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AlertMe is planning to release a new Energy Saving kit additionally to its Home Security line. That kit will include Smart Plugs to control individual appliance, the AlertMe Heating Controller, the AlertMe clip on electricity meter and the AlertMe Keyfobs. All those devices will communicate with AlertMe Hub (just like the Security system). The hub will send information from them to the AlertMe servers, which in turn make it available to the user via a simple web interface. That’s it!

The new Energy Saving kit will be available in November and will need AlertMe Hub + Security package. But from the beginning of 2009 consumers will be able to skip security part and buy just Energy Saving kit including its own hub.

Good expansion by the way. The next step can be added a simple lighting control system based on the wireless home automation protocol ZigBee. It seems that it’ll be possible.

[via SmartPlanet]

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Today I found cool concept of energy consumption monitor. The system includes two parts: hardware devices - Plug-Ends, which can transmit the energy consumption value and software for mobile phone which displays that value as charts or schemes. The Plug-Ends and mobile phone communicate via Bluetooth. On your mobile phone you’ll able to see the current status of each Plug-End and manage it remotely (it should be visible via Bluetooth).

At the first view the system looks great (iPhone makes makes one’s contribution on it :)). It presents data in the very clear format. So, the consumer shouldn’t have problems with it interpretation. But as I know Bluetooth is not so secure protocol as we’d like to have. And its range is quite enough to give possibility to your neighbors to control your electricity sockets. Some secure level should be definitely implemented in the system if it’s not done yet. Will see when the energy consumption monitor will be released.

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Danish company Seluxit recently launched a new Z-Wave unit ViaSens. It connects to a PC via USB and collects data on all devices within the home control network equipped with radio sensors such as light switches and dimmers, thermostats and power meters. Using ViaSens together with a free Seluxit software homeowners can continually monitor the power consumption of their household and can optimize energy consumption by adjusting their device settings.

Seluxit also produces a few models of various sensors which can be used together with ViaSens. It’d be nice to know about support of third part Z-Wave devices. I suppose that it shouldn’t be a problem.

[via eHomeAutomation]

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