of potential in this technology in the future. The other day I read an article and it showed how an ipad was being used as a tv remote with further updates to come so you can actually control other things in your home such as your washing machine, oven and air conditioning. Soon you won’t have to get off the couch at all.